Marine conservation: towards a multi-layered network approach

Abstract

Valuing, managing and conserving marine biodiversity and a full range of ecosystem services is at the forefront of research and policy agendas. However, biodiversity is being lost at up to a thousand times the average background rate. Traditional disciplinary and siloed conservation approaches are not able to tackle this massive loss of biodiversity because they generally ignore or overlook the interactive and dynamic nature of ecosystems processes, limiting their predictability. To conserve marine biodiversity, we must assess the interactions and impacts among biodiversity and ecosystem services (BD-ES). The scaling up in complexity from single species to entire communities is necessary, albeit challenging, for a deeper understanding of how ecosystem services relate to biodiversity and the roles species have in ecosystem service provision. These interactions are challenging to map, let alone fully assess, but network and system-based approaches provide a powerful way to progress beyond those limitations. Here, we introduce a conceptual multi-layered network approach to understanding how ecosystem services supported by biodiversity drive the total service provision, how different stressors impact BD-ES and where conservation efforts should be placed to optimize the delivery of ecosystem services and protection of biodiversity. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation’.

Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation

“…Given the increasing coastal urbanization, stormwater runoff results in massive pollution by a complex chemical cocktail, which only can be mitigated by land management-and in fact it could be managed by treating a small fraction of the terrestrial surface. Jacob et al [64] introduce a multi-layered network approach for a better understanding of how ecosystem services emerging from the diversity of traits embedded in biodiversity drive the total service provision and where conservation efforts must be placed. In a remarkable closing article, Peters [65] addresses marine governance and biodiversity protection as-at least from a theory perspective-uncharted territory.…”

Multiple social network influences can generate unexpected environmental outcomes

“…The environmental outcomes emerging from individual actions determine conservation success since a species’ persistence in a landscape is predicted by the composition, abundance and spatial configuration of habitats at the landscape level 22 , 23 . While social processes influence long-term conservation success 24 – 26 , the role of dynamic feedbacks between social and ecological outcomes must be better integrated into conservation science to improve our ability to achieve conservation goals 27 – 31 . Feedbacks underlie the persistence of ecologically or societally undesirable or desirable conservation states e.g.…”

“… 32 , 33 , and incorporating human behavior into environmental systems research (and vice versa) can reveal a richer diversity of feedbacks than either social or ecological research alone 34 . Identifying interactions between multiple elements or processes 31 can, for example, inform conservation initiatives that explicitly focus on reinforcing or dampening feedbacks of biodiversity loss 29 .…”

Disturbances in food webs : Importance of species interactions from an ecological and evolutionary perspective

“…For example, most studies investigating the effect of climate change on species do so without taking the network context and species' interactions into consideration (Urban et al 2016). Few conservation efforts consider species in a network context (Tylianakis et al 2010;Gonzalez et al 2011), and studies rarely investigate the consequences of secondary extinctions for ecosystem services (Jacob et al 2020;Dee et al 2017).…”

“…Such indirect effects, mediated by the network of species interactions, are of substantial importance for how anthopogenic threats are affecting ecosystem service delivery highlights the importance of a network context. The importance of including the network perspective in ecosystem service management has been pinpointed in several recent studies (Jacob et al 2020;Dee et al 2017), and Paper IV took an important step by develop an effective methodology for these purposes.…”