Testing the Stochastic Dynamic Methodology (StDM) as a management tool in a shallow temperate estuary of south Europe (Mondego, Portugal)

A Stochastic Dynamic Methodology (StDM) for reservoir's water quality management: Validation of a multi-scale approach in a south European basin (Douro, Portugal)

“…The StDM is a sequential modelling process developed in order to predict the ecological status of changed ecosystems, from which management strategies can be designed. This methodology was successfully tested in several types of ecological systems, such as mountain running waters (Cabecinha et al, 2004(Cabecinha et al, , 2007, mediterranean agroecosystems (Santos and Cabral, 2003;Cabral et al, 2007), estuaries (Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008, and for simulating the impact of socioeconomic trends on threatened species .…”

“…Since many of the ecosystem phenomenological aspects are holistic, whole-system properties, the main vocation of the Stochastic Dynamic Methodology (StDM) recently developed is a mechanistic understanding of the holistic ecological processes, based on a statistical parameter estimation method (Santos and Cabral, 2003;Cabecinha et al, 2004;Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008. This recent research is based on the premise that the general statistical patterns of ecological phenomena are emergent indicia of complex ecological processes that do indeed reflect the operation of universal law-like mechanisms.…”

“…One way to cope with the complexity of this problematic for sound environmental management of reservoirs is to apply mathematical models of different kinds (Even et al, 2007). Therefore, ecological integrity studies have been improved by creating dynamic models that simultaneously attempt to capture the structure and the composition in systems affected by long-term environmental disturbances (Jørgensen, 1994;Costanza and Voinov, 2003;Chaloupka, 2002;Cabecinha et al, 2004Cabecinha et al, , 2007Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008. The application of ecological models can synthesize the pieces of ecological knowledge, emphasizing the need for a holistic view of a certain environmental problem (Jørgensen, 2001;Cabecinha et al, 2004Cabecinha et al, , 2007Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008.…”

“…Therefore, ecological integrity studies have been improved by creating dynamic models that simultaneously attempt to capture the structure and the composition in systems affected by long-term environmental disturbances (Jørgensen, 1994;Costanza and Voinov, 2003;Chaloupka, 2002;Cabecinha et al, 2004Cabecinha et al, , 2007Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008. The application of ecological models can synthesize the pieces of ecological knowledge, emphasizing the need for a holistic view of a certain environmental problem (Jørgensen, 2001;Cabecinha et al, 2004Cabecinha et al, , 2007Silva-Santos et al, 2006, 2008. Any environmental assessment must begin with a conceptual model that includes the natural geographic and habitat setting, human activity that can potentially stress the ecosystem (e.g., agriculture), stressors resulting from that human activity (e.g., increased nutrients) and the effects of those stressors on the ecosystem (Stevenson et al, 2004).…”