Melissa M. Foley

Guiding ecological principles for marine spatial planning

The declining health of marine ecosystems around the world is evidence that current piecemeal governance is inadequate to successfully support healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems and sustain human uses of the ocean. One proposed solution to this problem is ecosystem-based marine spatial planning (MSP), which is a process that informs the spatial distribution of activities in the ocean so that existing and emerging uses can be maintained, use conflicts reduced, and ecosystem health and services protected and sustained for future generations. Because a key goal of ecosystem-based MSP is to maintain the delivery of ecosystem services that humans want and need, it must be based on ecological principles that articulate the scientifically recognized attributes of healthy, functioning ecosystems. These principles should be incorporated into a decision-making framework with clearly defined targets for these ecological attributes. This paper identifies ecological principles for MSP based on a synthesis of previously suggested and/or operationalized principles, along with recommendations generated by a group of twenty ecologists and marine scientists with diverse backgrounds and perspectives on MSP. The proposed four main ecological principles to guide MSP--maintaining or restoring: native species diversity, habitat diversity and heterogeneity, key species, and connectivity--and two additional guidelines, the need to account for context and uncertainty, must be explicitly taken into account in the planning process. When applied in concert with social, economic, and governance principles, these ecological principles can inform the designation and siting of ocean uses and the management of activities in the ocean to maintain or restore healthy ecosystems, allow delivery of marine ecosystem services, and ensure sustainable economic and social benefits.

Mitigating Local Causes of Ocean Acidification with Existing Laws

Even as global and national efforts struggle to mitigate CO2 emissions, local and state governments have policy tools to address “hot spots” of ocean acidification. As the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) continues to rise, so too does the amount of CO2 in the ocean (1, 2), which increases the oceans acidity. This affects marine ecosystems on a global scale in ways we are only beginning to understand: for example, impairing the ability of organisms to form shells or skeletons, altering food webs, and negatively affecting economies dependent on services ranging from coral reef tourism to shellfish harvests to salmon fisheries (3–5). Although increasing anthropogenic inputs drive acidification at global scales, local acidification disproportionately affects coastal ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. We describe policy options by which local and state governments—as opposed to federal and international bodies—can reduce these local and regional “hot spots” of ocean acidification.

A practical approach for putting people in ecosystem‐based ocean planning

Marine and coastal ecosystems provide important benefits and services to coastal communities across the globe, but assessing the diversity of social relationships with oceans can prove difficult for conservation scientists and practitioners. This presents barriers to incorporating social dimensions of marine ecosystems into ecosystem-based planning processes, which can in turn affect the success of planning and management initiatives. Following a global assessment of social research and related planning practices in ocean environments, we present a step-by-step approach for natural resource planning practitioners to more systematically incorporate social data into ecosystem-based ocean planning. Our approach includes three sequential steps: (1) develop a typology of ocean-specific human uses that occur within the planning region of interest; (2) characterize the complexity of these uses, including the spatiotemporal variability, intensity, and diversity thereof, as well as associated conflicts and compati...

Seventy‐One Important Questions for the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity

The ocean provides food, economic activity, and cultural value for a large proportion of humanity. Our knowledge of marine ecosystems lags behind that of terrestrial ecosystems, limiting effective protection of marine resources. We describe the outcome of 2 workshops in 2011 and 2012 to establish a list of important questions, which, if answered, would substantially improve our ability to conserve and manage the world’s marine resources. Participants included individuals from academia, government, and nongovernment organizations with broad experience across disciplines, marine ecosystems, and countries that vary in levels of development. Contributors from the fields of science, conservation, industry, and government submitted questions to our workshops, which we distilled into a list of priority research questions. Through this process, we identified 71 key questions. We grouped these into 8 subject categories, each pertaining to a broad component of marine conservation: fisheries, climate change, other anthropogenic threats, ecosystems, marine citizenship, policy, societal and cultural considerations, and scientific enterprise. Our questions address many issues that are specific to marine conservation, and will serve as a road map to funders and researchers to develop programs that can greatly benefit marine conservation. Setenta y Un Preguntas Importantes para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad Marina Resumen Los océanos proporcionan alimento, actividad económica y valor cultural para una gran porción de la humanidad. Nuestro conocimiento de los ecosistemas marinos está atrasado con respecto al que tenemos de los ecosistemas terrestres, lo que limita la protección efectiva de los recursos naturales. Describimos el resultado de dos talleres en 2011 y 2012 para establecer una lista de preguntas importantes, las cuales al ser respondidas, mejorarían sustancialmente nuestra habilidad de conservar y manejar los recursos marinos del mundo. Entre los participantes se incluyeron a individuos de la docencia, el gobierno y organizaciones no-gubernamentales, con una amplia experiencia que atraviesa disciplinas, ecosistemas marinos y países que varían en el nivel de desarrollo. Los contribuyentes de los campos de la ciencia, la conservación, la industria y el gobierno, presentaron preguntas a nuestros talleres, las cuales separamos en una lista de preguntas de investigación prioritarias. Por medio de este proceso, identificamos 71 preguntas clave. Las agrupamos en ocho categorías temáticas, cada una perteneciente a un componente amplio de la conservación marina: pesquerías, cambio climático, otras amenazas antropogénicas, ecosistemas, ciudadanía marina, política, consideraciones sociales y culturales, y la iniciativa científica. Nuestras preguntas se dirigen a muchas cuestiones que son específicas de la conservación marina, y servirán como una ruta a seguir para patrocinadores e investigadores que busquen desarrollar programas que puedan beneficiar ampliamente a la conservación marina.

Improving Ocean Management through the Use of Ecological Principles and Integrated Ecosystem Assessments

The US National Ocean Policy calls for ecosystem-based management (EBM) of the ocean to help realize the vision advanced in the 2010 Executive Order on the Stewardship of the Ocean, Our Coasts, and the Great Lakes. However, no specific approach for incorporating EBM into planning was provided. We explore how a set of ecological principles and ecosystem vulnerability concepts can be integrated into emerging comprehensive assessment frameworks, including Australias National Marine Bioregional Assessments, Californias Marine Life Protection Act Initiatives regional profiles, Canadas Eastern Scotian Shelf Integrated Management Initiative, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) program, to transition to ecosystem-based ocean planning. We examine NOAAs IEA framework to demonstrate how these concepts could be incorporated into existing frameworks. Although our discussion is focused on US ocean policy, comprehensive ecological assessments are applicable to a wide array of management strategies and planning processes.

Human impacts on connectivity in marine and freshwater ecosystems assessed using graph theory: a review

Human activities are altering the processes that connect organisms within and among habitats and populations in marine and freshwater (aquatic) ecosystems. Connectivity can be quantified using graph theory, where habitats or populations are represented by ‘nodes’ and dispersal is represented by ‘links’. This approach spans discipline and systemic divides, facilitating identification of generalities in human impacts. We conducted a review of studies that have used graph theory to quantify spatial functional connectivity in aquatic ecosystems. The search identified 42 studies published in 2000–14. We assessed whether each study quantified the impacts of (1) habitat alteration (loss, alteration to links, and gain), (2) human movements causing species introductions, (3) overharvesting and (4) climate change (warming temperatures, altered circulation or hydrology, sea-level rise) and ocean acidification. In freshwater systems habitat alteration was the most commonly studied stressor, whereas in marine systems overharvesting, in terms of larval dispersal among protected areas, was most commonly addressed. Few studies have directly assessed effects of climate change, suggesting an important area of future research. Graph representations of connectivity revealed similarities across different impacts and systems, suggesting common strategies for conservation management. We suggest future research directions for studies of aquatic connectivity to inform conservation management of aquatic ecosystems.

Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities

In the face of growing human impacts on ecosystems, scientists and managers recognize the need to better understand thresholds and nonlinear dynamics in ecological systems to help set management targets. However, our understanding of the factors that drive threshold dynamics, and when and how rapidly thresholds will be crossed is currently limited in many systems. In spite of these limitations, there are approaches available to practitioners today—including ecosystem monitoring, statistical methods to identify thresholds and indicators, and threshold-based adaptive management—that can be used to help avoid ecological thresholds or restore systems that have crossed them. We briefly review the current state of knowledge and then use real-world examples to demonstrate how resource managers can use available approaches to avoid crossing ecological thresholds. We also highlight new tools and indicators being developed that have the potential to enhance our ability to detect change, predict when a system is approaching an ecological threshold, or restore systems that have already crossed a tipping point.