Do marine protected areas deliver flows of ecosystem services to support human welfare?

This paper examines the potential relationships between the ecosystem services provided by the coastal and marine environment and the designation of marine protected areas. The hypothesis is that relationships exist between the provision of ecosystem services and the features protected by marine protected areas. It is considered that protection will maintain these features in good ecological condition and in some cases will restore ecological functioning with positive effects on the delivery of ecosystem services, as pressures upon the protected features are reduced. As the number of marine protected area designations grows, system-wide effects to communities from improvements in delivery of a range of ecosystem services may be realised. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the jurisdictional marine protected area policies proposed by the English, Welsh and Scottish Governments. It presents structured assessment matrices developed from the literature and expert opinion, of ecosystem service provision by marine protected habitats and species and applies the findings to a range of existing UK marine protected areas to demonstrate its relevance. The approach and case study findings are discussed within the wider context of marine ecosystem services and marine protected area management.     

Has the value of global marine and coastal ecosystem services changed?

In 1997, Robert Costanza and his colleagues published a groundbreaking study [1] that estimated the monetary value of the contribution of the world's ecosystems to human wellbeing. The methods used were cited as preliminary and received considerable criticism [2], [3]. In two more recent peer-reviewed studies [4], [5], the authors update the original estimates of ecosystem service value and find: (1) that original per area ecosystem service values were underestimated and (2) using these revised per area values, the total global value of ecosystem services has declined. Just under ninety-five percent of the estimated loss in ecosystem service value comes from revisions by the authors in the value estimates of marine ecosystem services. These revisions include additional per area value estimates of coral reefs and coastal wetlands that are many times the value of estimates used in the original analysis. The reasons cited by Costanza et al. for the increases in revised value estimates are examined and rejected. The data are found to be insufficient for a rigorous estimate of the global value of marine ecosystems services.     

How well do ecosystem indicators communicate the effects of anthropogenic eutrophication?

Anthropogenic eutrophication affects the Mediterranean, Black, North and Baltic Seas to various extents. Responses to nutrient loading and methods of monitoring relevant indicators vary regionally, hindering interpretation of ecosystem state changes and preventing a straightforward pan-European assessment of eutrophication symptoms. Here we summarize responses to nutrient enrichment in Europe's seas, comparing existing time-series of selected pelagic (phytoplankton biomass and community composition, turbidity, N:P ratio) and benthic (macro flora and faunal communities, bottom oxygen condition) indicators based on their effectiveness in assessing eutrophication effects. Our results suggest that the Black Sea and Northern Adriatic appear to be recovering from eutrophication due to economic reorganization in the Black Sea catchment and nutrient abatement measures in the case of the Northern Adriatic. The Baltic is most strongly impacted by eutrophication due to its limited exchange and the prevalence of nutrient recycling. Eutrophication in the North Sea is primarily a coastal problem, but may be exacerbated by climatic changes. Indicator interpretation is strongly dependent on sea-specific knowledge of ecosystem characteristics, and no single indicator can be employed to adequately compare eutrophication state between European seas. Communicating eutrophication-related information to policy-makers could be facilitated through the use of consistent indicator selection and monitoring methodologies across European seas. This work is discussed in the context of the European Commission's recently published Marine Strategy Directive.     

How much spatial structure can data for rock lobster off victoria,Australia support?

Stock assessments based on fitting sex‐and size‐structured population dynamics models, combined with projections of the future implications for available biomass and egg production, currently form the basis for scientific management advice for rock lobster, Jasus edwardsii, off Victoria, Australia. Traditionally, assessments have been conducted for two “zones” (east and west) off Victoria. However, recent analyses indicate finer‐scale spatial resolution in growth and the probability of being mature as a function of size. Assessments were therefore conducted for six regions, as well as for the two conventional zones, and Bayesian model selection criteria were used to compare alternative model formulations. The results suggest that better fits to the data can be obtained by conducting assessments by region than by zone. The general qualitative conclusion of past stock assessments is that the rock lobster populations off Victoria are depleted to below the target reference point of 40% of the available biomass in 1951 and this conclusion is robust to how the data are treated spatially. However, the time‐trajectories of egg production and available biomass differ among the regions, with the areas in the centre of Victoria being more depleted than those at the extremes.     

Compensatory mitigation in marine ecosystems: Which indicators for assessing the “no net loss” goal of ecosystem services and ecological functions?

Recent years have seen increasing interest in the concepts of compensation and ecosystem services. Regulation systems in the United States dealing with environmental protection (Superfund Act, Oil Pollution Act, National Environment Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, etc.) require those responsible for damage to ecosystem services to compensate for it “physically” and restore these services for the benefit of the entire population. This article, using simple indicators of compensation identified in the literature, attempts to analyze what types of ecological compensation are adopted, how performance is assessed, how standards on ecological equivalencies are adopted, and what are the costs of this compensation. To perform this analysis, compensatory measures carried out during the last ten years in the case of coastal and marine ecosystems in Florida have been addressed. The results show that: analysis criteria for the equivalencies between ecosystem services lost due to damage and ecosystem services gained due to compensatory measures are questionable; most compensation monitoring is for a relatively brief period of time and the data obtained during this period may be insufficient for assessing the net effect of the compensatory measure; the weaknesses regarding criteria for the equivalencies and the uncertainty about the relevant time-scale can be counter-balanced by increasing the area of compensation, a problematic solution at best.     

The effects of heavy metals on the primary productivity in the marine ecosystem enclosures

In April, 1985, scientists from China and Canada made a marine enclosed ecosystem experiment cooperatively in Xiamen. The experiment was carried out in the plastic bags in a shorebased tank. To the bags, heavy metals (Cu, Hg, Zn, Pb and Cd) were added quantitatively and their effects on the primary productivity were studied. The results show that the effects of low level metal mixture (Cu 3.5-10.0, Hg 0.2-1.0, Pb 0.3-1.5, Zn 3.5-17.5,     

Is the Montreal Protocol a model that can help solve the global marine plastic debris problem?

The impacts of plastic debris on the marine environment have gained the attention of the global community. Although the plastic debris problem presents in the oceans, the failure to control land-based plastic waste is the primary cause of these marine environmental impacts. Plastics in the ocean are mainly a land policy issue, yet the regulation of marine plastic debris from land-based sources is a substantial gap within the international policy framework. Regulating different plastics at the final product level is difficult to implement. Instead, the Montreal Protocol may serve as a model to protect the global ocean common, by reducing the production of virgin material within the plastics industry and by regulating both the polymers and chemical additives as controlled substances at a global level. Similar to the Montreal Protocol, national production and consumption of this virgin content can be calculated, providing an opportunity for the introduction of phased targets to reduce and eliminate the agreed substances to be controlled. The international trade of feedstock materials that do not meet the agreed minimum standards can be restricted. The aim of such an agreement would be to encourage private investment in the collection, sorting and recycling of post-consumer material for reuse as feedstock, thereby contributing to the circular economy. The proposed model is not without its challenges, particularly when calculating costs and benefits, but is worthy of further consideration by the international community in the face of the global threats posed to the ocean by plastics.     

How sustainable is sustainable marine spatial planning? Part I—Linking the concepts

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has emerged worldwide as a tool for sustainable ocean governance. This paper reviews how sustainability and ecosystem-based management (EBM) have been included so far within the MSP general framework, by carrying out: (1) a review on the links between sustainability, EBM and MSP in EU maritime policy initiatives; (2) an analysis on the differences between ecosystem-based MSP versus MSP focused on delivering blue growth; and (3) a discussion on how adaptive management may address some of the main challenges found in achieving sustainable ocean management. From the EU Green Paper (2006) to the MSP Directive Proposal (2013), MSP processes based on the principle of EBM have been recognized as a necessary tool to ensure maritime sustainable development. Although ecosystem-based MSP has been recently presented as the best way to ensure both ecosystem conservation and development of human activities, most national and European MSP initiatives seem to follow a MSP approach focused in delivering blue growth. A challenge, therefore, arises: how to adjust policy decisions to properly preserve ecosystems and the services they provide? If truly implemented, an adaptive approach seems to be a way forward in ensuring that spatial planning, management and policy-making in marine spaces can be continuously adjusted, thus allowing for sustainability.     

Upgrading or unhelpful? Defiant corporate support for a marine protected area

Fishing firms sometimes give political support to marine conservation measures that seem contrary to their commercial interest. To explain this apparent paradox, an analysis is made of the stance taken by a New Zealand company in response to a proposed marine protected area in the Ross Sea. The firm defected from its industry’s opposition to the proposal, choosing to support the reserve. The analysis uses concepts from corporate political strategy to identify why such support might be forthcoming, and under what conditions. The article argues that a firm endorsing a conservation initiative in defiance of its industry intends to engineer a redistribution of profit and control within its global production network, regardless of any public benefit. While there was in this instance a public benefit in the form of potential environmental upgrading, the firm’s strategy risks compromising the effectiveness and impartiality of marine governance organizations.     

The effects of nutrients and heavy metals on the plankton in marine enclosed ecosystem

Applying marine enclosed ecosystem extensively to study the nutrient variation and its relation to biochemical process by marine ecologists and biogeologists in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia has been lasting for many years. Santschi (1982) reviewed the geochemical recirculation of nutrients systematically. Kremling et al. (1978) described the changes in nutrient in marine enclosed e-     

‘Doing the right thing’: How social science can help foster pro-environmental behaviour change in marine protected areas

Managers of marine protected areas (MPAs) are constantly challenged to encourage positive user behaviour to minimise impacts on marine ecosystems while allowing recreational use. Yet, some marine users continue to act in ways that diminish conservation values of the area. Drawing on social psychological theories, this paper presents a case for informed behaviour change strategies to reduce problem behaviours in MPAs and contribute to conservation efforts. Social psychological drivers of behaviour are explained and applied to an MPA context to demonstrate how they can inform strategies for predicting and changing behaviour using persuasive communication. As behavioural and persuasive communication theories are seldom invoked and almost never rigorously applied to MPAs, the review offers new theoretical and practical insights into how they can assist MPA management to target and shift specific behaviours that ultimately support marine park values.     

What is the ecosystem approach for fisheries management?

The ecosystem approach for fisheries management is a widely accepted concept and various international instruments require its application. However, there are various interpretations of the ecosystem approach and its application almost always brings about confrontations and resistance among managers, proponents, and stakeholders. This paper categorizes the ecosystem approach into four distinguishable types: bycatch mitigation, multi-species management, protection of vulnerable ecosystems, and integrated approach. Furthermore, the lack of identification and understanding of specific management goals is hampering the application of the ecosystem approach. Unless the stakeholders understand and accept the goals, the ecosystem approach will not succeed.     

The marine ecosystem off Peru: What are the secrets of its fishery productivity and what might its future hold?

The marine ecosystem located off the coast of central and northern Peru has stood as the “world’s champion” producer, by far, of exploitable fish biomass, generally yielding more than 20 times the tonnage of fishery landings produced by other comparable regional large marine ecosystems of the world’s oceans that operate under similar dynamic contexts and are characterized by comparable, or even greater, basic primary production. Two potentially contributing aspects are discussed from a framework of interregional comparative pattern recognition: (1) the advantageous low-latitude situation that combines strong upwelling-based nutrient enrichment with low wind-induced turbulence generation and relatively extended mean “residence times” within the favorable upwelling-conditioned near-coastal habitat and (2) the cyclic “re-setting” of the system by ENSO perturbations that may tend to interrupt malignant growth of adverse self-amplifying feedback loops within the nonlinear biological dynamics of the ecosystem.There is a developing scientific consensus that one of the more probable consequences of impending global climate changes will be a general slowing of the equatorial Pacific Walker Circulation and a consequent weakening of the Pacific trade wind system. Since the upwelling-favorable winds off Peru tend to flow directly into the Pacific southeast trade winds, a question arises as to the likely effect on the upwelling-producing winds that power the productivity of the regional coastal ecosystems of the Peru–Humboldt Current zone. It is argued that the effects will in fact be decoupled to the extent that upwelling-favorable winds will actually tend to increase off Peru. Data demonstrative of this decoupling are presented. A tendency for less intense El Niño episodes in the future is also suggested. These conclusions provide a framework for posing certain imponderables as to the future character of the Peruvian marine ecosystem and of the fisheries it supports.     

Studies on the role of marine bacteria in the upwelling ecosystem——Ⅰ.Bacterial biomass in the upwelling regions

-Six cruises were carried out off the south bank of Fujian - Taiwan during the period of December 21, 1987 to November 15, 1988 to estimate the contribution of bacterial biomass carbon (BBC) to the totai particulate organic pools using epifluorescent microscopic technique. The results show that the standing crop of bacteria fluctuated from 0. 95 to 66. 60 mg /m3 (dry weight). Upwelling phenomena appeared in the region around Nanpeng Island in summer while in the region of Waixie in all seasons. The average value of BBC was 27. 60(±6. 08)mg/m3and 21. 32 (±2. 34) mg/m3 respectively. The seasonal and spatial distribution is discussed in relation to environmental factors as well as upwelling phenomena. The role of bacteria in the flow of material and energy in the upwelling ecosystem is emphasized.     

How the pollution stress acting on the phytoplankton populations——an observation by the experimental enclosed ecosystem

Ｈｏｗ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｏｌｌｕｔｉｏｎ　ｓｔｒｅｓｓ　ａｃｔｉｎｇ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｈｙｔｏｐｌａｎｋｔｏｎ　ｐｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎｓ　──ａｎ　ｏｂｓｅｒｖａｔｉｏｎ　ｂｙ　ｔｈｅ　ｅｘｐｅｒｉｍｅｎｔａｌ　ｅｎｃｌｏｓｅｄ　ｅｃｏｓｙｓｔｅｍＴａｎｇＳ...     

What meta-analysis can tell us about vulnerability of marine biodiversity to ocean acidification?

Ocean acidification has been proposed as a major threat for marine biodiversity. Hendriks et al. [Hendriks, I.E., Duarte, C.M., Alvarez, M., 2010. Vulnerability of marine biodiversity to ocean acidification: a meta-analysis. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2009.11.022.] proposed an alternative view and suggested, based on a meta-analysis, that marine biota may be far more resistant to ocean acidification than hitherto believed. However, such a meta-analytical approach can mask more subtle features, for example differing sensitivities during the life-cycle of an organism. Using a similar metric on an echinoderm database, we show that key bottlenecks present in the life-cycle (e.g. larvae being more vulnerable than adults) and responsible for driving the whole species response may be hidden in a global meta-analysis. Our data illustrate that any ecological meta-analysis should be hypothesis driven, taking into account the complexity of biological systems, including all life-cycle stages and key biological processes. Available data allow us to conclude that near-future ocean acidification can/will have dramatic negative impact on some marine species, including echinoderms, with likely consequences at the ecosystem level.     

How to dance? The tango of stakeholder involvement in marine governance research

The added value of involving stakeholders in research, especially related to marine governance, seems to be understood today by many researchers and policy makers. This is clearly reflected by the many (EU) research calls explicitly asking for stakeholder involvement. The way in which to involve stakeholders in a meaningful way is however not all that clearly defined. In the EU funded project Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management (ODEMM) an explicit question was the development of options for alternative governance settings, including stakeholder involvement, to implement the Marine Strategy Framework Directive in the EU. In order to arrive at these possible alternative governance set-ups the ODEMM project developed a layered methodology, including structured and unstructured interviews, a survey and roundtable discussions to develop diverse governance options for future ecosystem based models at the regional seas. This paper describes the methodologies used, compares them with best practice from literature, and finally classifies the approach as a joint knowledge production, a tango, in which scientists take the lead but need the stakeholders to come to a dance.     

Monitoring of seabirds in the Benguela upwelling system: can seabirds be used as indicators and predictors of change in the marine environment?

Historical and contemporary data on Benguela seabirds assumed to be responsive to changes in food availability are reviewed as potential indicators and predictors of change in the ecosystem. Cyclic variations in the annual yields of seabird products evident at decadal long time-scales may reflect fluctuations in prey populations at similar periods. However, no such relationship has been demonstrated and consequently the value of such annual yields as indicators is not proved. More recently, interannual variation in diets, foraging effort, breeding success and chick growth of two of the three most abundant species of seabird in the ecosystem have been examined in relation to changes in prey abundance. Although the relative abundance of important forage species in the diets of both species of seabird have reflected regional changes in the absolute abundance of these prey, changes in the values of other parameters thought to reflect food availability were not consistently correlated between and within species. This indicates poor potential for their use as indicators of change at least over the range of abundances experienced in this study. Under present management protocol, data from seabirds do not nor are likely to provide abundance indices that may be used directly in stock assessment of commercially important species. To date, insights into distribution and migration of pelagic fish provided by seabird-derived data probably represent the most valuable contribution of birds to fisheries scientists studying the Benguela system.     

How sustainable is sustainable marine spatial planning? Part II – The Portuguese experience

With one of Europe׳s largest exclusive economic zones, Portugal has a paramount role in the implementation of EU maritime policies. In the Portuguese context, ocean planning and management are presently undergoing major advances. This paper analyzes and discusses the present state of affairs regarding the Portuguese marine spatial planning (MSP) process, comprising: (1) an update on the status of MSP in Portugal; (2) an analysis on how sustainability concepts are to be implemented in the Portuguese MSP process and (3) a discussion on major challenges to Portuguese MSP long-term sustainability. The Portuguese MSP process can be divided in two phases: development of the “Plano de Ordenamento do Espaço Marítimo” (POEM) – initially intended to be the first Portuguese “marine spatial plan” but then published as a “study”; and development of the Law Proposal 133/XII on marine planning and management – soon to be approved. A key question for the long-term adequacy of Portuguese MSP is how is it addressing environmental sustainability: is it relying on soft or hard sustainability concepts? Is it prioritizing the achievement of good environmental status (GES) or blue growth? In both cases (POEM and Law Proposal), soft sustainability seems to be the underlying principle, because although the ecosystem approach is recognized as fundamental, environmental quality seems to come second when set against economic goals.