scholarly journals Ecosystem-based management and the wealth of ecosystems

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (25) ◽  
pp. 6539-6544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seong Do Yun ◽  
Barbara Hutniczak ◽  
Joshua K. Abbott ◽  
Eli P. Fenichel

We merge inclusive wealth theory with ecosystem-based management (EBM) to address two challenges in the science of sustainable management of ecosystems. First, we generalize natural capital theory to approximate realized shadow prices for multiple interacting natural capital stocks (species) making up an ecosystem. These prices enable ecosystem components to be better included in wealth-based sustainability measures. We show that ecosystems are best envisioned as portfolios of assets, where the portfolio’s performance depends on the performance of the underlying assets influenced by their interactions. Second, changes in ecosystem wealth provide an attractive headline index for EBM, regardless of whether ecosystem wealth is ultimately included in a broader wealth index. We apply our approach to the Baltic Sea ecosystem, focusing on the interacting community of three commercially important fish species: cod, herring, and sprat. Our results incorporate supporting services embodied in the shadow price of a species through its trophic interactions. Prey fish have greater shadow prices than expected based on market value, and predatory fish have lower shadow prices than expected based on market value. These results are because correctly measured shadow prices reflect interdependence and limits to substitution. We project that ecosystem wealth in the Baltic Sea fishery ecosystem generally increases conditional on the EBM-inspired multispecies maximum sustainable yield management beginning in 2017, whereas continuing the current single-species management generally results in declining wealth.

2015 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 134-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Bergström ◽  
Jens Olsson ◽  
Michele Casini ◽  
Britas Klemens Eriksson ◽  
Ronny Fredriksson ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 1587-1595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Ljunggren ◽  
Alfred Sandström ◽  
Ulf Bergström ◽  
Johanna Mattila ◽  
Antti Lappalainen ◽  
...  

Abstract Ljunggren, L., Sandström, A., Bergström, U., Mattila, J., Lappalainen, A., Johansson, G., Sundblad, G., Casini, M., Kaljuste, O., and Eriksson, B. K. 2010. Recruitment failure of coastal predatory fish in the Baltic Sea coincident with an offshore ecosystem regime shift. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 1587–1595. The dominant coastal predatory fish in the southwestern Baltic Sea, perch and pike, have decreased markedly in abundance during the past decade. An investigation into their recruitment at 135 coastal sites showed that both species suffered from recruitment failures, mainly in open coastal areas. A detailed study of 15 sites showed that areas with recruitment problems were also notable for mortality of early-stage larvae at the onset of exogenous food-intake. At those sites, zooplankton abundance predicted 83 and 34% of the variation in young of the year perch and pike, respectively, suggesting that the declines were caused by recruitment failure attributable to zooplankton food limitation. Incidences of recruitment failure match in time an offshore trophic cascade that generated massive increases in planktivorous sprat and decreases in zooplankton biomass in the early 1990s. Therefore, sprat biomass explained 53% of the variation in perch recruitment from 1994 to 2007 at an open coastal site, where three-spined stickleback also increased exponentially after 2002. The results indicate that the dramatic change in the offshore ecosystem may have propagated to the coast causing declines of the dominating coastal predators perch and pike followed by an increase in the abundance of small-bodied fish.


Fishes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Olsson

Coastal predatory fish are of key importance for the provisioning of ecosystem services in the Baltic Sea. Worldwide, however, there has been a general and sharp decline in predatory fish populations, in turn threatening the viability and function of marine ecosystems. On the basis of the literature, the past (data until the 2000s) and current (data until early and mid 2010s) trends in abundance of coastal predatory fish in the Baltic Sea are reviewed in this paper. Potentially important impacting factors behind the temporal development of the populations and measures to strengthen and restore them are also discussed. Available data from coastal fish monitoring programs suggest a stable or increasing abundance of coastal predatory fish as a functional group and for the species perch in the majority of areas assessed in the Baltic Sea. For pike and pikeperch, data to support assessments is scarce, but suggest substantial declines in the abundance of both species in most assessed areas. The impacting factors behind these patterns vary between species and areas, but include climate, habitat exploitation, fishing, and species-interactions in the coastal food web. Measures to restore and support coastal predatory fish communities should follow an ecosystem-based approach to management and include efforts to regulate fisheries sectors in combination with habitat protection and restoration.


AMBIO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 1090-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Sundblad ◽  
Lena Bergström ◽  
Tore Söderqvist ◽  
Ulf Bergström

Abstract Improving water clarity is a core objective for eutrophication management in the Baltic Sea, but may influence fisheries via effects on fish habitat suitability. We apply an ensemble of species distribution models coupled with habitat productivity functions and willingness-to-pay estimates to assess these effects for two coastal predatory fish species, European perch (Perca fluviatilis) and pikeperch (Sander lucioperca). The models predicted a 37% increase in perch and 59% decrease in pikeperch biomass if reaching the reference level for water clarity in the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Reaching the target level was predicted to increase perch biomass by 13%. However, the associated economic gain for the recreational fisheries sector was countervailed by an 18% pikeperch reduction. Still, a net benefit was predicted since there are six times more fishing days for perch than pikeperch. We exemplify how ecological modelling can be combined with economic analyses to map and evaluate management alternatives.


2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20142809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Blenckner ◽  
Marcos Llope ◽  
Christian Möllmann ◽  
Rudi Voss ◽  
Martin F. Quaas ◽  
...  

Overfishing of large predatory fish populations has resulted in lasting restructurings of entire marine food webs worldwide, with serious socio-economic consequences. Fortunately, some degraded ecosystems show signs of recovery. A key challenge for ecosystem management is to anticipate the degree to which recovery is possible. By applying a statistical food-web model, using the Baltic Sea as a case study, we show that under current temperature and salinity conditions, complete recovery of this heavily altered ecosystem will be impossible. Instead, the ecosystem regenerates towards a new ecological baseline. This new baseline is characterized by lower and more variable biomass of cod, the commercially most important fish stock in the Baltic Sea, even under very low exploitation pressure. Furthermore, a socio-economic assessment shows that this signal is amplified at the level of societal costs, owing to increased uncertainty in biomass and reduced consumer surplus. Specifically, the combined economic losses amount to approximately 120 million € per year, which equals half of today's maximum economic yield for the Baltic cod fishery. Our analyses suggest that shifts in ecological and economic baselines can lead to higher economic uncertainty and costs for exploited ecosystems, in particular, under climate change.


Boreas ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Christiansen ◽  
Helmar Kunzendorf ◽  
Kay-Christian Emeis ◽  
Rudolf Endler ◽  
Ulrich Struck ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
pp. 136-146
Author(s):  
K. Liuhto

Statistical data on reserves, production and exports of Russian oil are provided in the article. The author pays special attention to the expansion of opportunities of sea oil transportation by construction of new oil terminals in the North-West of the country and first of all the largest terminal in Murmansk. In his opinion, one of the main problems in this sphere is prevention of ecological accidents in the process of oil transportation through the Baltic sea ports.


Author(s):  
Angelina E. Shatalova ◽  
Uriy A. Kublitsky ◽  
Dmitry A. Subetto ◽  
Anna V. Ludikova ◽  
Alar Rosentau ◽  
...  

The study of paleogeography of lakes is an actual and important direction in modern science. As part of the study of lakes in the North-West of the Karelian Isthmus, this analysis will establish the dynamics of salinity of objects, which will allow to reconstruct changes in the level of the Baltic Sea in the Holocene.


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