scholarly journals Prioritizing Management for Cumulative Impacts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Singh ◽  
Jonathan Rhodes ◽  
Even McDonald-Madden ◽  
Hugh Possingham ◽  
Edd Hammill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Bayesian Belief Networks ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Cumulative Impacts ◽  
Additional Species ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Nutrient Runoff

Determining where environmental management is best applied, either through regulating single sectors of human activities or across sectors, is complicated by interactions between human impacts and the environment. In this article, we show how an explicit representation of human-environment interactions can help, via "impact networks" including activities (e.g. shipping), stressors (e.g. ship strikes), species (e.g. humpback whales) or ecosystem services (e.g. marine recreation). Impact networks can enable the identification of "leverage nodes", which, if present, can direct managers to the activities and stressors crucial for reducing risk to important ecosystem components. Exploring an impact network for a coastal ecosystem in British Columbia, Canada, we seek to identify these leverage nodes using a new approach employing Bayesian Belief Networks of risks to ecosystems. In so doing, we address three key questions: (1) Do leverage nodes exist? (2) Do management plans for species correctly identify leverage nodes? (3) Does the management of leverage nodes for certain species realize benefits for other species and ecosystem services? We show that there are several leverage nodes across all species investigated, and show that preconceptions about the regulation of risk to species can misidentify leverage nodes, potentially leading to ineffective management. Notably, we show that managing fisheries does not reduce overall risk to herring whereas managing diverse cumulative impacts including nutrient runoff, oil spills, and marine debris can reduce risk to herring, additional species, and related ecosystem services. Thus, by targeting leverage nodes, managers can efficiently mitigate risks for whole communities, ecosystems, and ecosystem services.

Assessing the coastal sensitivity to oil spills from the perspective of ecosystem services: A case study for Canada's pacific coast

2021 ◽  
Vol 296 ◽  
pp. 113240
Author(s):  
Qi Feng ◽  
Chunjiang An ◽  
Zhi Chen ◽  
Edward Owens ◽  
Haibo Niu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Oil Spills

scholarly journals Utilization of Ostracods (Crustacea) as Bioindicator for Environmental Pollutants

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-93
Author(s):  
E. Parameswari ◽  
V. Davamani ◽  
R. Kalaiarasi ◽  
T. Ilakiya ◽  
S. Arulmani
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Development ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Magnesium Calcite ◽  
Marine Areas

Ecosystem undergoes drastic changes due to the anthropogenic activities. As a consequence of industrial development, increasing population growth and modernized agricultural practices water resources like limnetic zone and marine areas have undergone eutrophication. This resulted in the decline in population of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Hence, it is an urgent need to monitor the quality of the environment. Several organisms are used as biomonitors. Among them, Ostracodes (Seed Shrimps) which belong to Crustacean group are very sensitive to those changes in the environment and useful in predicting the paleo environmental conditions. Ostracodes are bivalve arthropods which are enclosed in a carapace made of low magnesium calcite. These species are occurring for about 450 million years dates back to ordovician which are known for their easier fossilization. The development of Ostracodes is influenced by the physic - chemical properties of waters such as Salinity, temperature, pH, Dissolved oxygen, bottom grain sizes and sedimentation rates.  In addition to diversity and abundance of population, morphological and geochemical changes can also be detected in the Ostracod carapace (shell) which serves as a tracer of the water quality. These details are basis for utilizing Ostracods as paleoenvironmental (paleoclimatic, paleosalinity, paleooceanographic) reconstruction, ecotoxicity monitoring, biostratigraphic indicator. Moreover, these microcrustaceans showed similar or higher sensitivity to herbicides, pesticides, oil spills or heavy metals pollution other than traditional groups like copepods, protozoan, rotifers, cladocerans which are used to test the human impacts on ecosystem. These meiofaunas are highly adaptable to waters containing organic and inorganic contaminants generated by catastrophic activities by human beings in the surroundings.

scholarly journals Mapping Cumulative Impacts of Human Activities on Marine Ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
SeaPlan
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Cumulative Impacts ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Ocean Management ◽  
Survey Results

Given the diversity of human uses and natural resources that converge in coastal waters, the potential independent and cumulative impacts of those uses on marine ecosystems are important to consider during ocean planning. This study was designed to support the development and implementation of the 2009 Massachusetts Ocean Management Plan. Its goal was to estimate and visualize the cumulative impacts of human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems in the state and federal waters off of Massachusetts.For this study, regional ecosystem experts were surveyed to gauge the relative vulnerability of marine ecosystems to current and emerging anthropogenic stressors. Survey results were then combined with spatial information on the distribution of marine ecosystems and human stressors to map cumulative impacts in Massachusetts waters.The study resulted in an ecosystem vulnerability matrix and human impacts maps, which together yield insights into which ecosystems and places are most vulnerable and which human uses, alone and in combination, are putting the most stress on marine ecosystems. These products can be used in a number of ways, including to help clarify ocean planning decisions, identify areas of potential conflict among ocean users and areas that may merit conservation, and assess ecological, economic and social values of particular places.

scholarly journals Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (24) ◽  
pp. 13596-13602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Ceballos ◽  
Paul R. Ehrlich ◽  
Peter H. Raven
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Sixth Mass Extinction

The ongoing sixth mass species extinction is the result of the destruction of component populations leading to eventual extirpation of entire species. Populations and species extinctions have severe implications for society through the degradation of ecosystem services. Here we assess the extinction crisis from a different perspective. We examine 29,400 species of terrestrial vertebrates, and determine which are on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals. There are 515 species on the brink (1.7% of the evaluated vertebrates). Around 94% of the populations of 77 mammal and bird species on the brink have been lost in the last century. Assuming all species on the brink have similar trends, more than 237,000 populations of those species have vanished since 1900. We conclude the human-caused sixth mass extinction is likely accelerating for several reasons. First, many of the species that have been driven to the brink will likely become extinct soon. Second, the distribution of those species highly coincides with hundreds of other endangered species, surviving in regions with high human impacts, suggesting ongoing regional biodiversity collapses. Third, close ecological interactions of species on the brink tend to move other species toward annihilation when they disappear—extinction breeds extinctions. Finally, human pressures on the biosphere are growing rapidly, and a recent example is the current coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, linked to wildlife trade. Our results reemphasize the extreme urgency of taking much-expanded worldwide actions to save wild species and humanity’s crucial life-support systems from this existential threat.

Marine Debris and Human Impacts on Sea Turtles in Southern Brazil

2001 ◽  
Vol 42 (12) ◽  
pp. 1330-1334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leandro Bugoni ◽  
Lı́gia Krause ◽  
Maria Virgı́nia Petry
Keyword(s):  
Human Impacts ◽  
Sea Turtles ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Southern Brazil

Ecosystem services–A tool for sustainable management of human–environment systems. Case study Finnish Forest Lapland

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petteri Vihervaara ◽  
Timo Kumpula ◽  
Ari Tanskanen ◽  
Benjamin Burkhard
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Sustainable Management ◽  
Human Environment

Exploring ecosystem service issues across diverse knowledge domains using Bayesian Belief Networks

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Haines-Young
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Bayesian Belief Networks ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Belief Networks ◽  
Knowledge Domains ◽  
Study Materials ◽  
Shared Social Values

The analysis of the relationships between people and nature is complex, because it involves bringing together insights from a range of disciplines, and, when stakeholders are involved, the perspectives and values of different interest groups. Although it has been suggested that analytical-deliberate approaches may be useful in dealing with some of this complexity, the development of methods is still at an early stage. This is particularly so in relation to debates around the concept of ecosystem services where biophysical, social and economic insights need to be integrated in ways that can be accessed by decision-makers. The paper draws on case studies to examine the use of Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) as a means of implementing analytical-deliberative approaches in relation to mapping ecosystem services and modelling scenario outcomes. It also explores their use as a tool for representing individual and group values. It is argued that when linked with GIS techniques BBNs allow mapping and modelling approaches rapidly to be developed and tested in an efficient and transparent way, and that they are a valuable scenario-building tool. The case-study materials also show that BBNs can support multicriteria forms of deliberative analysis that can be used to capture stakeholder opinions so that different perspectives can be compared and shared social values identified.

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