Informing Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management from an Indigenous Perspective: The Mōtū Kahawai Fishery

<p>Despite agencies striving to manage fisheries sustainably, focusing on large-scale commercial interests and ignoring target species and their wider ecosystem interactions, has depleted or collapsed fisheries globally. Indigenous community well-being, practices, knowledge, and food supplies have also diminished as a result. Fisheries managers are now developing a more combined approach to decision-making, which recognises the social and ecological relationships of fisheries. The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries encourages fisheries scientists and managers to engage with each other, and with the wider community, and to include information on the wider social and ecological components of fisheries systems in decision-making. This thesis explores an Indigenous fishery by demonstrating how to appropriately gather information from a wide range of sources to inform its management. We focus on a case study fishery for kahawai (Arripis trutta), from the perspective of Te Whānau-a-Hikarukutai/Ngāti Horomoana (TWAH/NH). This Hapū (sub-tribe) is part of the larger Te Whānau-a-Apanui Iwi (tribe) of New Zealand (NZ), who have strong cultural connections to, and a unique system for managing, the Mōtū kahawai fishery. This fishery is a small-scale, land-based, hand-line fishery for a medium-sized pelagic teleost fish based at the Mōtū river mouth, located at Maraenui in the eastern Bay of Plenty, NZ. This research demonstrates holistic ecosystem-based fisheries research as a template for future fisheries research activities. A transdisciplinary research approach, grounded in kaupapa Māori research principles and Māori research ethics, was taken. A strategy was developed to direct engagement with Māori for fisheries research. The existing NZ fisheries management system was defined, and Independent fishery forum plans were identified as the most proactive way to inform the system. A plan can also be used to inform fisheries through other mechanisms; therefore, it is a valuable resource to create. Information on the history, background and value of the fishery was gathered and the Mōtū kahawai fishery identified as a cultural keystone species for TWAH/NH. Kahawai trophic and ecosystem interactions were described from ecology and mātauranga studies. This information was collated in a Hapū plan to inform management of the Mōtū kahawai fishery. This fishery has existed for ca. 600 years and the Hapū wish for it to thrive indefinitely. The Hapū plan will inform wider fisheries management, of Hapū values, practices, and knowledge, to be recognised by the wider community, and to support Hapū rangatiratanga (sovereignty) over the fishery.</p>

Informing Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management from an Indigenous Perspective: The Mōtū Kahawai Fishery

<p>Despite agencies striving to manage fisheries sustainably, focusing on large-scale commercial interests and ignoring target species and their wider ecosystem interactions, has depleted or collapsed fisheries globally. Indigenous community well-being, practices, knowledge, and food supplies have also diminished as a result. Fisheries managers are now developing a more combined approach to decision-making, which recognises the social and ecological relationships of fisheries. The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries encourages fisheries scientists and managers to engage with each other, and with the wider community, and to include information on the wider social and ecological components of fisheries systems in decision-making. This thesis explores an Indigenous fishery by demonstrating how to appropriately gather information from a wide range of sources to inform its management. We focus on a case study fishery for kahawai (Arripis trutta), from the perspective of Te Whānau-a-Hikarukutai/Ngāti Horomoana (TWAH/NH). This Hapū (sub-tribe) is part of the larger Te Whānau-a-Apanui Iwi (tribe) of New Zealand (NZ), who have strong cultural connections to, and a unique system for managing, the Mōtū kahawai fishery. This fishery is a small-scale, land-based, hand-line fishery for a medium-sized pelagic teleost fish based at the Mōtū river mouth, located at Maraenui in the eastern Bay of Plenty, NZ. This research demonstrates holistic ecosystem-based fisheries research as a template for future fisheries research activities. A transdisciplinary research approach, grounded in kaupapa Māori research principles and Māori research ethics, was taken. A strategy was developed to direct engagement with Māori for fisheries research. The existing NZ fisheries management system was defined, and Independent fishery forum plans were identified as the most proactive way to inform the system. A plan can also be used to inform fisheries through other mechanisms; therefore, it is a valuable resource to create. Information on the history, background and value of the fishery was gathered and the Mōtū kahawai fishery identified as a cultural keystone species for TWAH/NH. Kahawai trophic and ecosystem interactions were described from ecology and mātauranga studies. This information was collated in a Hapū plan to inform management of the Mōtū kahawai fishery. This fishery has existed for ca. 600 years and the Hapū wish for it to thrive indefinitely. The Hapū plan will inform wider fisheries management, of Hapū values, practices, and knowledge, to be recognised by the wider community, and to support Hapū rangatiratanga (sovereignty) over the fishery.</p>

Memory over matter?—a conceptual framework to integrate social–ecological l legacies in agricultural NCP co-production

To better account for how social–ecological legacies of social and ecological systems jointly shape the current composition, the quality and quantity of nature’s contribution to people (NCPs), we integrate the concept of NCP co-production into social–ecological system thinking. Our expanded framework highlights how NCP co-production is frequently entangled within its social–ecological context, such as legacies, current resources and social activities. Additionally, we underline the relevance of non-material and material dimensions of resources in NCP co-production. To illustrate the potential of this expanded framework, we explore its application to an agricultural system of the French Northern Alps. We conclude that this framework (1) facilitates the understanding of society–ecosystem interactions in a specific regional social–ecological context; (2) helps to better conceptualise the interdependencies between resources and social activities; (3) demonstrates how current rule sets to organise social–ecological legacies affect the entire NCP co-production chain. The framework’s further implementation requires more research to better understand the complex interlinkages between the social and the ecological subsystems that underpin socioeconomic activities.

Strong nutrient-plant interactions enhance the stability of ecosystems

Modular food web theory shows how weak energetic fluxes resulting from consumptive interactions plays a major role in stabilizing food webs in space and time. Despite the reliance on energetic fluxes, food web theory surprisingly remains poorly understood within an ecosystem context that naturally focuses on material fluxes. At the same time, while ecosystem theory has employed modular nutrient-limited ecosystem models to understand how limiting nutrients alter the structure and dynamics of food webs, ecosystem theory has overlooked the role of key ecosystem interactions and their strengths (e.g., plant-nutrient; R-N) in mediating the stability of nutrient-limited ecosystems. Here, towards integrating food web theory and ecosystem theory, we first briefly review consumer-resource interactions (C-R) highlighting the relationship between the structure of C-R interactions and the stability of food web modules. We then translate this framework to nutrient-based systems, showing that the nutrient-plant interaction behaves as a coherent extension of current modular food web theory; however, in contrast to the rule that weak C-R interactions tend to be stabilizing we show that strong nutrient-plant interactions are potent stabilizers in nutrient-limited ecosystem models.

Synthetic threads through the web of life

CRISPR-Cas gene editing tools have brought us to an era of synthetic biology that will change the world. Excitement over the breakthroughs these tools have enabled in biology and medicine is balanced, justifiably, by concern over how their applications might go wrong in open environments. We do not know how genomic processes (including regulatory and epigenetic processes), evolutionary change, ecosystem interactions, and other higher order processes will affect traits, fitness, and impacts of edited organisms in nature. However, anticipating the spread, change, and impacts of edited traits or organisms in heterogeneous, changing environments is particularly important with “gene drives on the horizon.” To anticipate how “synthetic threads” will affect the web of life on Earth, scientists must confront complex system interactions across many levels of biological organization. Currently, we lack plans, infrastructure, and funding for field science and scientists to track new synthetic organisms, with or without gene drives, as they move through open environments.

On species, its reality and types of species

An analysis of the concept of "species" in view of the reality of its existence in the theoretical constructions of eidologists and in the practice of research and description of biotic diversity (BD) is presented. The work includes five main sections. The first considers the concept of species as a designation of individuality (speciesness) in the structure of BD. The etymology and connotations of the terms that were used previously or are used now to denote the category of eidos in Ukrainian, English, and related to Ukrainian Slavic languages are considered (genus, specie[s], kind). The significant influence of the connotative load on dominant species concepts and, in particular, the stable and long-lasting predominance of typology is noted in works of scientists of the 20th century, after the introduction of the term “species”. In the second part, the issue of reality of species and the phenomenon of diversity of its realities, in particular different realities in different contexts, are analysed. It is postulated that the reality of the concept of species is actually determined by the concept of separateness (individuality), three distinct forms of which are proposed: morphological (mostly in museum collections), phyletic (in phylogenetic studies), and biotic (within communities). The third section "On kinds of species and the diversity of species concepts" is devoted to the analysis of systems that describe the diversity of species as concepts, including species categories, kinds (classes) of species, and types of species. The fourth section "Emergent properties of species" discusses emergence and key features of species common for most concepts, as well as biosemiotics as one of the systems for maintaining the integrity of species. Finally, the last (fifth) section deals with the one-dimensional model of "species", the actual concept of "species within a community", when a species is defined not through the closest sister forms (with which it essentially does not intersect anywhere), but through other species with which it is part of the same guilds and communities. It is shown that this aspect of consideration of a species is the closest to its initial interpretation as an object of actual BD within local or regional biotic communities, in which the species is determined through other species with which it coexists and interacts. This significantly distinguishes the species as an element of BD among other interpretations, especially of the phyletic type, in which the species is determined not through ecosystem interactions with sympatric species, but through sister taxa.

Space, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Dynamics, and Interspecific Ecological Interactions

<p>This paper aims at investigating entrepreneurial ecosystems through analysis of interactions among their main agents, in different spatialities of a medium-size city: the city center (downtown), a suburban street, and its main shopping mall. As a theoretical framework the Jacobs approach (2011), the theory of practical action (Bourdieu, 2010), and the theory of interspecific ecological interactions (Lopes & Russo, 2010) were used. In methodological terms, a case study approach was carried out. The findings indicate different types of ecosystem interactions, considering the influence of the context, technology, and innovation as well as the historical trajectories and <i>Habitus</i> that characterize them. </p>

Space, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Dynamics, and Interspecific Ecological Interactions

<p>This paper aims at investigating entrepreneurial ecosystems through analysis of interactions among their main agents, in different spatialities of a medium-size city: the city center (downtown), a suburban street, and its main shopping mall. As a theoretical framework the Jacobs approach (2011), the theory of practical action (Bourdieu, 2010), and the theory of interspecific ecological interactions (Lopes & Russo, 2010) were used. In methodological terms, a case study approach was carried out. The findings indicate different types of ecosystem interactions, considering the influence of the context, technology, and innovation as well as the historical trajectories and <i>Habitus</i> that characterize them. </p>