Abstract
Understanding and communicating the links among human activities and marine ecosystem services are fundamental for ecosystem-based management, which aims at attaining ecological, economic and social sustainability in the use of our seas. Relationships are typically complex and may differ between geographic areas. Here, an assessment model that combines available quantitative, semi-quantitative and qualitative information, rooted in the DAPSIR (Driver—Activity—Pressure—State—Impact—Response) framework and assessment requirements of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, is developed and applied. Focusing on Swedish marine waters, major human activities at sea are evaluated in relation to their dependencies and impacts on the status of marine ecosystem services. This case study is a consensus assessment based on evaluation of available literature and data. By relating degrees of dependencies and impacts to values of different economic sectors, discrepancies among sectors with respect to their impact versus their monetary value can be identified. In our case, commercial fishing depends on and influences a wide range of ecosystem services, while other sectors, such as shipping, depend little on marine ecosystem services. At the extreme end of the range, pressures from human activities in the past, such as historical nutrient emissions, still have prominent influence on ecosystem services today, entailing considerable losses. Marine tourism and commercial fishing show similar dependencies on ecosystem services, but tourism has a clearly lower impact on ecosystem services and a higher monetary value. The model may serve as a useful tool for communicating and guiding priorities in integrated environmental management and maritime spatial planning.
Highlights
Human use of marine waters and resources has strongly altered the structure and function of many marine ecosystems worldwide (Halpern et al 2008, 2015; Rocha et al 2015; Selim et al 2016; Österblom et al 2017)
Our assessment model aligns with the generic Driver— Activity—Pressure—State change—Impact—Response (DAPSIR) framework (Fig. 2), which is widely used in environmental management as a way to describe causal relationships between society and the environment (Atkins et al 2011; Patrício et al 2016; Martin et al 2018)
The applied results for the Swedish coastal and marine area are presented in Figs 3–6 and in the Supplement
Summary
Human use of marine waters and resources has strongly altered the structure and function of many marine ecosystems worldwide (Halpern et al 2008, 2015; Rocha et al 2015; Selim et al 2016; Österblom et al 2017). Ecosystem services are produced in the dynamic and multi-faceted interface between social and ecological systems (Bennett et al 2015) Ecosystem components, such as species and habitats, are the basis of ecosystem functions (Palumbi et al 2009; Ceballos et al 2015; Hautier et al 2015), which maintain ecosystem services and may induce positive impacts on human well-being (Sandifer et al 2015). Explicit consideration of ecosystem services in environmental management and spatial planning can be expected to lead to improved longterm societal and environmental outcomes (Arkema et al 2015) In this context, it is imperative for management to consider in which ways species and habitats, the functions they provide, and the flow of ecosystem services, can be affected by various human activities (Giakoumi et al 2015; Mach et al 2015).
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