Abstract
Ecological and socio-economic indicators are used as proxies for attributes of ecosystems and human communities, respectively. End-to-end models are used to predict how ecosystems will respond to alternative management actions and changing environmental conditions. Despite the importance of these two tools for Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM), there has been limited integration of ecological indicators directly into end-to-end models; the former are typically calculated post hoc with output from the latter. Here we explore how ecological indicators can be better incorporated into end-to-end models and examine the importance of this union with regards to cumulative impacts and indirect effects, setting management objectives, practical indicator selection, and applications to management. We conclude that the inclusion of ecological indicators in end-to-end models is not only feasible, but provides needed guidance on describing ecosystem status relative to strategic as well as tactical ecosystem-level management goals, and will escalate the implementation of EBM.
Highlights
Marine resource management at the ecosystem level is becoming a useful approach to complement single-species, single-sector, and single-impact assessments (Link et al, 2012; Gaichas et al, 2017; Link and Browman, 2017)
Indicators and end-to-end models are both ecosystem-level management tools already in use that can account for the complexity of interactions within ecosystems alongside single sector assessments that need to be operationalized for ecosystem-based management (EBM) (Fulton et al., 2011; Patrick and Link, 2015; Weijerman et al., 2015; Link and Browman, 2017)
Evidence from multispecies models using control rules derived from indicator thresholds suggests these models were able to perform better against catch and biodiversity objectives than when harvests were based solely on single-species advice (Fay et al., 2015; Fulton et al., 2019)
Summary
Marine resource management at the ecosystem level is becoming a useful approach to complement single-species, single-sector, and single-impact assessments (Link et al, 2012; Gaichas et al, 2017; Link and Browman, 2017). Given the theoretical advancements in understanding whole ecosystems, there is a growing global imperative to implement ecosystem-based management (EBM) – a management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem and accounts for multiple human uses, complexity, cumulative impacts, indirect effects, emergent properties, and tipping points (Christensen et al, 1996; McLeod et al, 2005; Link et al, 2015). By capturing the emergent properties, cumulative impacts, and indirect effects of ecosystems and human communities through indicators (Link et al, 2015; Pollnac et al, 2015) and developing ecosystem-level reference points (ELRPs; Large et al, 2015b; Samhouri et al, 2017a; Tam et al, 2017a), it is possible to avert negative scenarios such as the loss of jobs, overfishing, hypoxia, or stock collapse (Rabalais et al, 2002; Fay et al, 2015)
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