Abstract
Submarine canyons are considered biodiversity hotspots which have been identified for their important roles in connecting the deep sea with shallower waters. To date, a huge gap exists between the high importance that scientists associate with deep-sea ecosystem services and the communication of this knowledge to decision makers and to the wider public, who remain largely ignorant of the importance of these services. The connectivity and complexity of marine ecosystems makes knowledge transfer very challenging, and new communication tools are necessary to increase understanding of ecological values beyond the science community. We show how the Ecosystem Principles Approach, a method that explains the importance of ocean processes via easily understandable ecological principles, might overcome this challenge for deep-sea ecosystem services. Scientists were asked to help develop a list of clear and concise ecosystem principles for the functioning of submarine canyons through a Delphi process to facilitate future transfers of ecological knowledge. These ecosystem principles describe ecosystem processes, link such processes to ecosystem services, and provide spatial and temporal information on the connectivity between deep and shallow waters. They also elucidate unique characteristics of submarine canyons. Our Ecosystem Principles Approach was successful in integrating ecological information into the ecosystem services assessment process. It therefore has a high potential to be the next step towards a wider implementation of ecological values in marine planning. We believe that successful communication of ecological knowledge is the key to a wider public support for ocean conservation, and that this endeavour has to be driven by scientists in their own interest as major deep-sea stakeholders.
Highlights
The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has inspired a movement away from conservation for the sake of nature’s inherent value to one that explicitly identifies, links and communicates the benefits of conservation to human wellbeing [1,2,3]
3.2 Ecosystem principles Over the course of the Delphi process, 21 ecosystem principles were identified from the literature and were assessed and refined by the expert group (Tables 2 and 3)
To highlight the nature of ecosystem principles, we present principle P1 as an example, which was rated to be plausible by all experts: ‘canyons host a large number of different habitats and as a result increase species diversity at a regional scale’
Summary
The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has inspired a movement away from conservation for the sake of nature’s inherent value to one that explicitly identifies, links and communicates the benefits of conservation to human wellbeing [1,2,3]. Throughout this paper, the term ‘value’ is used in a broader sense, as a holistic concept which can include social, ecological and economic values This broadening of the concept of value is needed because for the remotest places on earth like the deep sea, it is challenging to make direct links between changes in system functioning and effects on the delivery of final ES (and on human well-being) [5,6]. To date many knowledge gaps remain around the functioning of deep-sea ecosystems This is partially explained through the high costs, difficulties, and risks that are associated with deep-sea research. By identifying and quantifying the ES benefits provided by the deep sea it is likely that appreciation for these benefits will change This should lead to a larger emphasis on mitigating anthropogenic impacts in the oceans
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