Abstract
There are numerous ecosystem goods and services (EGS) provided by the ocean. There are also multiple mandates to address this suite of EGS. Which facets of the ocean EGS does this portfolio of mandates collectively address? How are these mandates interrelated? Are there gaps in their coverage of EGS? Are there areas of reinforcement? To elucidate this set of issues, we characterize the portfolio of mandates that a leading U.S. governmental ocean agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the subset of those that one of its Line Offices, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA-Fisheries), is responsible for implementing. We link these mandates to a suite of EGS, evaluating the relative degree that each mandate addresses each EGS. The weighted overlap across mandates with respect to EGS was also estimated. Of the nearly 100 NOAA mandates, and the subset of 50 NOAA-Fisheries mandates, there was broad coverage of ocean EGS; every EGS has at a minimum of 9 NOAA mandates that addressed that topic. Food production, habitat provision, genetic resources, recreation, tourism, historical and heritage value, and knowledge and science value were the EGS that had the highest amount of coverage at 30, 42, 50, 39, 38, 34, and 60 NOAA mandates, respectively. There was some reinforcement across mandates, particularly for the top EGS, suggesting that the multiple facets of these EGS are being reasonably well addressed. Seventy percent of mandates informed the same EGS via implementation of the top 10 mandates considered to be the most important for NOAA. The large number of mandates and the overlap in the EGS they address suggest that some form of coordination is warranted, particularly via adoption of an ecosystem-based approach to management.
Highlights
The oceans provide numerous ecosystem goods and services (EGS; Millennial Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), 2003, 2005; Halpern et al, 2008)
To that end we address four objectives in this work: (1) to catalog and characterize all the ocean-oriented mandates that drive National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s mission; (2) expressly link these mandates to a suite of EGS that they inform; (3) evaluate the collective coverage of the suite of EGS by these mandates; and (4) explore the overlap among mandates for NOAA and NOAA-Fisheries according to the various EGS they address
To explore the “coverage” of the suite of EGS by NOAA and NOAA-Fisheries mandates, we evaluated the relative degree that each mandate addressed each EGS
Summary
The oceans provide numerous ecosystem goods and services (EGS; MEA, 2003, 2005; Halpern et al, 2008). These reflect the derived benefits for and from human activities that are based on the function, structure, resilience and production of the ocean This suite of EGS includes provisioning (e.g., food, oil and gas production), supporting (habitat), regulating (carbon sequestration to reduce green-house gases), and cultural (recreation, aesthetic value) facets of what ocean ecosystems provide (MEA, 2003, 2005; Halpern et al, 2008). To maintain these EGS, some form of management of the ocean and its component features is required (Christensen et al, 1996; Leslie and McLeod, 2007; Link, 2010). That type of analysis is necessary to determine if there are gaps in their coverage of EGS, and how these mandates are interrelated
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
