Marine Social-ecological Systems Research Articles

Climate change alters social-ecological trade-offs in achieving ocean futures' targets.

The effects of climate change on marine ecosystems are causing cascading impacts on livelihood, food security, and culture through fisheries. Such impacts interact and exacerbate the effects of overfishing on marine social-ecological systems, complicating the rebuilding of ecosystems to achieve desirable and sustainable ocean futures. Developing effective pathways for ecosystem rebuilding requires consideration of the co-benefits and trade-offs between ecological and social dimensions and between fishing sectors. However, the effects of intensifying climate change on such co-benefits or trade-offs are yet to be well understood, particularly in regions where ecosystem rebuilding is urgently needed. We applied a numerical optimization routine to define the scope for improvement toward the Pareto-frontier for ecological robustness and economic benefits of the northern South China Sea (NSCS) and the East China Sea (ECS) ecosystems. These two ecosystems were used to represent over-exploited low- and mid-latitude systems, respectively, and the optimization aimed to improve their status through fisheries management. We find that the ECS ecosystem has the possibility of increasing the economic benefits generated by the fisheries it supports under climate change by 2050 while increasing the uncertainty of achieving biodiversity objectives. Nevertheless, climate change is projected to reduce the scope to restore ecosystem structures and the potential economic benefits in the NSCS ecosystem. This study highlights the contrasting impacts of climate change on the co-benefits/trade-offs in ecosystem rebuilding and the benefits obtainable by different fishing sectors even in neighboring ecosystems. We conclude that consideration at the nexus of climate-biodiversity-fisheries is a key to developing effective ecosystem rebuilding plan.

Practitioner insights on challenges and options for advancing blue Nature-based Solutions

The dual environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss pose severe threats to human health and well-being. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are promoted as an important component of the response to simultaneously address both crises. However, their uptake in policy and planning has been impeded by evidence gaps and barriers to implementation, particularly in marine and coastal systems. Here, we describe practitioner perspectives on perceived challenges to implementing NbS in marine and coastal ecosystems (blue NbS) and make recommendations to overcome the most significant. These consensus perspectives were obtained through an exploratory, qualitative workshop, attended by environmental policy and practice stakeholders representing government and non-profit organisations from across Northern Europe, that identified and prioritised perceived challenges for in-depth discussion. Key priority challenges were: (1) policy driver and appropriate legislation to support NbS; (2) funding mechanisms; and (3) stakeholder awareness, values, and engagement. Discussions highlighted that successful implementation will require addressing these through better collaboration, communication, longer-term funding of projects, and better integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches to management. The strength, and at the same time difficulty, of NbS is that they draw together diverse actors and approaches, but improved standards are needed for application if they are to realise their potential. Ultimately, reducing uncertainty in the definition and concept of NbS amongst stakeholders is needed to accelerate their deployment in complex marine social-ecological systems.

Moving beyond fish: working towards integrating human dimensions into sustainable seafood guides from South African perspectives

Traditionally, seafood assessments and subsequent ratings have guided choice and responsible sourcing of sustainable seafood based primarily on environmental concerns, with limited to no consideration to multi-faceted human dimensions that form an integral part of these complex social-ecological systems. For wild-capture marine fisheries around the world, and particularly in developing countries, human dimensions remain underrepresented in sustainability ratings, where the focus has traditionally been on larger, data-rich commercial fishery components that report predominantly on ecological and management considerations. Yet, addressing the diverse and complex nature of marine social-ecological systems remains critical to achieve global sustainable seafood systems that balance ecological and societal needs to benefit both nature and people. This paper champions the integration of human elements into seafood sustainability guides, building on work reviewing how best to integrate human dimensions into traditional seafood assessments under the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – drawing on examples from South Africa. While the paper does not prescribe a blueprint for implementation, this review highlights challenges and opportunities to include human rights violations and small-scale fisheries in existing sustainable seafood guides from a South African perspective. There is a need for sustainability considerations to move beyond fish to better represent how these social-ecological systems feed into oceanic cultural norms and nutrition. This translates to shifting from an ecological focus to include human dimensions to better represent complex marine social-ecological systems and drive equitable change within local and global seafood industries.

Assessing spatiotemporal change in coral reef social-ecological systems.

Coral reef resilience is eroding at multiple spatial scales globally, with broad implications for coastal communities, and is thus a critical challenge for managing marine social-ecological systems (SESs). Many researchers believe that external stressors will cause key coral reefs to die by the end of the 21st century, virtually eliminating essential ecological and societal benefits. Here, we propose the use of resilience-based approaches to understand the dynamics of coral reef SESs and subsequent drivers of coral reef decline. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of these methods, not only for tracking environmental change, but also for providing warning in advance of transitions, possibly allowing time for management interventions. The flexibility and utility of these methods make them ideal for assessing complex systems; however, they have not been used to study aquatic ecosystem dynamics at the global scale. Here, we evaluate these methods for examining spatiotemporal change in coral reef SESs across the global seascape and assess the subsequent impacts on coral reef resilience. We found that while univariate indicators failed to provide clear signals, multivariate resilience-based approaches effectively captured coral reef SES dynamics, unveiling distinctive patterns of variation throughout the global coral reef seascape. Additionally, our findings highlight global spatiotemporal variation, indicating patterns of degraded resilience. This degradation was reflected regionally, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean SESs. These results underscore the utility of resilience-based approaches in assessing environmental change in SESs, detecting spatiotemporal variation at the global and regional scales, and facilitating more effective monitoring and management of coral reef SESs.

Analysing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Fishing Closures Due to Toxic Algal Blooms: Application of the Vulnerability Framework to the Case of the Scallop Fishery in the Eastern English Channel

Harmful and toxic algal blooms (HABs) are an increasing concern for marine social-ecological systems. These unpredictable events threaten human health and may affect the viability of economic activities such as shellfish fisheries due to harvesting bans. Monitoring and early warning systems are developed to support management decisions to mitigate and reduce impacts. Nevertheless, HAB alert systems currently only focus on the environmental dimensions to identify the risk of bloom occurrences. Other socioeconomic dimensions associated with HABs are generally not taken into account to support decision making. Integrating information on the economic risk of HABs and on adaptive strategies of impacted communities would provide essential insights for decision makers. This study presents an analysis of how the potential impacts of HAB-related restrictions on economic activities can be effectively assessed to support decision making. A vulnerability-based approach is developed and applied to the case study of the French scallop fishery in the eastern English Channel. The results showed clear differences in vulnerability patterns between the studied fishing fleets despite their similar exposure. This is associated with the heterogeneity in individual characteristics in terms of sensitivity level and adaptive strategies. This research highlights the important effect of social factors such as adaptation in the magnitude of HAB impacts and supports the relevance of the vulnerability approach in the assessment of socioeconomic impacts of such events. Combining environmental and socioeconomic factors through a composite index can bridge the existing gaps in addressing and mitigating HAB impacts.

Multiple stakeholders’ perspectives of marine social ecological systems, a case study on the Barents Sea

The Barents Sea ecosystem components and services are under pressure from climate change and other anthropogenic impacts. Following an Ecosystem-based management approach, multiple simultaneous pressures are addressed by using integrative strategies, but regular prioritization of key issues is needed. Identification of such priorities is typically done in a ‘scoping’ phase, where the characterization of the social-ecological system is defined and discussed. We performed a scoping exercise using an open and flexible multi-stakeholder approach to build conceptual models of the Barents Sea social-ecological system. After standardizing vocabulary, a complex hierarchical model structure containing 155 elements was condensed to a simpler model structure containing a maximum of 36 elements. To capture a common understanding across stakeholder groups, inputs from the individual group models were compiled into a collective model. Stakeholders' representation of the Barents Sea social-ecological system is complex and often group specific, emphasizing the need to include social scientific methods to ensure the identification and inclusion of key stakeholders in the process. Any summary or simplification of the stakeholders' representation neglects important information. Some commonalities are highlighted in the collective model, and additional information from the hierarchical model is provided by multicriteria analysis. The collective conceptual stakeholder model provides input to an integrated overview and strengthens prioritization in Ecosystem-based management by supporting the development of qualitative network models. Such models allow for exploration of perturbations and can inform cross-sectoral management trade-offs and priorities.

Implementation of integrated ecosystem assessments in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea—conceptualizations, practice, and progress

Abstract With increasing activities of multiple sectors in marine spaces, management of marine social–ecological systems requires more holistic approaches. Adopting such an approach, however, presents difficult institutional and disciplinary challenges. Here, we use the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) as a case study on the implementation of ecosystem-based management (EBM) and integrated ecosystem assessments (IEAs). ICES includes EBM and IEAs in its Science Priorities and established IEA Working Groups (WGs) to carry out regional IEAs. But to what degree does this IEA WG work follow best practices? We examine policy documents, academic literature, and interview data from chairs of all IEA WGs. Results indicate mixed success. All groups acknowledge the holistic goals of IEA, and many use the IEA model as laid out by Levin et al. However, we found a significant variation in the degree to which the full model is applied. We identified two primary areas for improvement: (1) integration of social and economic issues and (2) involvement of stakeholders. We offer examples of how WGs have been making progress towards full IEAs, discuss how ICES can further support this transition, and suggest lessons with respect to the adoption of EBM and IEAs more broadly.

Identifying social thresholds and measuring social achievement in social-ecological systems: A cross-regional comparison of fisheries in the United States

In marine social-ecological systems (SESs), environmental and human-induced stressors can push ecosystems from a high-functioning state into a new, often undesirable state (i.e., regime shift) with limited delivery of ecological goods and services (e.g., high to low fisheries production). While ecological regime shifts are well studied, social regime shifts within SESs are underexplored. Socioeconomic indicators were used to identify thresholds and trends in fisheries and coastal employment for six marine SESs around the U.S. These study sites represent coastal regions delineated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for which periodic monitoring and data collection occur. We first used Generalized Additive Modeling to identify periods of change, then linked them to potential regional and national drivers. Social outcomes were ranked using composite social and environmental indices for each region, constructed using Data Envelopment Analysis. Technological innovation and national regulatory changes (e.g., Magnuson Stevens Act) co-occurred with detected nationwide shifts in fisheries productivity, while engagement in specific fisheries determined local regional shifts. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of the complementary threshold analysis and outcome ranking methods in identifying regimes and assessing performance. Together, they provide management information and insight into possibilities for preventing unfavorable shifts and to assess society’s ability to adapt to those shifts.

Integrating human dimensions in decadal-scale prediction for marine social–ecological systems: lighting the grey zone

AbstractThe dynamics of marine systems at decadal scales are notoriously hard to predict—hence references to this timescale as the “grey zone” for ocean prediction. Nevertheless, decadal-scale prediction is a rapidly developing field with an increasing number of applications to help guide ocean stewardship and sustainable use of marine environments. Such predictions can provide industry and managers with information more suited to support planning and management over strategic timeframes, as compared to seasonal forecasts or long-term (century-scale) predictions. The most significant advances in capability for decadal-scale prediction over recent years have been for ocean physics and biogeochemistry, with some notable advances in ecological prediction skill. In this paper, we argue that the process of “lighting the grey zone” by providing improved predictions at decadal scales should also focus on including human dimensions in prediction systems to better meet the needs and priorities of end users. Our paper reviews information needs for decision-making at decadal scales and assesses current capabilities for meeting these needs. We identify key gaps in current capabilities, including the particular challenge of integrating human elements into decadal prediction systems. We then suggest approaches for overcoming these challenges and gaps, highlighting the important role of co-production of tools and scenarios, to build trust and ensure uptake with end users of decadal prediction systems. We also highlight opportunities for combining narratives and quantitative predictions to better incorporate the human dimension in future efforts to light the grey zone of decadal-scale prediction.

Artificial Reefs in Florida 101: Effects on Fisheries--Part 4 of an Artificial Reef series

Increasingly, coastal managers are placing artificial reefs in marine waters. These long-lasting habitat alterations have measurable effects on fish, fishers, divers, fisheries, and marine social ecological systems. Understanding how artificial reefs function is necessary to make good decisions about future artificial reefs. Scientific research on many aspects of artificial reefs is not always summarized and explained. In response to this need, we designed a 4-part series called Artificial Reefs 101. This publication, part 4 of the Artificial Reefs series, explores a complicated but fascinating aspect of artificial reefs—should we expect them to lead to better fishing in the long run? Many people think artificial reefs should be a “win-win” since both fish and fishers seem to like them. But it is increasingly apparent that they are likely to increase fishing mortality more than they increase fish populations. So they could lead to more restrictive regulations.

Artificial Reefs in Florida 101: Effects on Fishers (and Divers))—Part 3 of an Artificial Reef Series

Increasingly, coastal managers are placing artificial reefs in marine waters. These long-lasting habitat alterations have measurable effects on fish, fishers, divers, fisheries, and marine social ecological systems. Understanding how artificial reefs function is necessary to make good decisions about future artificial reefs. Scientific research on many aspects of artificial reefs is not always summarized and explained. In response to this need, we designed a 4-part series called Artificial Reefs 101. This publication, part 3 of the Artificial Reefs series, explains how artificial reefs affect fishers and divers. It will help the interested public understand more about the ecological effects of artificial reefs and provide detailed information to stakeholders including management agencies, local governments, artificial reef manufacturers, and Extension agents, to allow for better-informed decisions about building and managing artificial reefs.

German fishery’s adaptation to historic events, Western Baltic Sea, 1890–1950

Marine social-ecological systems (SES) have been providing important cultural, social, and economic services for many centuries. They are, however, increasingly threatened by fast changing environmental, ecological, and socio-economic conditions. As historical marine research is increasingly developing into a multidisciplinary endeavour, it offers outstanding points of departure to analyse historic events and the response and adaptation of the respective SES. Such knowledge helps to inform today’s fisheries management and promotes successful management of changing ecosystems. Here, we compile and analyse historical data (1890–1950) of the German Western Baltic Sea fishery SES. This period is characterised by a series of strong impacts due to political, technological, economic, and ecological changes, such as two world wars, a global economic crisis, and other economic or ecological disasters. In our opinion, potential negative effects of those events were in the past attenuated by the system’s high capacity to adapt. However, most of the fishers´ historic options on how to respond and adapt have recently become no longer available. New threats (e.g. climate change) have emerged instead. We conclude that today’s fisheries management needs to integrate options of adaptation by exhausting all present or future opportunities. Adaptive fisheries management should not only focus on environmental change but need to include socio-economic change as well.

Tracking changes in social-ecological systems along environmental disturbances with the ocean health index

The well-being of coastal communities is intimately tied to a healthy ocean, but coastal social-ecological systems are among the most vulnerable to global change. Improving the resilience of coastal communities requires an understanding of how local social-ecological systems respond to shocks to better inform decision-making and adapt local management interventions. However, assessments of social-ecological changes throughout a disturbance regime are scarce at the local level, although critical for efficient natural resource management and sustainable use of ocean ecosystem services. Here, we apply the Ocean Health Index (OHI) to assess the status of the marine social-ecological system of a tropical island (Moorea, French Polynesia), and track changes of the system before, during and after a disturbance regime. Our results show that while there are signs of social-ecological recovery, coastal protection was most affected along the disturbance, and that there is room for improvement toward biodiversity conservation. In addition, our study highlights some context-specific challenges associated with local OHI assessments, particularly those driven by limited fisheries data and appropriate reference point selection for coastal protection. Our results demonstrate the value of localized, regular OHI assessments through time to track changes in marine social-ecological systems, while uncovering important data gaps, to inform management at appropriate scales for decision-making.

Disentangling Obstacles to Knowledge Co-Production for Early-Career Researchers in the Marine Sciences

Knowledge co-production involving researchers and non-academic actors is becoming increasingly important for tackling sustainability issues. Coastal and marine social-ecological systems are one example where knowledge co-production is important, yet also particularly challenging due to their unique characteristics. Early-Career Researchers (ECRs) often face specific obstacles when engaging in the process of knowledge co-production. In this perspective paper, we shed light on the particular characteristics of knowledge co-production in marine social-ecological systems and the obstacles ECRs in the marine sciences face. Based on these obstacles, we discuss actions that can be taken at various organizational levels (institutional, community, supervisor, and individual) in order to leverage change towards a more inclusive environment for ECRs engaging in knowledge co-production. We conclude that both bottom-up (individual to institutions) and top-down (institutions to individual) actions are required. However, we emphasize the responsibilities of institutions to create conditions in which the needs of ECRs are met. This will be necessary to adequately support ECRs engaging in knowledge co-production and thus contribute to tackling sustainability challenges in coastal and marine social-ecological systems.

Artificial Reefs in Florida 101 – effects on fish: Part 2 of an Artificial Reef series

Increasingly, coastal managers are placing artificial reefs in marine waters. These long-lasting habitat alterations have measurable effects on fish, fishers, divers, fisheries, and marine social ecological systems. Understanding how artificial reefs function is necessary to make good decisions about future artificial reefs. Scientific research on many aspects of artificial reefs is not always summarized and explained. In response to this need, we designed a 4-part series called Artificial Reefs 101. This publication, part 2 of the Artificial Reefs series, explains how artificial reefs affect fish populations. It will help the interested public understand more about the ecological effects of artificial reefs and provide detailed information to stakeholders including management agencies, local governments, artificial reef manufacturers, and Extension agents, to allow for better-informed decisions about building and managing artificial reefs.

Capital assets underpinning economic well-being – The example of whale ecosystem services in Arctic coastal communities

Arctic coastal communities are a part of co-evolving marine social-ecological systems (SES), which support livelihoods, provide sustenance and underpin cultural identity. Whale ecosystem services (ES) represent a useful lens for gaining greater understanding of the linkages between marine ecosystems and human well-being, in the Arctic and beyond. The increasingly popular well-being economy paradigm recognises the contribution of different capital assets to human well-being and how these underpin the pursuit of sustainability domains: environmental, social and economic. This study explores the ways in which capital assets (natural, social, human, and financial and physical) provide essential natural and non-natural inputs into the delivery of whale ES in Arctic coastal communities. Through the deployment of a well-being economy framework linking capital assets to well-being goals and domains, examples are reported from three Arctic coastal communities in Iceland, Norway and Greenland. These case studies are based on data collected using multiple qualitative research methods: stakeholder mapping, participant and non-participant observations, literature reviews, and 54 semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders. The findings affirm that non-natural capital assets interact with natural capital in order to supply various whale ES, which include but are not limited to provisioned food products, recreational tourism, education, and artistic expressions. These results are significant since they provide a basis for understanding when, where and how decision-makers should intervene in whale ES delivery to maximise well-being and sustainability.

Artificial Reefs in Florida 101 – why are they built? Part 1 of an Artificial Reef series

Increasingly, coastal managers are placing artificial reefs in marine waters. These long-lasting habitat alterations have measurable effects on fish, fishers, divers, fisheries, and marine social ecological systems. Understanding how artificial reefs function is necessary to make good decisions about future artificial reefs. Scientific research on many aspects of artificial reefs is not always summarized and explained. In response to this need, we designed a 4-part series called Artificial Reefs 101. This publication, Part 1 of the Artificial Reefs 101 series, explains why artificial reefs are built. It defines what artificial reefs are and explains why people build and deploy artificial reefs. It should help the interested public understand how artificial reefs affect marine resources, and provide a background and baseline of information for decision-makers such as local officials, management agency personnel, and Extension agents.

Tracking and forecasting community responses to climate perturbations in the California Current Ecosystem

Ocean ecosystems are vulnerable to climate-driven perturbations, which are increasing in frequency and can have profound effects on marine social-ecological systems. Thus, there is an urgency to develop tools that can detect the response of ecosystem components to these perturbations as early as possible. We used Bayesian Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA) to develop a community state indicator for the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) to track the system’s response to climate perturbations, and to forecast future changes in community state. Our key objectives were to (1) summarize environmental and biological variability in the southern and central regions of the CCE during a recent and unprecedented marine heatwave in the northeast Pacific Ocean (2014–2016) and compare these patterns to past variability, (2) examine whether there is evidence of a shift in the community to a new state in response to the heatwave, (3) identify relationships between community variability and climate variables; and (4) test our ability to create one-year ahead forecasts of individual species responses and the broader community response based on ocean conditions. Our analysis detected a clear community response to the marine heatwave, although it did not exceed normal variability over the past six decades (1951–2017), and we did not find evidence of a shift to a new community state. We found that nitrate flux through the base of the mixed layer exhibited the strongest relationship with species and community-level responses. Furthermore, we demonstrated skill in creating forecasts of species responses and community state based on estimates of nitrate flux. Our indicator and forecasts of community state show promise as tools for informing ecosystem-based and climate-ready fisheries management in the CCE. Our modeling framework is also widely applicable to other ecosystems where scientists and managers are faced with the challenge of managing and protecting living marine resources in a rapidly changing climate.

Quantifying socio‐economic novelty in fisheries social‐ecological systems

AbstractSocio‐economic development has shaped fisheries social‐ecological systems (SES) worldwide across different scales. No work has yet undertaken how this development led to novel, not experienced before, systems structure in marine SES. Here, we quantify socio‐economic novelty as the degree of dissimilarity relative to a specific spatiotemporal baseline in the Baltic Sea fisheries SES between 1975 and 2015. We used catch by "gears," catch by "commercial groups" and trade ("import" and "export") as respective indicators of novelty at national, regional and international governance levels. We found that socio‐economic novelty increased over time nonlinearly in relation to the 1975–1979 baseline. The contribution to total novelty shifted from the dominance of “gears” and “commercial groups” in the late 1990s and early 2000s to “import” and “export” after the mid‐2000s, i.e. from national and regional levels to the international level. The fastest increase in novelty occurred with the trade dominance shift, primarily related to monetary value rather than quantity. Spatially, novelty emerged with a large difference across countries, and a major contribution by Sweden, Denmark and Poland. We identified the influence of different management interventions and governance actions on the emergence of novelty in the Baltic SES. The decreasing socio‐economic novelty at national and regional levels could indicate reduced variability due to management intervention in recent years which might decrease SES resilience to shocks. Calculating socio‐economic novelty and studying its drivers at different scales could provide a better understanding of SES complexity and inform urgently needed adaptation and transformation towards sustainable future pathways.

Scenario-Based Approaches to Change Management in Fisheries Can Address Challenges With Scale and Support the Implementation of an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management

The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) management, recognising complexity, aims for the holistic, sustainable management of fisheries to promote healthy marine ecosystems and sustainable livelihoods. Effective implementation of the EAF has been problematic as we continue to grapple with issues of scale, knowledge integration and meaningful stakeholder engagement. Scenario-planning approaches in marine social ecological systems (SES) can address some of these challenges. Using systems-thinking, scenario-planning presents the opportunity to address challenges simultaneously at different scales of interaction by addressing the needs at smaller and larger decision-making scales. We here present a prototype scenario-based approach in which we used structured decision-making tools (SDMTs) in an iterative and interactive research process with marginalised stakeholders in a small-scale fishery in South Africa’s southern Cape. Using this approach presented an opportunity for fishers to consider pathways for future responses to change while enhancing personal and local adaptive capacity. At the same time, these marginalised fishers were provided with an important opportunity to freely air their views while engaging with tools new to them. The process did not only benefit fishers, but also provided valuable insights into how they view and experience their marine SES. The use of these tools has provided a means to integrate different knowledge streams, identifying ways in which challenges presented by scale in SES is better addressed. As a next step in the prototype development, expansion to more diverse stakeholders in the biogeographical region relevant for this fishery is recommended. We highlight how this approach can contribute to multi-level governance. When considering EAF implementation, we highlight how engaging marginalised stakeholders need not mean losing the reproducible, transparent processes required for modern management. Lastly, we discuss how multi-scalar flow of information could improve the implementation of an EAF in a developing society, such as that of South Africa.