FP7 DEVOTES project
Published March 10, 2015 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Evaluating changes in marine communities that provide ecosystem services through comparative assessments of community indicators

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Sea Around Us Project, University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
  • 2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR EME 212, Centre de Recherche Halieutique Méditerranéenne et Tropicale, Avenue Jean Monnet, BP 171, 34203 Sète Cedex, France
  • 3. Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0HT, UK.
  • 4. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Population Ecology Division, PO Box 1006, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2, Canada
  • 5. Marine Research Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
  • 6. Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 3190 Hammond Bay Road, Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N7 Canada
  • 7. Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Av. de Brasília 61449-006 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 8. Centre National des Sciences Halieutiques de Boussoura (CNSHB) sis au 814, Rue MA500, Corniche Sud Boussoura, BP 3738, Conakry Republique de Guinée
  • 9. Scottish Marine Institute, Dunstaffnage, Oban, PA371QA, Scotland
  • 10. Université Européenne de Bretagne, Agrocampus Ouest, UMR985 Ecologie et santé des écosystèmes, 65 route de Saint Brieuc, CS 8421, 35042 Rennes cedex, France
  • 11. Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute, Oban, Argyll, PA371QA, UK
  • 12. AZTI Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, Herrera Kaia, Portualdea z/g E-20110 Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Spain
  • 13. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR ECOSYM 238, Labep-AO (IRDIFAN), BP 1386 Dakar, Senegal
  • 14. Current address: National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
  • 15. School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Box 355020, Seattle, WA 98195-5020, USA
  • 16. Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu, Lootsi 2a, 80012 Pärnu, Estonia
  • 17. Water Resources Unit, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
  • 18. Instituto del Mar del Perú (IMARPE), Esquina Gamarra y Gral. Valle s/n, Apartado 22, Callao, Lima, Peru
  • 19. Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO). Centro Oceanográfico de Cádiz. Puerto Pesquero, Muelle de Levante s/n, P.O. Box 2609. E-11006. Cádiz, Spain
  • 20. IFREMER Fisheries Laboratory, 150 quai Gambetta, 62321 Boulogne-sur-Mer, France
  • 21. Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, Agios Kosmas, 16610, Elliniko, Athens, Greece
  • 22. Institute of Marine Science and The Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics, PB 1870 Nordnes, NO-5817 Bergen, Norway
  • 23. Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA

Description

Abstract

Fisheries provide critical provisioning services, especially given increasing human population. Understanding where marine communities are declining provides an indication of ecosystems of concern and highlights potential conflicts between seafood provisioning from wild fisheries and other ecosystem services. Here we use the nonparametric statistic, Kendall’s tau, to assess trends in biomass of exploited marine species across a range of ecosystems. The proportion of ‘Non-Declining Exploited Species’ (NDES) is compared among ecosystems and to three community level indicators that provide a gauge of the ability of a marine ecosystem to function both in provisioning and as a regulating service: survey-based mean trophic level, proportion of predatory fish, and mean life span. In some ecosystems, NDES corresponds to states and temporal trajectories of the community indicators, indicating deteriorating conditions in both the exploited community and in the overall community. However differences illustrate the necessity of using multiple ecological indicators to reflect the state of the ecosystem. For each ecosystem, we discuss patterns in NDES with respect to the community-level indicators and present results in the context of ecosystem-specific drivers. We conclude that using the NDES requires context-specific supporting information in order to provide guidance within a management framework.

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Kleisner_etal_ECOSER_preprint.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

European Commission
DEVOTES - DEVelopment Of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status 308392