Ecosystem management

About: Ecosystem management is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7091 publications have been published within this topic receiving 301319 citations. The topic is also known as: biotic community management & ecosystems management.

Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge

Abstract: Humans are altering the composition of biological communities through a variety of activities that increase rates of species invasions and species extinctions, at all scales, from local to global. These changes in components of the Earth's biodiversity cause concern for ethical and aesthetic reasons, but they also have a strong potential to alter ecosystem properties and the goods and services they provide to humanity. Ecological experiments, observations, and theoretical developments show that ecosystem properties depend greatly on biodiversity in terms of the functional characteristics of organisms present in the ecosystem and the distribution and abundance of those organisms over space and time. Species effects act in concert with the effects of climate, resource availability, and disturbance regimes in influencing ecosystem properties. Human activities can modify all of the above factors; here we focus on modification of these biotic controls. The scientific community has come to a broad consensus on many aspects of the re- lationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, including many points relevant to management of ecosystems. Further progress will require integration of knowledge about biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystem properties, how ecological communities are struc- tured, and the forces driving species extinctions and invasions. To strengthen links to policy and management, we also need to integrate our ecological knowledge with understanding of the social and economic constraints of potential management practices. Understanding this complexity, while taking strong steps to minimize current losses of species, is necessary for responsible management of Earth's ecosystems and the diverse biota they contain.

Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management

Abstract: Indigenous groups offer alternative knowledge and perspectives based on their own locally developed practices of resource use. We surveyed the international literature to focus on the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in monitoring, responding to, and managing ecosystem processes and functions, with special attention to ecological resilience. Case studies revealed that there exists a diversity of local or traditional practices for ecosystem management. These include multiple species management, resource rotation, succession management, landscape patchiness management, and other ways of responding to and managing pulses and ecological surprises. Social mechanisms behind these traditional practices include a number of adaptations for the generation, accumulation, and transmission of knowledge; the use of local institutions to provide leaders/stewards and rules for social regulation; mechanisms for cultural internalization of traditional practices; and the development of appropriate world views and cultural values. Some traditional knowledge and management systems were characterized by the use of local ecological knowledge to interpret and respond to feedbacks from the environment to guide the direction of resource management. These traditional systems had certain similarities to adaptive management with its emphasis on feedback learning, and its treatment of uncertainty and unpredictability intrinsic to all ecosystems.

Regime Shifts, Resilience, and Biodiversity in Ecosystem Management

Abstract: ▪ Abstract We review the evidence of regime shifts in terrestrial and aquatic environments in relation to resilience of complex adaptive ecosystems and the functional roles of biological diversity in this context. The evidence reveals that the likelihood of regime shifts may increase when humans reduce resilience by such actions as removing response diversity, removing whole functional groups of species, or removing whole trophic levels; impacting on ecosystems via emissions of waste and pollutants and climate change; and altering the magnitude, frequency, and duration of disturbance regimes. The combined and often synergistic effects of those pressures can make ecosystems more vulnerable to changes that previously could be absorbed. As a consequence, ecosystems may suddenly shift from desired to less desired states in their capacity to generate ecosystem services. Active adaptive management and governance of resilience will be required to sustain desired ecosystem states and transform degraded ecosystems...

Linking Social and Ecological Systems: Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience

Abstract: 1. Linking social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability Fikret Berkes and Carl Folke Part I. Learning from Locally Devised Systems: 2. People, refugia and resilience Madhav Gadgil, Natabar S. Hemam and B. Mohan Reddy 3. Learning by fishing: practical engagement and environemntal concerns Gisli Palsson 4. Dalecarlia in Central Sweden before 1800: a society of social and ecological resilience Ulf Sporrong Part II. Emergence of Resource Management Adaptations: 5. Learning to design reslilient resource management: indigenous systems in the Canadian subarctic Fikret Berkes 6. Resilience and neotraditional populations: the caicaras of the Atlantic forest and caboclos of the Amazon (Brazil) Alpina Begossi 7. Indigenous African resource management of a tropical rain forest ecosystem: a case study of the Yoruba of Ara, Nigeria D. Michael Warren and Jennifer Pinkson 8. Managing for human and ecological context in the Maine soft shell clam fishery Susan S. Hanna Part III. Success and Failure in Regional Systems: 9. Resilient resource management in Mexico's forest ecosystems: the contribution of property rights Janis B. Alcorn and Victor M. Toledo 10. The resilience of pastoral herding in Sahelian Africa Maryam Niamir-Fuller 11. Reviving the social system-ecosystem links in the Himalayas Narpat S. Jodha 12. Crossing the threshold of ecosystem resilience: the commercial extinction of northern cod A. Christopher Finlayson and Bonnie J. McCay Part IV. Designing New Approaches to Management: 13. Science, sustainability and resource management C. S. Holling, Fikret Berkes and Carl Folke 14. Integrated management of a temperate montane forest ecosystem through holistic forestry: a British Columbia example Evelyn Pinkerton 15. Managing chaotic fisheries James M. Acheson, James A. Wilson and Robert S. Steneck 16. Social mechanisms and institutional learning for resilience and sustainability Carl Folke, Fikret Berkes and Johan Colding Index.