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Initiative Goal
CCEBM Working Meeting
Framework for Science Informing EBM
EBM Research Themes
Science Advisory Committee
Steering Committee
Project Manager
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Initiative Goal
The CCEBM initiative seeks to advance the social and natural science that will be needed to implement ecosystem-based management (EBM) within the US portion of the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME). A shift towards comprehensive EBM requires both the synthesis of existing science and the development of new science.
This endeavor seeks to prepare key pieces of the science, assuming that all necessary political, management and legal structures are in place to achieve desired ecosystem goals. Although in reality, EBM is likely to be achieved through both incremental steps and more overarching changes to current institutional frameworks, the CCEBM Initiative is an opportunity to be forward thinking. Thus, the initiative will advance the science ultimately needed to implement integrated, multi-state, multi-sector ecosystem-based management along the US west coast.
The CCEBM initiative is a joint effort between the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS) and the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is made possible by support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
CCEBM Working Meeting
The centerpiece of the CCEBM initiative was a working meeting of approximately 90 participants (social and biogeophysical scientists from a range of academic, government and private institutions, and key managers and policy makers) held on January 30-31, 2008 at the Seascape Resort in Aptos, CA and the Seymour Center at the University of California Santa Cruz Long Marine Laboratory in Santa Cruz, CA.
The goal of the meeting was to evaluate and advance the science needed for scientifically-informed comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) along the U.S. West Coast. This goal was advanced using the following meeting activities:
- Plenary talks about the emerging science of marine ecosystems (in general and specifically for the California Current region), a framework for applying scientific understanding to an EBM approach (SIESTA, see below), and applications of this framework to real world management and policy challenges along the US west coast.
- Break-out group and plenary discussions to evaluate and apply the SIESTA framework, assess the state of the science needed for EBM along the US west coast, develop research agendas to fill key science gaps, and discuss novel ways to connect emerging science to management and policy.
Anticipated outcomes of the working meeting include:
- A framework for applying science to EBM and examining trade-offs among ecosystem services (SIESTA) is evaluated and further developed.
- There is an improved understanding of and general agreement about the state of the science needed for comprehensive EBM along the US west coast, including:
determination of what we know, determination of the key scientific gaps in knowledge or information, and development of strategies to fill these key gaps.
- Participants see how their own research or work connects to EBM science and application and will capitalize on these new connections.
- New collaborations among scientists working in a diversity of social and natural science disciplines and at a range of institutions are established.
- The scientific underpinnings of EBM are better applied to management and policy along the west coast.
Click here for meeting agenda and plenary presentations.
Click here for a PDF of the meeting binder.
(Note: The document is easiest to navigate through if you view the bookmarks in Adobe. To turn on bookmarks, in Adobe: View -> Navigation tabs -> Bookmarks)
Meeting Summary Reports:
One-page Overview.
Six-page Synthesis.
Synthesis from Breakout Session 1.
Synthesis from Breakout Session 2.
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A New Framework for Science to Inform EBM
The CCEBM Science Advisory Committee is developing a conceptual framework to consider tradeoffs among ecosystem services as a basis for EBM. This framework, known as SIESTA, or Science to Inform Ecosystem Service Trade-off Analysis, is grounded in decision theory and nests the concepts of ecosystem services, cumulative impacts, and indicators into a single approach. SIESTA is a means for organizing what we know scientifically about how the ecosystem (including humans) functions, how social and ecological factors affect the delivery of key ecosystem services, and then visualizing and analyzing the potential trade-offs among these services. SIESTA is intended as a tool for identifying the role of science in EBM and for using science to evaluate alternative management options. This approach allows us to make incremental progress towards EBM given current management, policy and legal constraints. It will also be useful to more comprehensive, large-scale EBM in the future. Furthermore, SIESTA provides a means for demonstrating the added value of using an EBM approach or conversely, the costs of not taking into account important interactions among sectors.
SIESTA has been developed in collaboration with those working on NOAA’s Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) framework, which aims to guide the process of synthesizing and analyzing the scientific information needed for an ecosystem approach to management. SIESTA focuses more exclusively on thinking about trade-offs among ecosystem services. It presents a more explicit methodology for a component of the IEA and is intended to work within the broader IEA framework. Click here to see how SIESTA nests within IEA.
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EBM Research Themes
The CCEBM initiative focuses on four key research themes to evaluate the state of the science need for comprehensive EBM within the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. These themes were addressed in plenary talks at the working meeting and are integrated within the SIESTA framework.
Ecosystem Services
EBM is a means to achieving the goal of maintaining healthy, productive, and resilient ecosystems capable of providing the long-term delivery of the ecosystem services that humans want and need. Scientists recognize four categories of ecosystem services: provisioning services (e.g., seafood), regulating services (e.g., water quality, storm protection), cultural services (e.g., recreational, spiritual, and other nonmaterial benefits), and supporting services (e.g., nutrient cycling, photosynthesis). To achieve comprehensive EBM in the CCLME, we need to determine the key services in this region, assess the spatial distribution of these services, and understand the range of factors affecting their production and delivery. Managing for the delivery of services will require understanding their economic and non-economic value and developing mechanisms, such as SIESTA, for evaluating trade-offs among services under different management options.
Cumulative Impacts
Multiple human activities affect the marine environment in concert, yet current management tends to consider each activity in isolation. More comprehensive, ecosystem-based management will require a means of evaluating how human activities interact and what the cumulative impacts of these activities are on ecosystem functioning over time and space. It will also be important to address what is known about the spatial distribution and scale of activities and their impacts within the CCLME, as well as how the effects of human activities interact with natural disturbance regimes and environmental variation.
Ecosystem Variability and Change
The dynamic and complex nature of ecosystems requires a long-term focus and the understanding that abrupt, unanticipated changes are possible. EBM seeks to be adaptive, and thus it is helpful to assess how management can anticipate and adjust to these changes. What do we need to understand about large-scale, long-term changes, such as climatic change, in order to be able to successfully manage ecosystems into the future? Additionally, managing with a long-term view requires understanding the range of natural variation of the ecosystems in which the management of human activities occurs.
Ecological and Social Indicators
In order to assess progress towards EBM goals (e.g., the health of ecosystems and the status of coastal communities), we must develop biophysical and social indicators and reference points. We need to determine how biophysical and social indicators are linked and characterize and monitor changes to these closely coupled systems.
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Science Advisory Committee
The CCEBM Science Advisory Committee is conducting synthetic research in order to advance the goals of the initiative. The Science Committee will meet next in May 2008.
Co-chairs:
- Dr. David Fluharty - University of Washington
- Dr. Steven Gaines - University of California Santa Barbara
Members:
- Dr. Jack Barth - Oregon State University
- Dr. Francisco Chavez - Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
- Dr. Christopher Costello - University of California Santa Barbara
- Dr. Benjamin Halpern - National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis
- Dr. Phillip Levin - Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
- Dr. Bonnie McCay - Rutgers University
- Dr. Julia Parrish - University of Washington
- Dr. Caroline Pomeroy - California Sea Grant
- Dr. Mary Ruckelshaus - Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
- Dr. Heather Tallis - Natural Capital Project
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Steering Committee
The Steering Committee members have expertise in management, policy, and environmental law and have provided advice on the overall direction of the working meeting and next steps, such that products and outcomes will be useful to policy, management and implementation needs.
Members:
- Margaret Caldwell - Stanford University
- William Douros - National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA
- Dr. Amber Mace - CA Ocean Protection Council; CA Ocean Science Trust
- Paul Michel - Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA
- Dr. Jonathan Phinney - Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
- Kevin Ranker - San Juan County (WA) Council
- Dr. Steven Rumrill - South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, NOAA; University of Oregon
- Louise Solliday - Oregon Department of State Lands
- Michael Valentine - Resources Law Group
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Project Manager
Sarah Lester, Ph.D.
Project Manager, CCEBM Initiative
Long Marine Laboratory
100 Shaffer Road
University of California
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Email: slester  ucsc.edu
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