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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Fabrice StephensonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 The Author(s)The sustainability of marine ecosystems demands a focus on ecological improvement, necessitating managers and conservationists to consider a range of actions from those that limit stressors to those that actively restore. Deciding the most appropriate action should be informed by environmental context, which includes assessing information on both degradation and recovery potential. Here, we provide an analysis of how the degree of ecological degradation coupled with the stressor regime can inform environmental management and conservation actions (e.g., stressor reductions, adaptive management, assisted recovery/restoration). With this analysis we design a risk framework combining principles that define ecosystem resilience and recovery times with those that characterize stressor regimes (i.e., the number, type, and impact). The combination of these principles defines where an ecosystem is placed along sliding scales of degradation and recovery and likely response to protective and restorative interventions. It is designed to facilitate place-based conversations regarding the risks of different management actions informed by the temporal dynamics of ecosystem degradation and recovery.
Author(s): Gladstone-Gallagher RV, Hewitt JE, Low JML, Pilditch CA, Stephenson F, Thrush SF, Ellis JI
Publication type: Note
Publication status: Published
Journal: Biological Conservation
Year: 2024
Volume: 292
Print publication date: 01/04/2024
Online publication date: 08/03/2024
Acceptance date: 18/02/2024
ISSN (print): 0006-3207
ISSN (electronic): 1873-2917
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110516
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110516
