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A new conservation continuum: connecting land and seaorganized by Norm Sloan (Marine Section, SCB) and Ken Vance-Borland (Freshwater Working Group, SCB)THE COASTAL REALM—A NECESSARY ECOSYSTEM CONTEXT FOR INTEGRATED COASTAL-MARINE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT G. CARLETON RAY, University of Virginia, Charlottsville, VA, USA, cr@virginia.edu The Coastal Realm is Earth’s most heterogeneous, complex, biodiverse, and dynamic global-scale ecosystem and, because of these factors, also hosts the greatest diversity of complex conservation issues. Intense land-ocean-atmosphere interactions and material exchanges (e.g., 50% of global denitrification, 50% of carbonate deposition, 80% of global organic matter burial, 90% of sedimentary demineralization, 75-90% of the global sink of suspended river load and associated elements and pollutants) combine to produce emergent ecosystem properties that support half of all fish and marine mammal species, 90% of fisheries, and 60% of the human population. This Realm is equivalent in scope to the “coastal zone,” but deserves “realm” status as a distinctive global ecosystem in its own right. It may be visualized as a million-kilometer-long ribbon of coastal sedimentary plains, watersheds, and oceanic shelves surrounding continents and island systems. Globally, humans depend disproportionately on Coastal-Realm resources and services. Nevertheless, human activities also create critical conservation challenges that can be met only within the context of Coastal-Realm attributes, emergent properties, and dynamics. New integrative constructs derived from terrestrial, watershed-estuarine, and coastal-ocean science and management are required in contrast to present fragmentary and disciplinary conservation and management regimes. PRESERVING LAND-SEA LINKAGES IN RESERVE SELECTION MODELS DAVID STOMS, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, stoms@bren.ucsb.edu Important land-sea interactions are ignored when selecting terrestrial and marine reserves with existing models. Conservation areas may fail to achieve their objectives as a result. The conceptual model underlying existing reserve selection models does not account for spatial interactions between ecosystems. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the ideas of an interdisciplinary group at the U.S. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) that envisioned a more integrated approach. Using principles from ecology and conservation science, we reframed the conceptual model to address interactions. We describe how one could extend land conservation analyses to account for effects on marine biodiversity, which seems tractable and directly relevant to agencies and conservancies engaged in protecting coastal lands. Conversely, we also describe an approach for selecting marine reserves that accounts for variable inputs from terrestrial ecosystems. This linked planning problem can be solved with existing multicriteria analysis and multi-objective programming methods without waiting for the development of a new generation of reserve selection algorithms. ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACHES TO MANAGING THE LAND-SEA INTERFACE DANIEL DORFMAN, Zach Ferdana, and Mike Beck, The Nature Conservancy, Santa Cruz, CA, USA (DD, MB), The Nature Conservancy, Seattle, WA, USA (ZF), ddorfman@tnc.org Species and natural communities occurring in marine, terrestrial, and freshwater environments have important functional inter-relationships. They are interconnected through migrations of individuals as well as through the transport of nutrients and pollutants. Conservation planning and management scenarios have emerged that enable us to efficiently and effectively plan for the conservation of species and ecosystems in individual environments, but few paradigms have emerged which accommodate the linkages between these environments. A variety of new approaches to regional resources management have enabled us to develop methods that can be used to environmentally integrate planning for biodiversity conservation. We provide examples from applied coastal resource management efforts that test the use of these integration methods. Our results indicate that planning scenarios that are integrated across environments are ecologically more accurate as well as more efficient from management perspectives. Ultimately our aim is to improve the ecological accuracy and economic efficiency of conservation and management efforts by accounting for the interconnectedness between environments. ANTHROPOGENIC MANGROVE REMOVAL: RESULTING BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC CHANGES TO COASTAL AND MARINE SYSTEMS ELISE GRANEK, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, graneke@science.oregonstate.edu Mangrove forests are important tropical coastal habitats existing at the interface between land and sea. Mangroves serve as nursery grounds for juvenile reef fish and invertebrates, buffer the coastline from wave action, and protect seagrass beds and coral reefs from terrestrial runoff and sedimentation. Mangrove forests have declined by over 50% worldwide, but little is known about the direct impacts of their removal on other taxa. This study examines the effects of Rhizophora mangle removal on larval, zooplankton, and algal communities along Panama’s Caribbean coast. Algae were sampled by deploying transect lines as algal growth substrate; zooplankton and larvae were sampled using light traps and plankton tows. Zooplankton communities had greater diversity in intact mangrove areas, whereas algal growth was significantly higher at mangrove-removed sites. Factors influencing variability in algal biomass and zooplankton community structure include changes in light intensity, sedimentation rates, temperature, and herbivory. Mangrove removal may reduce habitat quality for zooplankton (important reef fish food items) and invertebrate reef larvae. However, due to increased light and decreased sedimentation, mangrove-removed areas provide optimal habitat for algal species. Reduced zooplankton diversity and increased macroalgal growth may amplify the negative impacts of mangrove removal on coastal integrity and coral reef survival. BASEMAPS FOR SUPPORTING MANAGEMENT AND SCIENCE IN THE COASTAL ZONE: RECONCILING TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS WITH NAUTICAL CHARTS PATRICK BARTIER, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, Parks Canada Agency, Queen Charlotte, BC, Canada, pat.bartier@pc.gc.ca The absence of standardized base map information spanning the terrestrial-marine interface poses a serious challenge to coastal conservation. Managers and scientists currently must choose between mutually-exclusive and incompatible topographic maps and nautical charts, or create base maps specific to local applications. Over time, individual approaches lead to redundancy of effort, and incompatible studies and applications. Creating standardized base maps is possible, but technically and administratively challenging. Using Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), Canada as a case study, we examine problems and solutions in creating a continuous standardized base map that straddles the land-sea interface towards supporting future integrated terrestrial and marine conservation applications. Although the details are specific to this study, the problems are familiar to others working in coastal conservation. Further, this problem is receiving increasing attention as land use management applications increasingly consider coastal and marine values. Indeed, the United States and the United Kingdom have recently recognized the need for nation-wide approaches to this problem. A LINK BETWEEN THE LAND AND SEA: UNDERSTANDING SMALL ESTUARIES IN GWAII HAANAS NATIONAL PARK RESERVE OF CANADA MARLOW PELLATT, Parks Canada, Western and Northern Service Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, marlow.pellatt@pc.gc.ca Gwaii Hannas National Park Reserve contains several small estuaries typical of fjord and inlet environments along the pacific coast of Canada. These estuaries provide critical habitat and level environments enveloped by mountainous terrain. They are an essential link among terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. The role of estuaries in the life cycle of pacific salmon and as a portal for the transport of marine derived nutrients (MDNs) into terrestrial environments has been documented throughout the Pacific Northwest. The transport of MDNs into terrestrial systems should not be underestimated and preliminary research into riparian systems in Gwaii Haanas demonstrate the extent in which salmon play a role in coastal ecosystems. This presentation will discuss ongoing work regarding GPS mapping of intertidal vegetation zones in east, west, and south coast estuaries in Gwaii Haanas as well as preliminary stable isotope analysis (15N) of riparian vegetation at a selected location. The utility of mapping as a conservation tool and 15N as an indicator of MDNs will be discussed. Increased understanding of “land-sea” linkages in coastal systems serves to get marine, terrestrial, and aquatic scientists thinking about interplay of ecosystems and the need to work together to effectively conserve larger ecosystem processes. FRESHWATER AND MARINE CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO OREGON COASTAL COHO SALMON (ONCORHYNCHUS KISUTCH): CLIMATE LINKAGES PETER LAWSON, NOAA Fisheries Service, Newport, OR, USA, peter.w.lawson@noaa.gov Effects of climate on ocean conditions in the California Current system are becoming well understood. Interannual variability of Oregon coastal coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) survival is related to winter sea surface temperature, spring transition, and upwelling. However, coho salmon spend half their life-cycle in freshwater. Interannual variability of coho smolt production is related to air temperature, timing of winter storms, and stream flow in the second freshwater winter and spring. Freshwater and marine environmental factors are largely concurrent and correlated; good marine survival is likely to occur in the same years as good freshwater smolt production. In addition to the interannual and decadal scale variation attributable to these factors, climate affects freshwater production through a second, unrelated mechanism; changes in the freshwater ecosystem through landscape processes of fire, mass wasting (landslides), and forest growth. Early modeling efforts indicate that these processes alone can result in a two-fold variation in smolt production with a 100 year cycle. There is likely to be a similar-scale effect in ocean ecosystems, with long-lived rockfish and pelagic predators responding on decadal to centennial time frames. Such marine ecosystem changes may alter food availability and predation rates for coho salmon. STATUS, CHALLENGES, AND PROSPECTS FOR CONSERVATION ACROSS THE LAND-SEA CONTINUUM NORM SLOAN, Ken Vance-Borland, and Carleton Ray, Parks Canada, Queen Charlotte, BC, Canada (NS), Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA (KV), Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottsville, VA, USA (CR), norm.sloan@pc.gc.ca The land-to-sea continuum is an emerging frontier in global conservation biology. A key challenge is to integrate conservation strategies across transitional coastal biomes as well as human technical and administrative cultures. This means, for example, extending land conservation analyses to account for effects on marine biodiversity, or considering variable inputs from terrestrial ecosystems when selecting marine reserves. Findings from session papers include that reduced zooplankton diversity and increased macroalgal growth may amplify the negative impacts of mangrove removal on coastal integrity and coral reef survival. For migrating coho salmon, freshwater and marine environmental factors are largely concurrent and correlated; good marine survival is likely to occur in the same years as good freshwater smolt production. Conservation planning methods are being developed to include the biological and functional linkages between terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems. The absence of standardized base map information restricts the ability to span the terrestrial-marine interface and poses a serious challenge to coastal conservation. Integrating terrestrial, watershed-estuarine, and coastal-ocean science and management is required to overcome currently fragmented conservation and management regimes. | |||||||||||||||||
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