Baselines for Environmental Restoration: Species, Habitats, & - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Ecosystems Species Habitats Baselines for Environmental Restoration: Species, Habitats, & Ecosystems Steven Murawski March 7, 2012 University of South Florida smurawski@usf.edu College of Marine Science 1 Overview Role(s) of

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Steven Murawski

University of South Florida College of Marine Science

March 7, 2012

Baselines for Environmental Restoration: Species, Habitats, & Ecosystems

Species Habitats Ecosystems

smurawski@usf.edu

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Role(s) of environmental baselines in

restoration planning for species, habitats and ecosystems

Examples of the use of baselines in specific

restoration and recovery programs

Considerations in the choice and use of

environmental baselines

Filling the baseline “ Gap” : Importance of

broad scale observing & research

Overview

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Provide the scale against which to assess

inj ury from specific natural or anthropogenic shocks

Can (under certain circumstances) aid in

setting obj ective, achievable goals for environmental restoration (e.g., end points)

In combination with robust monitoring

programs, baselines inform the choices of goals and traj ectories to achieving societal aims of restoration

Importance of Environmental Baselines

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Mangrove Losses in Florida

Percent Loss 20 40 60 80 100

Biscayne Bay Tampa Bay All Florida

Mangrove ecosystems are a major nursery area for a wide array of biota and a carbon sink Much of west Florida’s mangroves have been Lost, but can be restored using salt marsh restoration first as “nurseries”

Chronic Resource Injury

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Long-term wetlands loss Northern Gulf of Mexico Related to: Sediment starvation Channelization (oil & gas) Subsidence SLR

Boesch et al.

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Broad-scale context: Overlap of fish larvae and the BP spill

Murawski/USF

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Dissolved oxygen profiles for 419 validated profiles as compared to mean and standard deviation for 1o ocean climatology for area around the wellhead. Vertical red dashed line indicates the DO2 level for hypoxia (1.4 mL/L) source: World Ocean Atlas (NOAA)

Hypoxic Level

Acute & Local Resource Injury Such as deep DO in the Gulf of Mexico

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hifting Baselines & the role of Complexity

electing Informative Baselines under environmental variation (un-achievable or set too low?

Timelines of degradation & recovery
Role of Adaptive Management Approaches

Considerations in the Use of Baselines

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Carlos Duarte, et al. 2009. Return to Neverland: Shifting Baselines Affect Eutrophication Restoration Targets. Estuaries and Coasts DOI 10.1007/s12237-008-9111-2

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When do we declare victory? California Sea Lion

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Year

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Landings (mt meats)

5000 10000 15000 20000

Survey biomass (g/tow meats)

1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

Sea Scallops, U.S. Georges Bank

Sometimes nominal baselines shoot too low….. Roles for models

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A Typical Stock Undergoing collapse…..and recovery Moratorium

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Developing Indicators and Restoration Actions is an Exercise in Adaptive Management

Baselines

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Annual Reprt 2007-2008

Skin Ulcers on Red Snapper ^ Conger eel tilefish Southern hake

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West Florida Shelf Northern Gulf

Can we substitute space for time?

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Northern Gulf West Florida Shelf

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Importance of Filling the Baseline “Gap”

Many regions and issues have little to no

baseline monitoring

For example, wrt Deepwater Horizon,

confounds injury assessment

Robust but directed