Ecosystem‐based fisheries management: A perspective on the critique and development of the concept

The concept of ecosystem‐based fisheries management (EBFM) has been subjected to debate since it was introduced in the late 1990s. The development of the concept seems to follow two separate but simultaneous trajectories of increased popularity but also sustained critique. This paper offers an analysis of potential mechanisms behind these disparate trajectories by drawing on a theoretical framework from science and technology studies (STS) centred around "black box" and actor‐network theory. To support our analysis, we perform an exploratory literature review of how the EBFM concept has been used in a selection of high impact fisheries research papers. We find that the popularity of EBFM does not guarantee its integrity, usefulness or analytical insight, but also that persistent critique of how the concept is used seems to be driving some change. We think that a continued trajectory of increased understanding, contextualization and discernibility of EBFM can help overcome the considerable ambiguity associated with the concept and make it increasingly useful to fisheries management. This means moving away from routine use of the term towards a practicable and tangible approach to improve fisheries sustainability.     

Ditch communities: a major contributor to floodplain biodiversity

• 1. Chalk stream floodplains are extensively managed and the high degree of connectivity associated with water meadows has been severely reduced. The main contributor to aquatic biodiversity is perceived to be the river itself. Ditches in these areas have been largely ignored as a contributor to total diversity.
• 2. Separate surveys of instream, bankside and ditch macroinvertebrates in a small area of floodplain provided a unique opportunity to assess the relative contribution of each locality to total aquatic diversity. The fauna and flora of a ditch on the lower River Frome floodplain was examined and compared with studies of adjacent bankside and instream habitat. A total of 145 macroinvertebrate taxa and 61 plant species were recorded from the ditch. Faunal abundance and richness were positively related to the diversity of aquatic plants. The ditch showed a clear linear trend in community type that appeared to be partly related to the acidic seepage from tertiary deposits at the source and percentage cover of vegetation.
• 3. There were large differences in the numbers of taxa collected in ditch, bankside, instream mesohabitat and RIVPACS surveys. Of the total 202 taxa recorded in the four surveys, the ditch contributed 59 unique taxa with 25 from the bankside and two and three from the mesohabitat and RIVPACS surveys, respectively.
• 4. The large contribution of the Rushton Ditch to aquatic biodiversity on the floodplain is due to three main factors: the chemically different and slow‐flowing environment, the connection to the main river, and a management regime which has halted hydroseral succession at a point where vegetation structure is for the most part open and able to support a wide range of ecological niches. The maintenance of these conditions requires sensitive management and further knowledge of the needs and interactions of faunal communities with vegetation.

Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

探讨网络信息时代图书馆的管理

综合运用计量管理、目标管理、能级管理、信息管理四大管理方法可以大大提高图书馆管理水平,使图书馆在信息网络化时代发挥应有的作用。     

公共管理改革对现行预算会计体系影响分析

我国政府公共管理改革已在财政体制改革、政府职能转变、事业单位改革等方面取得了显著成绩并逐步深化,肩负着履行公共预算管理职能的现行预算会计体系由于所处环境的变化,出现了运行操作不协调、不同步的艰难局面。以公共管理改革对现行预算会计体系环境变化为切入点,逐一分析各变化因素对现行预算会计体系造成的影响,探寻我国预算会计体系改革的方向,为我国现行预算会计体系向政府会计体系全面改革夯实了理论基础。     

Global protected areas and IUCN designations: Do the categories match the conditions?

Protected areas are considered fundamental to the preservation of nature. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has standardized categories for protected areas designation, which are intended to represent varying levels of regulatory protection. We evaluate whether the present assignment of protected areas to IUCN categories corresponds to the expected gradient of naturalness in a globally consistent manner. Our proxy of naturalness was a global map of human influence known as Human Footprint (HF). Higher HF values represent less intact natural areas. Our final sample of protected areas included 21,186 IUCN-designated sites that were ?1 km². We used multiple linear regression to test for the effect of IUCN categories on mean HF while accounting for biome and protected area size.The present assignment of protected areas to IUCN categories does not correspond to the expected gradient of naturalness. We observed that IUCN Category Ia areas have higher HF than expected and Category VI protected areas have unexpectedly low HF; Category VI protected areas also are generally larger than protected areas of other categories. Reporting of area protected in different IUCN categories is one measure of progress towards meeting commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, yet because IUCN categories are not interpreted consistently across the globe, this is not a reliable metric. Further, despite the social, economic and ecological importance of protected areas with a very low HF, our results suggest that the availability of such areas within the global protected areas network is very limited.     

Homogeneous habitat can meet the discrete and varied resource requirements of hares but may set an ecological trap

In common with other farmland species, hares (Lepus spp.) are in widespread decline in agricultural landscapes due to agricultural intensification and habitat loss. We examined the importance of habitat heterogeneity to the Irish hare (Lepus timidus hibernicus) in a pastoral landscape. We used radio-tracking during nocturnal active and diurnal inactive periods throughout one year. In autumn, winter and spring, hares occupied a heterogeneous combination of improved grassland, providing food, and Juncus-dominated rough pasture, providing refuge. In summer, hares significantly increased their use of improved grassland. This homogeneous habitat can fulfil the discrete and varied resource requirements of hares for feeding and shelter at certain times of year. However, improved grassland may be a risky habitat for hares as silage harvesting occurs during their peak birthing period of late spring and early summer. We therefore posit the existence of a putative ecological trap inherent to a homogeneous habitat of perceived high value that satisfies the hares’ habitat requirements but which presents risks at a critical time of year. To test this hypothesis in relation to hare populations, work is required to provide data on differential leveret mortality between habitat types.     

Do community-conserved areas effectively conserve biological diversity? Global insights and the Indian context

The view that biodiversity-rich areas partially or largely managed by local residents, sometimes referred to as community-conserved areas (CCAs), can be effective in biological conservation has gained considerable ground over the past decade. In this paper, we review available scientific information on the conservation effectiveness of such areas globally. We compiled studies undertaken during the last 5 years (2004-2009) that use quantifiable ecological attributes to: (1) compare CCAs with strictly protected areas (SPAs); (2) compare CCAs with open-access ecosystems and (3) study trends in biological attributes of CCAs over time. We found that there were few consistent differences in diversity/species richness of flora or fauna protected under the two types of management or in deforestation rates. However, CCAs tend to harbour a species complement distinct from that of SPAs and show lowered abundances of monitored taxa that are of conservation importance. CCAs conserve biological values more effectively than open-access areas. Also, biological values tend to decline in CCAs over time. We conclude that CCAs could represent a significant improvement over open-access areas in terms of conservation effectiveness, yet fall short of the needs of comprehensive biological conservation. While extremely few studies have been undertaken in India, the trends seen largely concur with global ones. This review, based on a limited sample size, is only a beginning, and is expected to serve as an invitation for further research to address both the question of biological effectiveness of diverse forest governance regimes as well as the socio-economic, demographic and institutional reasons underlying these differences.     

Stress: An inevitable component of animal translocation

As the number and diversity of animal species meriting conservation intervention increases, improving the success of translocation efforts is vital and understanding the role of physiological stress in translocation failure is essential. Though the short-term acutestress response is critical for survival in the wild, chronic stress results in pathology and occurs when the physiological stress response system is pushed beyond the normal capacity and becomes dysregulated. As this review discusses, translocation may inevitably lead to a state of chronic stress; however, this translocation-induced stress does not doom an animal to post-release failure or preclude translocation as a conservation tool. Rather, because chronic stress in translocated animals may actually be the norm rather than the exception, “stress” can be considered a predictable factor to incorporate into translocation planning. In terms of translocation failure, we argue that the role of stress is an indirect one. Translocation-induced chronic stress increases the overall vulnerability of the individuals and, as a result, decreases the probability that the population will become self-sustaining. In this review, we further propose techniques to potentially decrease the total number and magnitude of stressor exposures throughout the translocation procedure in order to diminish the incidence of chronic stress-related pathology. Aspects of the translocation activities, such as capture techniques and care procedures during captivity, can be adjusted to accomplish this. Though stress may be an inevitable component of translocation, reducing the impact and time course of chronic stress on the physiology and behavior of translocated animals will increase the likelihood of translocation success as measured by the formation of a new, self-sustaining population     

Multi-trophic consequences of kelp harvest

Coastal kelp forest ecosystems provide important habitats for a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, fish and marine top-predators such as seabirds and sea mammals. Although kelp is harvested industrially on a worldwide scale little is known about the multi-trophic consequences of this habitat removal. We investigated how kelp fisheries, which remove feeding and nursery grounds of coastal fish, influence local food webs and the availability of food to a marine top predator, the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). We conducted experimental harvesting of the canopy-forming kelp (Laminaria hyperborea) during a 3 year period (2001-2003) in an area at the coast of Central Norway while synoptically monitoring fish occurrence and cormorant foraging parameters. Our results demonstrate that cormorants preferentially foraged within kelp-forested areas and performed significantly more dives when feeding in harvested versus un-harvested areas suggesting lower foraging yield in the former case. In kelp areas that were newly harvested the number of small (<15 cm) gadid fish was 92% lower than in un-harvested areas. This effect was persistent for at least 1 year following harvest. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the ecological consequences of kelp harvesting have been tested at a multi-trophic level. The results presented strongly suggest that kelp harvesting affects fish abundance and diminishes coastal seabird foraging efficiency. Kelp fisheries are currently managed in order to maximize the net harvest of kelp biomass, and the underlying effects on the ecosystems are partly ignored. This study calls for re-assessment of such management practices.     

Human-driven impacts on marine habitats: A regional meta-analysis in the Mediterranean Sea

Habitat destruction is one of the main threats to environmental integrity. Assessing the consequences of human impacts is crucial both to predict and prevent structural and functional changes of habitats. However, to date almost all studies on marine threats, from regional to global scales, have been entirely qualitative and generally based on little more than expert opinion. We have developed a meta-analytical approach to quantify overall effects of various stressors on different Mediterranean habitat types and to compare the relative importance of different impacts across a range of habitats. We first qualitatively reviewed and synthesized 366 experiments (either manipulative or correlative) collected in the literature. After a selection procedure, we finally quantitatively meta-analyzed 158 experiments. We showed that fisheries (destructive or not), species invasion, aquaculture, sedimentation increase, water degradation and urbanization have negative effects on Mediterranean habitats and associated species assemblages. We also explored the overlap between the impacts identified as important in the Mediterranean and those identified by experts as being important globally, highlighting the inadequacies of relying on expert opinion alone. Finally, we drew attention to the critical lack of empirical knowledge about marine systems in many areas of the Mediterranean, which impedes the implementation of effective conservation measures. Our study is the first to synthesize experimental analyses on human-driven impacts on marine habitats across such a broad geographic scale.