 |
|
|
|
|
STATUS: |
|
|
|
Active
|
|
|
|
FELLOWSHIP DETAILS: |
|
|
|
2009 Fellow
Mediterranean
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROJECT DESCRIPTION |
|
|
|
The world’s oceans are facing multiple, escalating threats from human disturbance. Overexploitation of resources, habitat degradation from coastal development and destructive fishing practices, pollution and climate change are causing major alterations of marine ecosystems, with extensive loss of ecosystem services critical to human well-being. The cumulative effects of these diverse uses are missed if activities are evaluated and managed in isolation from one another. The Mediterranean Sea offers a unique opportunity to address the complexity of cumulative impacts caused by multiple stressors. Human pressure on these rich and unique marine ecosystems is tremendously high, with intense fishing pressure, densely populated coastlines, high numbers of invasive species and the looming specter of climate change. Past and ongoing establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) in coastal areas and more recently in the high seas could provide a framework to address cumulative human impacts to marine ecosystems, if policymakers have the right information and tools to create them.
With her Pew Marine Fellowship, Fiorenza Micheli will conduct a systematic assessment of human threats to Mediterranean marine ecosystems and their cumulative impacts on deep and shallow Mediterranean reefs. She will simultaneously quantify how these impacts influence the ability of these intensely used coastal ecosystems to sustain human needs.
Micheli’s analysis of current threats to marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea will utilize an existing approach for integrating information about a suite of human activities and ecosystem types. This method will produce a flexible approach for assessing cumulative impacts to MPAs and identify locations for future MPAs throughout the Mediterranean. Micheli will complement these broad analyses by conducting field surveys of threats such as fishing, coastal development, tourism and climate warming to quantify their combined impacts on rocky reef communities. Finally, she will work with Italian scientists to coordinate collection of data to link the diversity and structure of rocky reef ecosystems to the services they provide. This work will provide critical socioeconomic data and a method for explicitly examining possible trade-offs in achieving different objectives (e.g., maintaining fisheries or profits from recreational activities). This information is essential for zoning of different uses within MPAs and for assuring the local buy-in and political support necessary for effective management and conservation.
The outcomes of Micheli’s Pew Marine Fellowship will inform and support the design and implementation of integrated management of multiple human uses of marine ecosystems. By establishing relationships between human activities, ecological impacts and socioeconomic consequences, this project will provide critical new information and practical guidance for addressing and reversing cumulative impacts of multiple stressors on marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea and possibly other marine ecoregions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
