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Project: An ecological history of Australia's temperate marine environments:
accounting for the shifting baseline syndrome
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CI(s)/Institution: Sean Connell, University of Adeliade,
and Michael Graham, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California. (funding
in year 1: $30,000)
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CI(s)/Institution: Sean Connell, University of Adelaide,
and Michael Graham, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California. (funding
year 1: $30,000)
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Theories of top-down control of temperate rocky coasts
have been very successfully applied to the description and management
of many of the world's coasts. There is, however, growing dissatisfaction
with the uncritical application of this paradigm to reconstruct past histories,
and forecast the future of marine resources. In Australia and New Zealand,
there is tremendous concern over its application to coastal zoning (e.g.
MPA management). Internationally, ecologists look to leadership from some
of the best studied systems of the globe, yet substantial confusion emerges
from deriving such expectations from some of the most intensely and well
understood kelp forests (e.g. Southern California and recent high profile
publications). The paradigm has created a difficulty for the context of
current studies and their interpretation, but also their peer-review and
publication. The workshop seeks to publish a refresh approach that equips
the discipline a broader and more incisive understanding for future research
and publication.
AIMS
1. Spatially explicit map of regional extent of strong top-down control
and regions for which this control is questionable.
2. Agree on a proposed framework for future research. This information
would enable commensurable comparisons of coast to identify where traditional
theory usefully describes coast, and where alternate theory is required.
3. Application of an agreed international approach to a local problem
of recovering a lost baseline on the metropolitan coast of South Australia.
Outcomes (Year 1) Workshop
INTERNATIONAL OUTCOMES: Fifteen scientists have been invited
to join an international workshop at Moss Landings Marine Laboratories
(31st July - 2nd August, 2007) to reassess the uncritical use of the
paradigm of top-down control of rocky temperate coasts that is used
to reconstruct past histories, and forecast the future of marine resources
. Scientists have been selected because of their expertise and experience
in the ecology of subtidal coasts of key parts of the planet or theories
that account for trophically structured system. The outcome of the workshop
will be a publication that sets a new research agenda by equipping marine
ecology with a broader framework for enquiry and more incisive understanding
for future research and publication.
LOCAL OUTCOMES: Sean D. Connell has brought together all major
stake holders of natural marine resources to collectively reconstruct
the lost-baseline of South Australia's metropolitan coast. This includes
government and non-government people. The major outcome centres on a
first draft manuscript that is currently undergoing internal review
(Recovering the lost baseline of a metropolitan kelp forest). This publication
reconstructs past kelp forests of >30 years ago and identifies massive
habitat loss. Sean Connell asked that the publication be funded via
some of the major stakeholders (e.g. South Australian Research and Development
Institute who has generously obliged). This progress relied on a workshop,
independently circulated questionnaires, a review of archival logbook
information, meetings with stakeholders, including representatives of
recreational fisher-people.
IMMEDIATE OUTCOME: A publishable manuscript; a fundamental outcome
will be the explicit recognition of the proportion and location of coasts
requiring a shift in thinking and methodology (i.e. paradigm-shift).
Highlight the most significant knowledge gaps limiting our understanding,
and hindering the future sustainable management of these environments.
Provide the discipline with an explicit framework that captures a broader
model, and methodology that is more incisive for future research and
publication.
LONGER-TERM OUTCOME: A further aim of this workshop will be
to generate a big-picture research agenda for temperate marine environments
to stimulate and provide direction for useful large-scale collaborative
research programs. Ultimately, the aim is to provide a new generation
of marine scientists and managers with fresh perspective and direction.
International participants (#ECR):
Sean D. Connell, University
of Adelaide& Michael Graham, San Jose State University (leading
CIs)
Bob Paine, University of Washington
Andrew Irving#, Brown University
Bernat Hereu, San Jose State University
Brian Kinlan, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jarrett Byrnes, University of California, Davis
John Erlandson, Oregon State University
Selena McMillan#, San Jose State University
Don Strong, University of California, Los Angeles
Lanny Mller, University of California, Los Angeles
Nick Shears, University of California, Santa Barbara
Alejandro Buschmann, Universidad de Los Lagos
David Lindburg, University of California, Berkeley
Connell, S. D., Russell, B. C., Turner, D. J., Shepherd, S. A., Kildae,
T., Miller, D. J. & Cheshire, A. (in review) Recovering a lost
baseline:missing kelp forests on a metropolitan coast.
This paper is a collaboration of all major scientific stake holders
of natural marine resources of South Australa's rocky coast.
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