How Does Knowledge Infrastructure Mobilization Influence the Safe Operating Space of Regulated Exploited Ecosystems?

How does knowledge infrastructure mobilization influence the safe operating space of regulated exploited ecosystems?

Managing and regulating exploited ecosystems is a critical issue because of uncertainties, non-linear dynamics, and time delays. Decision-makers often have to act before critical times to avoid the collapse of ecosystems using imperfect knowledge. Adaptive management may help managers tackle such issues. However, because the knowledge infrastructure required for adaptive management may be mobil...

Allowing variance may enlarge the safe operating space for exploited ecosystems.

Variable flows of food, water, or other ecosystem services complicate planning. Management strategies that decrease variability and increase predictability may therefore be preferred. However, actions to decrease variance over short timescales (2-4 y), when applied continuously, may lead to long-term ecosystem changes with adverse consequences. We investigated the effects of managing short-term...

A knowledge base for Exploited Marine Ecosystems

In 2008, IRD started to work on setting up a knowledge base (named Ecoscope) about Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries domain (EAF) in the context of a marine ecology laboratory studying Exploited Marine Ecosystems in different regions of the world. This application was meant to fit the needs of researchers by improving knowledge and related information resources management [14,12]. Among other goa...

Climate and conservation. Creating a safe operating space for iconic ecosystems.

Although some ecosystem responses to climate change are gradual, many ecosystems react in highly non-linear ways. They show little response until a threshold or tipping point is reached where even a small perturbation may trigger collapse into a state from which recovery is difficult (1). Increasing evidence shows that the critical climate level for such collapse may be altered by conditions th...

How safe is your operating theatre?