Social-ecological Interactions
Socio-ecological interactions in giant kelp forests and coral reefs
Marine systems provide a myriad of ecosystem services that drive human behavior and actions and are impacted by human-induced disturbances that vary in their form, frequency, and magnitude. In general, basic knowledge and the development of sustainable management of marine systems are limited by our understanding of human-environment interactions in these systems. The unique convergence of human and data resources across the social and natural sciences in the Santa Barbara Coastal and Moorea Coral Reef LTER programs is being used to pioneer a large-scale comparison of (1) human impacts on marine ecosystems, and (2) human adaptations to environmental change in these systems. These LTER programs offer an opportunity to examine how fishing, an economically and socially important form of disturbance, influences ecosystem services provided by marine biogenic habitat, specifically giant kelp forests and coral reefs. Our pilot project identifies the human activities at play in each system and examines changes in vital ecosystem services associated with kelp forests in the SBC LTER and coral reefs in the MCR LTER.
As an example, lobster fishermen have identified variability in giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) as a critical environmental factor influencing lobster populations in the Santa Barbara Channel. Data on commercial fishing effort and catch coupled with information obtained from interviewing fisherman will be used to investigate this and associated questions. Reef-specific catch and effort data will be integrated with SBC LTER kelp abundance data to explore relationships between commercial lobster fishing and giant kelp abundance.