Avoiding critical thresholds through effective monitoring

Stier, Adrian C.; Essington, Timothy E.; Samhouri, Jameal F.; Siple, Margaret C.; Halpern, Benjamin S.; White, Crow; Lynham, John M.; Salomon, Anne K.; Levin, Phillip S.

doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0526

i

Avoiding critical thresholds through effective monitoring

2022
By Stier, Adrian C. ; Essington, Timothy E. ; Samhouri, Jameal F. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Personal Author:

Stier, Adrian C. ; Essington, Timothy E. ; Samhouri, Jameal F. ; Siple, Margaret C. ; Halpern, Benjamin S. ; White, Crow ; Lynham, John M. ; Salomon, Anne K. ; Levin, Phillip S.
NOAA Program & Office:

NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NWFSC (Northwest Fisheries Science Center)
Description:

A major challenge in sustainability science is identifying targets that maximize ecosystem benefits to humanity while minimizing the risk of crossing critical system thresholds. One critical threshold is the biomass at which populations become so depleted that their population growth rates become negative—depensation. Here, we evaluate how the value of monitoring information increases as a natural resource spends more time near the critical threshold. This benefit emerges because higher monitoring precision promotes higher yield and a greater capacity to recover from overharvest. We show that precautionary buffers that trigger increased monitoring precision as resource levels decline may offer a way to minimize monitoring costs and maximize profits. In a world of finite resources, improving our understanding of the trade-off between precision in estimates of population status and the costs of mismanagement will benefit stakeholders that shoulder the burden of these economic and social costs.
Keywords:

General Agricultural And Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics And Molecular Biology General Environmental Science General Immunology And Microbiology General Medicine General Agricultural And Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics And Molecular Biology General Immunology And Microbiology General Agricultural And Biological Sciences General Biochemistry, Genetics And Molecular Biology General Immunology And Microbiology
Source:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1977)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0526
ISSN:

0962-8452 ; 1471-2954
Publisher:

The Royal Society
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:f35b2cd257f16605194869443fc7aa539128d48ec0469a643515599af77fb08a
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/60179/noaa_60179_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 1.39 MB ]

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