Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean: Interdisciplinary Science in Support of Nature and People emphasizes strategies to better connect the practice of marine conservation with the needs and priorities of a growing global human population. It conceptualizes nature and people as part of shared ecosystems, with interdisciplinary methodologies and science-based applications for coupled sustainability.
A central challenge facing conservation is the development of practical means for addressing the interconnectedness of ecosystem health and human well-being, advancing the fundamental interdisciplinary science that underlies conservation practice, and implementing this science in decisions to manage, preserve, and restore ocean ecosystems.
Though humans have intentionally and unintentionally reshaped their environments for thousands of years, the scale and scope of human influence upon the oceans in the Anthropocene is unprecedented. Ocean science has increased our knowledge of the threats and impacts to ecological integrity, yet the unique scale and scope of changes increases uncertainty about responses of dynamic socio-ecological systems. Thus, to understand and protect the biodiversity of the ocean and ameliorate the negative impacts of ocean change on people, it is critical to understand human beliefs, values, behaviors, and impacts. Conversely, on a human-dominated planet, it is impossible to understand and address human well-being and chart a course for sustainable use of the oceans without understanding the implications of environmental change for human societies that depend on marine ecosystems and resources.
Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean therefore presents a timely, needed, and interdisciplinary approach to the conservation of our oceans.
I. Setting the stage
1. Strategies for Bridging the Science-Policy Interface for Adaptive Solutions in the Anthropocene
Jenna Sullivan, Elizabeth Cerny-Chipman, Andrew Rosenberg and Jane Lubchenco
2. Climate Variability, Climate Change, and Conservation in a Dynamic Ocean
Malin Pinsky and Becca Selden
3. The Future of Species in the Anthropocene Seas
Nick Dulvy and Holly Kindsvater
4. How Can the Oceans Feed 9 Billion People?
Zachary Koehn, Eddie Allison, Nicole Franz and Esther Wiegers
5. Social Resilience in the Anthropocene Ocean
Elena Finkbeiner, Kirsten Oleson and Jack Kittinger
II. Principles for Conservation in the Anthropocene
6. Principles for Interdisciplinary Conservation
Heather Leslie
7. Creating Space for Community in Marine Conservation and Management: mapping “communities-at-sea”
Kevin St. Martin and Julia Olson
8. Conservation Actions at Global and Local Scales in Marine Social-Ecological Systems: status, gaps, and ways forward
Natalie C. Ban, Aerin Jacob, Charlotte Whitney, Darienne Lancaster, Tammy Davies and Lauren Eckert
9. Ocean Cultures: Northwest coast ecosystems and indigenous management systems
Darcy Mathews and Nancy Turner
10. Blurred Lines: what’s a non-native species in the Anthropocene ocean?
Isabelle M. Côté
11. Can Ecosystem Services Make Conservation Normal and Commonplace?
Kai Chan, Paige Olmsted, Nathan Bennett, Sarah Klain and Elizabeth A. Williams
12. Beyond Privatization: rethinking fisheries stewardship and conservation in the North Pacific
Rachel Donkersloot and Courtney Carothers
13. Addressing Socio-Ecological Tipping Points and Safe Operating Spaces in the Anthropocene
Ben Halpern
III. Conservation in the Anthropocene in Practice
14. Stakeholder Participation in Marine Management: the importance of transparency and rules for participation
Christine Röckmann, Marloes Kraan, David Goldsborough and Luc van Hoof
15. Marine Conservation as Complex Cooperative and Competitive Human Interactions
Xavier Basurto, E. Blanco, M. Nenadovic and B. Vollan
16. Transdisciplinary Research for Conservation and Sustainable Development Planning in the Caribbean
Katie K. Arkema and Mary Ruckleshaus
17. Social-Ecological Trade-Offs in Baltic Sea Fisheries Management
Rüdiger Voss, Martin F. Quaas, Julia Hoffmann and Jörn O. Schmidt
18. Human Rights and the Sustainability of Fisheries
Sara G. Lewis, Aurora Alifano, Mariah Boyle and Marc Mangel
IV. Looking Forward
19. Implications of a Changing Climate for Food Sovereignty in Coastal British Columbia
Terre Satterfield, Leslie Robertson, Nathan Vadeboncoeur and Anton Pitts
20. The Future of Modelling to Support Conservation Decisions in the Anthropocene Ocean
Eva Plaganyi and Beth Fulton
21. The Big Role of Coastal Communities and Small-Scale Fishers in Ocean Conservation
Anthony Charles
22. Innovations in Collaborative Science: Advancing citizen science, crowdsourcing and participatory modeling to understand and manage marine social-ecological systems
Stephen Gray and Steven Scyphers
23. Looking Forward: interconnectedness in the Anthropocene ocean
Melissa Poe and Phillip Levin
Phillip Levin is the lead scientist of The Nature Conservancy, Washington and a Professor-of-Practice in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. Dr. Levin is a conservation scientist who is interested in bridging the gaps between theory and practice in conservation, and developing modeling and statistical approaches to inform conservation and management of marine ecosystems. The main focus of his current work is developing interdisciplinary tools to inform conservation of marine, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Prior to joining the Nature Conservancy and University of Washington, he was a Senior Scientist at NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA, USA. Levin served as the scientific lead of NOAA's Integrated Ecosystem Assessment efforts in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem and Puget Sound. In the course of this work, he has led the development of new analytical tools for characterizing ecosystem health and forecasting the cumulative effects of coastal zone management and climate change on marine ecosystems. Dr. Levin received the Department of Commerce Silver Award and NOAA's Bronze Medal for his work on marine ecosystems, and the Seattle Aquarium's Conservation Research Award for his work in Puget Sound. He has published over 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and technical reports, and edited Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean: Interdisciplinary Approaches for Nature and People. His work has been featured in such news outlets as NPR, PBS, the BBC, MSBNC, The Economist, among others. Levin recently served as President of the Western Society of Naturalists, and has served on numerous editorial boards and scientific advisory panels. Levin received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 1993 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina.
Melissa Poe is a Social Scientist at the University of Washington Sea Grant Program and a liaison with NOAA's Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Dr. Poe is trained as an environmental anthropologist, with interests in applying political ecology and cultural geography approaches to environmental problems through participatory research. Poe earned her masters and doctorate at the University of Washington, focusing on community-based conservation, ethnoecology, and resource-based livelihoods, with extensive field work throughout Pacific North America. Poe holds double Bachelor's degrees in Sociology and Spanish, and was a postdoc fellow at the Institute for Culture and Ecology. Ongoing efforts include contributing social science to NOAA's Integrated Ecosystem Assessment, advising the Puget Sound Partnership science panel, and collaborating with the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and other interdisciplinary initiatives.