Ecosystem Theme Introduction and Overview

1
Ecosystem ThemeIntroduction and Overview

• Presented by
• Kent H. Hughes

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Ecosystem Priorities and Programs

• Ecosystems Themes

• Programs (PPBES)

• Support collaborative approaches to science and
  management at the regional level
• Understand the impacts of climate on marine
  ecosystems
• Enhance social and ecological resilience to
  hazards
• Protect marine and coastal resource integrity and
  security
• Develop more robust ecosystem modeling and
  integrated assessment capability to serve current
  and future management information needs.

• Ecosystem Research
• Coral Reef Conservation
• Ecosystem Observations
• Coastal and Marine Resources
• Habitat
• Protected Species
• Aquaculture
• Enforcement
• Fisheries Management

3
Ecosystem Research Areasfrom 5-Year Research Plan

• Advance understanding of ecosystems to improve
  resource management
• Forecasting ecosystems events
• Exploring our oceans
• Develop integrated ecosystems assessments and
  scenarios, and build capacity to support regional
  management

4
Priority Research Activitiesfrom NOAAs 5-yr
Research Plan

• Advance understanding of ecosystems to improve
  resource management
• Increase understanding of ecosystem composition,
  structure, function, and variability.
• Conduct comprehensive process studies to
  understand mechanisms producing patterns and to
  define ranges for key physical and biological
  parameters within ecosystem models.
• Understand large scale ecosystem drivers and
  ecological communities, including interactions
  among species, the physical environment, life
  history, and the assembly rules by which
  ecosystems are formed
• Establish ecosystem indicators and ascertain
  what, if any, thresholds and breakpoints exist
  within ecosystems.
• Study ocean phenomena to ascertain the potential
  for generating coastal earthquakes, tsunamies,
  and greenhouse gases, and the extent to which
  these phenomena alter existing and create new
  and/or unique ecosystems
• Develop a suite of tools for ecosystem
  forecasting that improves ecosystem understanding
  and decision making, and reduces risks to
  ecosystem and human health.
• Study links between habitat decline and condition
  of habitat-dependent fisheries.
• Map and characterize habitats and their
  condition.
• Advance biomedical and commercial applications
  of marine natural products.
• Determine the functional role of a protected
  species in an ecosystem context.
• NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch
• Coral Reef Products to Support Management of
  Marine Resources Globally (Eakin)
• Developing a Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction
  System for Chesapeake Bay (Brown)

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5
Priority Research Activitiesfrom NOAAs 5-yr
Research Plan

• Exploring our oceans
• Map and characterize poorly known key features
  and habitats of economic, hazardous, scientific
  or cultural importance in support of integrated
  ecosystem assessments.
• Describe poorly-known or unknown communities of
  organisms displaying novel relationships with
  their environment (e.g., vents/seep communities,
  as well as poorly-known or unknown physical or
  chemical processes with global implications
  (e.g., deep ocean currents, chemical or
  greenhouse gas sources).
• Discover and describe new species and new
  resources, both living and non-living (e.g.,
  energy, minerals, food, bio-products).
• Design, develop and utilize new methodologies and
  probes, sensors and systems that will increase
  the pace, efficiency and scope at which living
  and non-living resources and processes are
  discovered and to rapidly improve our
  understanding of how oceans respond to change.
• NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch
• STAR/NCBO Collaboration on Chesapeake Bay
  Interpretive Buoy System
• Coral Reef Products to Support Management of
  Marine Resources Globally (Eakin)
• NOAA Contributions to the OCR-VC OceanWatch
  (Ramachandran, et. al.)

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Priority Research Activitiesfrom NOAAs 5-yr
Research Plan

• Forecasting ecosystems events
• Identify key indicators of both ecosystem
  function and human influence, with the aid of
  models, that need to be measured in order to
  characterize an ecosystem.
• Define time and space scales needed to capture
  fundamental physical and biological drivers
  required for forecasts.
• Estimate natural scales of variability regarding
  physical-biological coupling, food web dynamics
  and ecosystem production.
• Understand how multiple stressors interact to
  affect ecosystem structure and function.
• Develop fully integrated, spatially explicit,
  coupled hydrodynamic, watershed and higher
  trophic level models on key scales.
• Evaluate accuracy of model forecasts and assess
  impact of management decisions on resources and
  habitat quality.
• Transition validated ecological prediction
  systems from research to operations.
• Developing a Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction
  System for Chesapeake Bay (Brown)
• Satellite Observation and Model simulation of
  water Turbidity in the Chesapeake Bay (Liu, et.
  al.)

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7
Priority Research Activitiesfrom NOAAs 5-yr
Research Plan

• Develop integrated ecosystems assessments and
  scenarios, and build capacity to support regional
  management
• Develop integrated ecosystem assessments.
• Develop risk/value evaluations of alternative
  ecosystem-based management strategies using
  assessments and ecological forecasts.
• NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch
• Coral Reef Products to Support Management of
  Marine Resources Globally (Eakin)
• STAR/NCBO Collaboration on Chesapeake Bay
  Interpretive Buoy System (Stengel)

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STAR Ecosystem Presentations 5-yr Research Plan

• Oral
• Ocean Color Remote Sensing for Coastal Regions
  (Wang)
• In situ Ocean Color Measurements in Chesapeake
  Bay for Satellite Cal/Val and Regional
• Algorithm (Ondrusek)
• Coral Reef Products in Support of Worldwide
  Management of Marine Resources (Eakin)
• The Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) Support for
  Vicarious Calibration (Wang)
• Developing a Harmful Algal Bloom Prediction
  System for Chesapeake Bay (Brown)
• Phytoplankton Phenology (Vargas)
• Posters
• Satellite Observations of the Seasonal Sediment
  Plume in Central East China Sea (Wang/Shi)
• STAR/NCBO Collaboration on Chesapeake Bay
  Interpretive Buoy (Stengel)
• Satellite Observation and Model Simulation of
  Water Turbidity in the Chesapeake Bay (Liu,
  et.al)
• Satellite-measured Interannual Variability of the
  Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient in the
• Chesapeake Bay (Wang/Son)
• Hydrologic and Water Quality Modeling of the
  Chesapeake Bay Watershed (Meng)
• The Coral Reef Watch Program (Eakin)
• Mission Support - Poster