SEES Fellows: The true meaning of "success": Developing adaptive social-ecological frameworks for evaluation of marine protected areas

该项目由NSF科学、工程和教育促进可持续发展研究员(SEE FERLOS)计划支持，目标是帮助实现必要的发现，为导致环境、能源和社会可持续发展的行动提供信息，同时创造必要的劳动力来应对这些挑战。可持续发展科学是一个新兴领域，它解决了在不损害环境、不牺牲子孙后代满足其需求的能力的情况下满足人类需求的挑战。一支强大的科学队伍需要接受跨学科研究和思维方面的教育和培训，特别是在可持续发展科学领域。在SEES奖学金的支持下，该项目将使一位有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与可持续发展相关的独立研究生涯中确立自己的地位。该项目侧重于海洋保护区和生物多样性。海洋保护区被广泛规定用于养护海洋生物多样性(通过保护海洋生物栖息地和物种)和确保海洋资源的可持续生产。目前，世界上约2.3%的海洋受到海洋保护区的保护。虽然有建议大幅扩大这一覆盖面，但评估表明，现有的海洋保护区在实现生态和社会目标方面基本无效。该项目解决了评估和促进MPA成功的迫切需要。该项目采用跨学科、多尺度的方法，对作为复杂适应系统的海洋保护区的评价和管理作出有意义的贡献：1.开发、测试和完善适应性强、信息量大的社会生态框架，用于在大范围和地方尺度上评价海洋保护区的“成功”；2.使用框架指导数据收集和分析下加利福尼亚州、密克罗尼西亚和缅甸的站点的社会生态属性和海洋保护区成果；3.创建可比较地描述全球不同的海洋保护区地点的指标；4.与三个开放获取的数据库(MPAtlas、DataMARES和小规模渔业信息系统)合作，提出最终数据和分发框架，以便今后收集数据；5.开发、测试和完善一个精简、全面的工具包和培训模块，以收集有关选定优先指标的社会和生态数据。这一努力建立在并超越了以往的MPA评价研究，将多个学科和项目联系起来，为纳入可持续发展概念的MPA评价和实施制定概念框架和系统、实用的方法。See研究员Tara Whitty博士在斯克里普斯海洋研究所与东道主导师Aburto Oropeza博士合作，并在纽芬兰圣约翰纪念大学与同伴导师Ratana ChuenPagdee博士合作。美国国家科学基金会的国际科学与工程(ISE)项目为该项目提供了共同资金。

The project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. Sustainability science is an emerging field that addresses the challenges of meeting human needs without harm to the environment, and without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. A strong scientific workforce requires individuals educated and trained in interdisciplinary research and thinking, especially in the area of sustainability science. With the SEES Fellowship support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish herself in an independent research career related to sustainability. This project focuses on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and biodiversity.MPAs are widely prescribed to conserve marine biodiversity (by protecting marine habitats and species) and to ensure sustained production of marine resources. Currently, about 2.3% of the world's oceans are protected in MPAs. While there are recommendations to significantly increase this coverage, assessments suggest that existing MPAs have been largely ineffective at reaching ecological and social objectives. This project addresses the critical need to evaluate and promote MPA success. This project incorporates interdisciplinary, multi-scale approaches to meaningfully contribute to the evaluation and management of MPAs as complex adaptive systems to: 1. Develop, test, and refine adaptable and informative social-ecological frameworks for evaluating MPA "success" at large- and local-scales; 2. Use frameworks to guide data collection and analyses of social-ecological attributes and MPA outcomes at sites in Baja California, Micronesia, and Myanmar; 3. Create metrics for comparably characterizing diverse MPA sites globally; 4. Collaborate with three open-access databases (MPAtlas, DataMARES, and the Information System for Small-scale Fisheries) on the presentation of final data and distribution of frameworks for future data collection; 5. Develop, test, and refine a streamlined, holistic toolkit and training module for collecting social and ecological data on selected priority indicators. This effort builds upon and moves beyond previous MPA evaluation research, linking multiple disciplines and projects to develop conceptual frameworks and systematic, applied approaches for MPA evaluation and implementation that incorporate sustainability concepts. The SEES Fellow, Dr. Tara Whitty, works with host mentor Dr. Aburto Oropeza at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and with parnter mentor Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. NSF's International Science and Engineering (ISE) program has co-funded this project.