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

该项目得到了NSF科学，工程和教育可持续发展研究员（SEES研究员）计划的支持，其目标是帮助实现所需的发现，为导致环境，能源和社会可持续性的行动提供信息，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的领域，它解决了在不损害环境的情况下满足人类需求的挑战，并且不牺牲后代满足其需求的能力。一个强大的科学队伍需要在跨学科研究和思维方面受过教育和培训的个人，特别是在可持续发展科学领域。在SEES奖学金的支持下，该项目将使一个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。该项目的重点是海洋保护区和生物多样性，海洋保护区被广泛用于养护海洋生物多样性（通过保护海洋生境和物种），并确保海洋资源的可持续生产。目前，世界上约有2.3%的海洋在海洋保护区内受到保护。虽然有人建议大幅增加这一覆盖面，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上没有效果。该项目解决了评估和促进MPA成功的关键需求。 该项目采用跨学科、多尺度的方法，为海洋保护区作为复杂适应系统的评估和管理做出有意义的贡献：1。开发、测试和完善适应性强、信息量大的社会生态框架，以评估MPA在大规模和地方规模上的“成功”; 2.在下加利福尼亚、密克罗尼西亚和缅甸，使用框架来指导社会生态属性和MPA结果的数据收集和分析; 3.创建用于表征全球不同MPA站点的可扩展性的指标; 4.与三个开放式数据库（MPTatlas、DataMARES和小规模渔业信息系统）合作，提出最终数据并分发未来数据收集框架; 5.开发、测试和完善一个精简、全面的工具包和培训模块，用于收集关于选定优先指标的社会和生态数据。这项工作建立在以往MPA评价研究的基础上，并超越了以往的研究，将多个学科和项目联系起来，为MPA评价和实施制定概念框架和系统的应用方法，其中纳入了可持续性概念。SEES研究员塔拉惠蒂博士与斯克里普斯海洋学研究所的东道主导师Aburto Oropeza博士和纽芬兰圣约翰纪念大学的伙伴导师Ratana Chuenpagdee博士合作。NSF的国际科学与工程（伊势）计划共同资助了这个项目。

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.