Pyramids of Life: Working with nature for a sustainable future

生命金字塔：与自然合作，共创可持续未来

• 批准号: NE/V016016/1
• 负责人: Eoin O'Gorman
• 金额: $ 1.19万
• 依托单位: University of Essex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FV016016%2F1
• 关键词: Pyramids; Life; Working; nature; sustainable

Our planet's natural resources face unsustainable demands and there is evidence that current management approaches are failing to move resource use towards a sustainable future. This failure is particularly acute in marine ecosystems where about 95% of fisheries are fully- or over-exploited. A step-change is needed to achieve sustainability, but such change can only be affected if it aligns with consumer demand, real world fishing practicalities, and with sustainable national policies such as the Natural Capital Approach described by the UK's 25 Year Environment Plan. The 'Pyramids of Life' approach to a sustainable future captures and helps to communicate complex relationships between different species, human behaviours, and marine ecosystem functions. Ecological pyramids represent different size-based trophic levels with the relative scarcity of larger organisms being regulated by well-understood scaling principles based on energy flow from smaller prey. Human needs can also be represented in hierarchical pyramids where lower level physiological needs (e.g. need for food) must be satisfied before higher level needs (e.g. need for self-esteem) can influence behaviour (e.g. value systems). If presented together, information from such pyramids would allow stakeholders to understand complex and dynamic systems and their interdependencies, contribute to inform adaptive decision-making and lend itself to efficient and scalable modelling tools based on existing datasetsThe problem for the UK's marine resources is that fisheries management agreements typically use metrics which are based, for a given species, on the number of tonnes landed above some given minimum size. This can distort the size structure of naturally productive pyramids, causing local crashes in populations. It can also be wasteful where catches inevitably encompass many species. Consumer preference and market forces also play a role, promoting "plate-sized" catches and well-known species at the possible expense of more ecologically sustainable alternatives.We have shown that management which better respects ecological pyramids, and where harvest at a particular size class is proportional to the production at that size class (in units of carbon per year), can be both more productive and surprisingly resilient to external challenges. The challenge is to convert this academic observation into practical reality. To do this, we need to understand the behaviour of consumers, and of fishers, and to identify where change can be commercially viable as well as ecologically sustainable. Again the pyramid concept, this time describing values and behaviours, is helpful. Co-development with our partner organisations has identified key target species and fisheries, and existing datasets, where targeted changes in management can align with both the realities of human behaviour and economic value, and ecological sustainability. The research combines overlapping expertise in socio-economics and human behaviour (University of East Anglia), ecology and detailed spatio-temporal datasets (Cefas),and mathematics and marine ecology (University of York). Our partners Seafish and Waitrose bring detailed expertise in market dynamics, consumer behaviour and fishing effort, as well as matching our commitment to long-term sustainability. Together, this body of work will provide a multidimensional perspective of the value of marine ecosystems so that future management interventions are based squarely on what is sustainable.

我们星球的自然资源面临着不可持续的需求，有证据表明当前的管理方法未能将资源利用转向可持续的未来。这种失败在海洋生态系统中尤为严重，约95%的渔业被完全或过度开发。实现可持续性需要逐步改变，但只有当这种改变符合消费者需求、真实的世界渔业实际情况以及可持续的国家政策（如英国25年环境计划所述的自然资本方法）时，这种改变才会受到影响。可持续未来的“生命金字塔”方法捕捉并帮助传达不同物种，人类行为和海洋生态系统功能之间的复杂关系。生态金字塔代表不同的大小为基础的营养水平与较大的生物体的相对稀缺性受到调节的基础上较小的猎物的能量流的缩放原理。人类的需求也可以用金字塔来表示，在金字塔中，较低层次的生理需求（例如对食物的需求）必须在较高层次的需求（例如对自尊的需求）能够影响行为（例如价值体系）之前得到满足。如果将这些金字塔的信息放在一起，将使利益相关者能够了解复杂和动态的系统及其相互依存关系，有助于为适应性决策提供信息，并有助于基于现有的海洋资源的有效和可扩展的建模工具英国海洋资源的问题是，渔业管理协议通常使用基于特定物种的指标，超过某个最小尺寸的上岸吨数。这可能会扭曲自然生产力金字塔的大小结构，导致当地人口崩溃。在渔获物不可避免地包含许多物种的情况下，这也是一种浪费。消费者偏好和市场力量也发挥了作用，促进了“盘子大小”的渔获量和知名物种，但可能会牺牲更具生态可持续性的替代品。我们已经表明，更好地尊重生态金字塔的管理，以及特定大小级别的渔获量与该大小级别的产量成正比的管理（以每年的碳为单位），既可以更有生产力，又可以惊人地适应外部挑战。我们面临的挑战是将这种学术观察转化为现实。要做到这一点，我们需要了解消费者和渔民的行为，并确定哪些变化在商业上是可行的，在生态上是可持续的。同样，金字塔的概念，这次描述的价值观和行为，是有帮助的。与我们的合作伙伴组织的共同开发已经确定了关键的目标物种和渔业，以及现有的数据集，其中有针对性的管理变化可以与人类行为和经济价值的现实以及生态可持续性保持一致。该研究结合了社会经济学和人类行为（东安格利亚大学），生态学和详细的时空数据集（Cefas）以及数学和海洋生态学（约克大学）的重叠专业知识。我们的合作伙伴Seafish和Waitrose在市场动态、消费者行为和捕捞努力方面提供了详细的专业知识，并符合我们对长期可持续发展的承诺。这一系列工作将为海洋生态系统的价值提供一个多层面的视角，以便今后的管理干预措施完全基于可持续性。