Accounting for Unintended Consequences of Resource Policy: Connecting Research that Addresses Displacement of Environmental Impacts

Natural resource policies enacted to protect environmental integrity play an important role in promoting sustainability. However, when resources are shared ecologically, economically, or through a common, global interest, policies implemented to protect resource sustainability in one domain can displace, and in some cases magnify, environmental degradation to other domains. Although such displacement has been recognized as a fundamental challenge to environmental and conservation policy within some resource sectors, there has been little cross‐disciplinary and cross‐sectoral integration to address the problem. This suggests that siloed knowledge may be impeding widespread recognition of the ubiquity of displacement and the need for mitigation. Here, we connect research across multiple disciplines to promote a broader discussion and recognition of the processes and pathways that can lead to displaced impacts that countermand or undermine resource policy and outline a number of approaches that can mitigate displacement

Interspecific discrimination in the territoriality of the Cortez damselfish, Pomacentrus rectifraenum Gill

This item was digitized from a paper original and/or a microfilm copy. If you need higher-resolution images for any content in this item, please contact us at [email protected]

Marine Mammals and Fishery Sustainability

Many fish stocks targeted by fishermen are also a primary food source of marine mammals. Normally this would be viewed as competition for a common resource. With the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972, marine mammals are protected which has aided in the recovery of numerous species. Along the West Coast, the MMPA has been highly successful in the recovery of most stocks of California sea lions and Pacific harbor seals, and it has resulted in more frequent interactions with commercial and recreational fishermen, causing damage to fishing gear and loss of catch. Non-lethal methods to eliminate or reduce pinniped predation have been unsuccessful. This paper summarizes the issue of marine mammal depredation in general, examines some of the economic damages, and discusses efforts to minimize these interactions

Marine Mammals and Fishery Sustainability

Many fish stocks targeted by fishermen are also a primary food source of marine mammals. Normally this would be viewed as competition for a common resource. With the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972, marine mammals are protected which has aided in the recovery of numerous species. Along the West Coast, the MMPA has been highly successful in the recovery of most stocks of California sea lions and Pacific harbor seals, and it has resulted in more frequent interactions with commercial and recreational fishermen, causing damage to fishing gear and loss of catch. Non-lethal methods to eliminate or reduce pinniped predation have been unsuccessful. This paper summarizes the issue of marine mammal depredation in general, examines some of the economic damages, and discusses efforts to minimize these interactions

A Method for Estimating Marine Habitat Values Based on Fish Guilds, with Comparisons between Sites in the Southern California Bight

Habitat valuation is an essential tool for tracking changes in habitat quality and in adjudicating environmental mitigation. All current methods for estimating habitat values of coastal marine sites rely heavily on the opinion of experts or on data variables that can readily be manipulated to influence the outcome. As a result, unbiased, quantitative comparisons between the values of different marine habitats are generally unavailable. We report here on a robust, objective technique for the valuation of marine habitats that makes use of data that are commonly gathered in surveys of marine fish populations: density, fidelity, and mean size. To insure comparability across habitats, these variables are assessed for guilds of fishes, rather than for single species. The product of the three guild-based parameters is transformed to its square root and then summed across all guilds in the habitat, yielding a single measure of habitat value for each site surveyed. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, we have analyzed data from existing surveys of 13 marine sites in the Southern California Bight, encompassing 98 fish species from 23 guilds. For seven of the sites, it was possible to develop estimates of the confidence interval of the habitat valuation, using a resampling technique. Variance estimates from resampling in one habitat mirrored those derived from analysis of annual variation. The resultant ranking of habitat types was: kelp beds \u3e shallow artificial reefs \u3e wetlands \u3e protected shallow waters (soft bottom) \u3e shallow open coastal sand (depth \u3c30 m) \u3e soft bottom habitat on the continental shelf (30 m \u3c depth \u3c200 m) \u3e soft bottom habitat on the continental slope (depth \u3e200 m). Although our data sets were restricted to Southern California, similar data could be obtained from any reasonably well-studied marine environment. The guild-based valuation technique may, therefore, be broadly applicable to the analysis of other marine ecosystems

Satellite Network Performance Measurements Using Simulated Multi-User Internet Traffic

As a number of diverse satellite systems (both Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary systems) are being designed and deployed, it becomes increasingly important to be able to test these systems under realistic traffic loads. While software simulations can provide valuable input into the system design process, it is crucial that the physical system be tested so that actual network devices can be employed and tuned. These tests need to utilize traffic patterns that closely mirror the expected user load, without the need to actually deploy an end-user network for the test. In this paper, we present trafgen. trafgen uses statistical information about the characteristics of sampled network traffic to emulate the same type of traffic over the test network. This paper compares sampled terrestrial network traffic with emulated satellite network traffic over the NASA ACTS satellite

Can the United States have its fish and eat it too?

As domestic affluence increases, nations advocate for conservation policies to protect domestic biodiversity that often curtail natural resource production activities such as fishing. If concomitant consumption patterns remain unchanged, environmentally-conscious nations with high consumption rates such as the U.S. may only be distancing themselves from the negative environmental impacts associated with consuming resources and commodities produced elsewhere. This unintended displacement of ecosystem impacts, or leakage, associated with conservation policies has not been studied extensively in marine fisheries. This paper examines this topic, drawing on case studies to illustrate the ways in which unilateral marine conservation actions can shift ecosystem impacts elsewhere, as has been documented in land use interventions. The authors argue that the U.S. should recognize these distant ecological consequences and move toward greater self-sufficiency to protect its seafood security and minimize leakage as well as undertake efforts to reduce ecosystem impacts of foreign fisheries on which it relies. Six solutions are suggested for broadening the marine conservation and seafood consumption discussion to address U.S.-induced leakage

Can the United States have its fish and eat it too?

As domestic affluence increases, nations advocate for conservation policies to protect domestic biodiversity that often curtail natural resource production activities such as fishing. If concomitant consumption patterns remain unchanged, environmentally-conscious nations with high consumption rates such as the U.S. may only be distancing themselves from the negative environmental impacts associated with consuming resources and commodities produced elsewhere. This unintended displacement of ecosystem impacts, or leakage, associated with conservation policies has not been studied extensively in marine fisheries. This paper examines this topic, drawing on case studies to illustrate the ways in which unilateral marine conservation actions can shift ecosystem impacts elsewhere, as has been documented in land use interventions. The authors argue that the U.S. should recognize these distant ecological consequences and move toward greater self-sufficiency to protect its seafood security and minimize leakage as well as undertake efforts to reduce ecosystem impacts of foreign fisheries on which it relies. Six solutions are suggested for broadening the marine conservation and seafood consumption discussion to address U.S.-induced leakage

Abstract

As a number of diverse satellite systems (both Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary systems) are being designed and deployed, it becomes increasingly important to be able to test these systems under realistic traffic loads. While software simulations can provide valuable input into the system design process, it is crucial that the physical system be tested so that actual network devices can be employed and tuned. These tests need to utilize traffic patterns that closely mirror the expected user load, without the need to actually deploy an end-user network for the test. In this paper, we present trafgen. trafgen uses statistical information about the characteristics of sampled network traffic to emulate the same type of traffic over the test network. This paper compares sampled terrestrial network traffic with emulated satellite network traffic over the NASA ACTS satellite