What can ecology contribute to ecosystem-based management?

Abstract

Modern fishing changes the ocean environment in many ways, including disturbing the sea floor, altering the food webs, and shifting many important ecosystem functions. Natural history, oceanographic, habitat, behavior, and ecological information must be integrated to implement meaningful ecosystem-based management. We discuss the urgent need to expand the concept of essential fish habitat to include important food-web relationships. The need for a broader perspective in terms of ecosystem function and the effects of interactive stressors is emphasized to maintain the vitality and resilience of valued ecosystems. Maintenance of multiple ecosystem functions is a key factor in the adaptive capacity of ecosystems to change. We argue that an ecological understanding of resilience embraces uncertainty and encourages multiple approaches to the management of humans such that ecosystem functions are maintained.