Management support tools
There are many challenges facing the marine environment and
society that require carefully considered and informed management
strategies. Interacting and conflicting uses, from fishing and
aggregate extraction to conservation and energy generation, result
in scores of stakeholders with a range of needs and claims on the
ocean.
The creation of management strategies, that consider the needs
of a wide range of stakeholders, is facilitated by mathematical and
conceptual, model-based, management support tools. These tools can
be used by society, from policy makers to local communities, to
help develop educated conclusions about the optimal use and
responsible stewardship of natural resources and the marine
environment.
PML’s work focuses on gaining a comprehensive understanding of
the various challenges, stakeholder objectives and possible
management solutions, by combining ecological, ecosystem modelling
and socio-economic expertise. This provides a holistic foundation
for informing national and international policy directives and
ensures that stakeholder objectives are addressed.
Projects
- Marine Ecosystem Evolution in a Changing
Environment (MEECE)
MEECE is a European FP7
Integrated project with 22 partners co-ordinated by PML. MEECE uses
predictive models that consider the full range of climatic and
anthropogenic drivers to explore the responses of the marine
ecosystem in a holistic manner. This innovative approach will help
scientists and decision makers to respond to multiple driver
impacts with appropriate, knowledge-based, management applications.
MEECE will also go a step further and provide methodologies to
evaluate these new decision making and management
tools.
- QUEST_FISH
QUEST_FISH
focuses on how climate change will affect the potential
production of global fisheries' resources in the future,
compared to past and present scenarios, in the absence of
exploitation. This approach removes uncertainties as to
what exploitation regulations will be implemented in coming
decades, and focuses on the added impacts that climate change is
likely to cause, and on the subsequent additional risks and
vulnerabilities to human
societies.
- ShellSIM
ShellSIM is a dynamic model developed at PML which
simulates animal-environment interrelations across broad natural
ranges and variability at scales from individual to farm in
different species of bivalve shellfish, as a cost-effective tool
for use by farmers, regulators, teachers and
scientists.