A key aspect of contemporary fish habitat management is the need to account for losses and gains associated with development and offsetting measures while protecting high quality features. We propose an ecological accounting framework for aquatic ecosystems using habitat equivalents scaled to aquatic productivity, and using fish-to-habitat associations by life stage, based on local fish community needs. The framework uses both landscape-scale and site-level evaluations of pre- and post-project habitat changes to assign and track habitat parcels, using ecological baselines and fish-habitat target setting. Concepts of natural capital reserves and productivity-based ecotypes are used for trading losses and gains between impacts from development projects and offsets, including restoration actions, while maintaining ecologically important areas intact. Traditional accounting terms such as deposits, withdrawals, and transfers are defined using scaled habitat-equivalents as the currency. Other key features of the framework include setting a service area that is ecologically meaningful, and conducting habitat transactions guided by habitat conservation, protection, and restoration (habitat CPR) principles. The nearshore area of the Toronto and Region is used as a case study to illustrate the eco-accounting framework and how habitat banking could be incorporated along with planned restoration to remediate this degraded but continually developed area. The framework represents significant advances in managing cumulative habitat effects in an integrated way, moving away from a focus on only project- or site-level assessments. We feel this approach could be adapted to other ecosystem types in addition to the lake, nearshore area example provided here.

1. For decades, the working paradigm for ecological restoration was independent operation of knowledge generators (researchers and scientists) and knowledge users (decision makers and practitioners), resulting in a knowledge-action gap.Knowledge co-production is a collaborative process where research is conducted in a respectful and engaging manner with continuous knowledge exchange and heralded as a means of bridging the divide. Aquatic Habitat Toronto (AHT) is a unique consensus-based partnership withdiverse member agencies that engage in restoration ecology and practice along the Toronto Waterfront of Lake Ontario, Canada. Here, we examine the process that AHT uses to enable knowledge co-production and identify associated benefits and challenges.3. Benefits to AHT's consensus-based partnership include advanced notice of projects, access to diverse expertise and local knowledge, increased understanding of fish habitat, adoption of novel restoration techniques and more effective restoration and improved knowledge exchange, collectively mitigating the knowledge-action divide.4. Challenges of knowledge co-production facilitated by AHT include consistent agency participation and meaningful engagement, closed or exclusive networks, time commitments and limited financial resources, evolving political landscapes, stability of funding cycles and issues stemming from varying goals and relevancy. 5. Key recommendations for ensuring that knowledge co-production results in actionable science and for maximizing the effectiveness of ecological restoration using AHT's format include securing long-term and stable funding, developingThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background: Small-scale dredging activities in freshwater bodies have the potential to impact habitats and food resources that fishes depend on, and ultimately impact fisheries productivity. This systematic review will explore the evidence base for small-scale dredging impacts on the indicators of fisheries productivity, and will help to inform management decisions that seek to reconcile biodiversity conservation and freshwater fisheries, with potentially disruptive anthropogenic activities in freshwater environments. Methods: This systematic review will examine, summarize and synthesize all available evidence on the impacts of small-scale dredging activities on surrogate indicators of fisheries productivity. All studies in freshwater habitats in temperate regions in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres will be considered. Both peer reviewed primary and grey literature will be included in the review, and searches will be conducted in academic journal databases, online search engines, and specialist websites. Study validity will be critically assessed to identify any risk of bias. Data will be presented as a narrative synthesis, and if sufficient good quality data are available, a meta-analysis will be performed.

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