ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND THE CONSERVATION OF AQUATIC BIODWERSITY AND ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY¹

Abstract

Ecologically effective ecosystem management will require the development of a robust logic, rationale, and framework for addressing the inherent limitations of scientific understanding. It must incorporate a strategy for avoiding irreversible or largescale environmental mistakes that arise from social and political forces that tend to promote fragmented, uncritical, short-sighted, inflexible, and overly optimistic assessments of resource status, management capabilities, and the consequences of decisions and policies. Aquatic resources are vulnerable to the effects of human activities catchment-wide, and many of the landscape changes humans routinely induce cause irreversible damage (e.g., some species introductions, extinctions of ecotypes and species) or give rise to cumulative, long-term, large-scale biological and cultural consequences (e.g., accelerated erosion and sedimentation, deforestation, toxic contamination of sediments). In aquatic ecosystems, biotic impoverishment and environmental disruption caused by past management and natural events profoundly constrain the ability of future management to maintain biodiversity and restore historical ecosystem functions and values. To provide for rational, adaptive progress in ecosystem management and to reduce the risk of irreversible and unanticipated consequences, managers and scientists must identify catchments and aquatic networks where ecological integrity has been least damaged by prior management, and jointly develop means to ensure their protection as reservoirs of natural biodiversity, keystones for regional restoration, management models, monitoring benchmarks, and resources for ecological research.(KEY TERMS: ecosystem management; ecological integrity; aquatic biodiversity; cumulative effects; conservation reserves; landscape planning; watershed analysis.)

Effects of fire on fish populations: landscape perspectives on persistence of native fishes and nonnative fish invasions

“…More recent emphasis has been placed on restoration and preservation of natural processes and variability in aquatic ecosystems (Anonymous, 1995;Reeves et al, 1995;Frissell and Bayles, 1996;Ebersole et al, 1996;Beechie and Bolton, 1999).…”

Assessing Aquatic Ecological Health for Lake Poyang, China: Part I Index Development

“…However, due to human activities (e.g., population growth), aquatic communities have suffered from significant declines of abundance and natural diversity in recent years [1,2]. Quantifying the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems can support water managers to identify the main perturbations responsible for impaired conditions, and thus propose regulations and recommendations towards ecosystem recovery [3].…”

Integrating catchment properties in small scale species distribution models of stream macroinvertebrates

“…We propose to apply small scale SDMs, as tools to aid freshwater ecosystem conservation efforts and to guide environmental management at the catchment extent (Frissell and Bayles, 1996). The possibility to evaluate diverse anthropogenic management and global change scenarios by including predictors which can be and are manipulated, such as discharge and land use, should be of particular interest to decision makers, conservation practitioners and help strengthen public awareness (Malmqvist and Rundle, 2002).…”