NOAAs Activities and Products in Support of Ecosystem Services

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NOAAs Activities and Productsin Support of
Ecosystem Services

• Nathalie Valette-Silver
• NOAA/NOS
• National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences
• ACES, December 8-11, 2008

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Ecosystem Services

• Human Demands for Natural Assets
• Providing Services Food, fiber, clean water,
  biochemicals, etc.
• Regulating Services flood prevention, CO2
  sequestration, oxygen production, etc.
• Supporting Services climate regulation, nutrient
  cycle, etc.
• Cultural Services Spiritual inspiration,
  recreation, education, cultural heritage, etc.
• Preserving Services Biodiversity maintenance,
  refugia, etc.

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Ecosystem Services

• These services are not free or infinitely
  available
• As human population grows so does the pressure
  imposed on ecosystems
• Ecosystems services are threatened
• We must balance conflicting uses

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• Mission
• To understand and predict changes in Earths
  environment and conserve and manage coastal and
  marine resources to meet our Nations economic
  social and environmental needs

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• One of NOAAs goals is
• To protect, restore and manage, the use of
  coastal and ocean resources through an Ecosystem
  Approach to Management (EAM)

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• EAM is a holistic, evolutionary management
  strategy designed to improve the productivity of
  coastal and marine ecosystems
• Shifts current management practices
• From short-term perspective with humans
  independent of ecosystems
• To ecosystem-based , long-term
• perspectives with humans as an integral
• part of the ecosystems.
• Balances exploitation and protection of our
  coastal resources in the ocean, estuaries and
  Great Lakes

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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Integrated Assessment Introduction of Lionfish
  to the Western Atlantic Ocean

• Question What will be the impact of lionfish on
  the affected ecosystems?
• Background
• -Venimous invasive species coming from the
  Indo-Pacific
• -Was introduced in Florida (aquarium releases)
• -Lionfish is spreading rapidly. Observed from
  Miami to Boston and Bermuda and spreading South
• -Numbers continuing to increase (400 on NC
  reefs), and reportedly even higher in the
  Bahamas now
• Ecosystem effects
• -Very voracious and with no known predator (eats
  smaller fish, shrimps, crabs)
• - Preys have no experience with lionfish (Ambush
  predator)
• - SE reef fish predators that could be
  competitors are overfished (e.g., groupers, etc)
• - Observed a 79 decrease in recruitment of
  native species to experimental reef units in the
  Bahamas (Hixon and Albins-2008)

http//coastalscience.noaa.gov/about/ia.html
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Integrated Assessment Introduction of Lionfish
  to the Western Atlantic Ocean

• Future outcomes with no management action
• -Introduction is irreversible. Lionfish
  population will continue to grow (change in ocean
  temperature)
• - Effects on SE ecosystems will become more
  severe
• - Incidents of envenomations of divers and/or
  fishers along the East coast of the US very
  likely
• Recommended management actions
• -Reduce population abundance encourage divers
  and fishers to catch lionfish (bounty?)
• -Increase outreach and education efforts
  (distribution, risks, raise public awareness,
  educate aquarium industry about dangers of
  aquarium releases)
• -Increase research efforts to better understand
  lionfish biology and their impact on the
  ecosystems
• -Regulate/restrict import of live fish to
  protect against further introductions (e.g.,
  Hawaii, Bermuda, etc),
• -Enforce the Lacey Act of 1900 (e.g., mechanism
  to prohibit import of injurious species)

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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA)
• - Critical science support element enabling an
  EAM strategy
• - IEA formally bridges science and management
• - Is a subset of an IA for a specific ecosystem
• -Does not have examples yet but NCCOS is working
  on an IEA in Chesapeake Bay
• -Needs to identify an overarching question
• Examples of Questions
• -What is the likelihood that a given ecosystem
  will remain healthy?
• -If an ecosystem is not healthy, what is needed
  to make it healthy?

http//www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/assets/25/6801_07302008_
144647_IEA_TM92Final.pdf
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA)
• Five Steps Process

Identify goals of IEA and threats to achieving
goals
Develop ecosystem indicators and targets
Monitoring of ecosystem indicators and
management effectiveness
Risk Analysis
Assessment of ecosystem status relative to EAM
goals
Management strategy evaluation
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Ecological Forecast Harmful Algal Bloom Movement
  and Landfall

-Red tides are frequent along the coasts of
Florida. -The microscopic algae that forms them,
called Karenia Brevis, produces the brevetoxin
-Brevetoxon is a substance toxic to marine
animals (manatees, dolphins, fish, oysters, etc)
and detrimental to humans (respiratory problems)
http//tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/hab/
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Ecological Forecast NOAA Harmful Algal Bloom
  Bulletin Forecast

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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Restoration Efforts Calibration of the effect of
  injury size on spatial models predicting the
  recovery of sea grasses from vessel injuries

-Seagrass meadows in shallow waters of the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary severely
impacted by vessel groundings. -NOAA has
developed tools for injury assessment and
restoration of seagrasses.
Vegetative growth very slow for seagrass species
like Thalassia, recovery horizons for larger
injuries may be dependent on seedling
recruitment, survival and growth.

http//www.ccfhr.noaa.gov/stressors/landuse/
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Restoration Efforts Calibration of the effect of
  injury size on spatial models predicting the
  recovery of sea grasses from vessel injuries

-Development and calibration of injury recovery
model for seagrasses that assumes recovery from
vegetative in-growth of adjacent side
populations. - Presently, development of a
spatial model that incorporates sexual propagules
(seagrass seedlings or coral recruits).
The model support claims for damages to seagrass
beds in the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary and result in the recovery of 20 to 30
claims per year. The money recovered in these
claims cases will then be used to restore the
damaged seagrass beds.

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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Models Oil Spill Response

NOAA ORR draws on three decades of experience in
responding with the U.S. Coast Guard to spill
emergencies, and resolving the sometimes
long-term problems presented by major oil spills.
Among the services that NOAA ORR provides are

• Trajectory analyses to estimate where spilled
  pollutants may move
• Information about the fate and effects of the
  different types of oil and
• Environmental assessments, including clean-up
  assessment surveys and resources-at-risk surveys.

http//response.restoration.noaa.gov/
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Models Oil Spill trajectory

• GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling
  Environment) is an oil spill trajectory model
  used by NOAA ORR Emergency Response Division
  responders during an oil spill.
• Modelers use GNOME in Diagnostic Mode to set up
  custom scenarios quickly.
• In Standard Mode, anyone can use GNOME (with a
  Location File) to

-Predict how wind, currents, and other processes
might move and spread oil spilled on the water.
-Learn how predicted oil trajectories are
affected by uncertainty in current and wind
observations and forecasts. -See how spilled oil
is predicted to change chemically and physically
("weather") during the time that it remains on
the water surface.
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Tools Tool kits for HAB toxins identification of
  Domoic Acid

-Domoic acid (DA) is a neurotoxin produced by
Pseudo-nitzchia microalgae. -Frequent blooms
along the west coast of the US -Domoic acid is
concentrated in the food web to levels that
threaten human and animal health. -For example,
in 1998, high levels of toxin in razor clams in
Oregon and Washington resulted in beach closures
lasting more than a year and a half. -During this
time, recreational, commercial and tribal
subsistence harvest of clams, valued at over 20
million annually was lost.
http//www.ccfhr.noaa.gov/
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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Tool kits for HAB toxins identification of Domoic
  Acid

• Many coastal Tribal nations from northern
  California through Alaska depend on local harvest
  of clams and crabs as a food source and cash crop
• No access to sophisticated and expensive HPLC
  instrumentation currently needed to measure DA
  acid contamination
• Development of ELISA Detection Method and
  Characterization of Toxin Production Pathways for
  Algal Toxin Detection and Monitoring
• The technique provides recreational fishermen,
  citizens monitoring groups, and commercial
  fishermen the ability to test for potentially
  harmful levels of domoic acid.
• This method allow for expediting decisions to
  harvest or not to harvest.

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NOAAs Activities and Products

• Other Products The State of the Coral Reef
  Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific
  Freely Associated States 2002, 2005, 2008

-On-going series of assessments of the condition
of coral reef ecosystems -Summarize the results
of coral reef ecosystem monitoring -Present data
on status of water quality, benthic habitats,
coral reef associated communities -Evaluate the
impacts of thirteen major threats -Summarize
current conservation management
activities -Provides recommendations for future
actions
http//ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coralreef/
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NOAAs Activities and Products in Support of
Ecosystem Services

• Only a few examples of NOAAs activities and
  products to maintain, protect and restore Great
  Lakes, estuarine, coastal and ocean ecosystems
  services
• NOAA is a major player in coastal and ocean
  ecosystem service preservation and restoration
  using its unique capabilities and assets
• - Weather forecast,
• - Climate forecast,
• - Ecological forecast,
• - Social science,
• - Observation and monitoring,
• - Research,
• - Outreach and education,
• - Management support,
• - Policy Support, etc

For more information http//www.noaa.gov/ Natha
lie Valette-Silver 301- 713-3020,
nathalie.valette-silver_at_noaa.gov