CNH2-S: Measuring adaptive responses that strengthen governance of marine resources in small coastal fishing communities

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Marine social-ecological systems (SES) are shaped by many related social and environmental processes, such as ocean warming and acidification, human migration, and seafood trade. Together, these environmental and social processes have major influences on coastal marine ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them. They affect abundance and diversity of marine species, shape social and economic life within a community, and influence systems of governance. Understanding these effects is particularly relevant for small-scale fisheries as they employ over 90% of fishers globally and provide food and labor opportunities for hundreds of millions of people. This study will identify and evaluate responses to social and environmental change that shape the governance and sustainability of natural resource systems. The focal SES of this study encompasses small-scale fisheries. After 25 collaborative projects conducted over the last 20 years, the research team is well-positioned to create a model for SES synthesis and analysis that is grounded in knowledge from diverse disciplines and perspectives and is relevant to small-scale fisheries in coastal marine systems and communities around the globe. The project will build capacity in integrated SES science by supporting an early career investigator and education and training activities for graduate and undergraduate students and postdoctoral scholars. In addition, it will develop interdisciplinary collaboration in marine conservation and management, lead to information-sharing through further development of an open source digital platform, and engage decision makers, fishers, and other community members through workshop activities. This project will produce novel and generalizable insights concerning the operation and transformation of integrated socio-environmental systems (SES) and improve scientific understanding of adaptive responses to environmental and social change in a culturally and economically important transboundary marine ecosystem. The focus is on the SESs associated with small-scale fisheries and the work is guided by the overall research question: What are the observed responses, either adaptive or maladaptive, to social and environmental drivers of change that shape the governance and sustainability of natural resources and the human communities that depend on them? The investigators will synthesize diverse datasets covering oceanographic, ecological, fishery, socioeconomic, and governance system components that the team has assembled through previous research projects and sustained engagement with regional stakeholders and ecosystems. They will use a series of spatially explicit and hierarchically structured models, informed by expert knowledge of individuals with diverse disciplinary and institutional perspectives, to test hypotheses related to 1) the frequency and spatial extent of environmental and social drivers of change; 2) influences of these drivers on governance arrangements; and 3) the ability of cooperative governance arrangements to withstand shocks and exhibit adaptive strategies in the face of change. The goal is to understand causal pathways and processes leading to divergent socio-environmental outcomes and contribute to the theory of adaptation in practice. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.