Evaluating the Concept of Baselines to Detect Ecosystem Recovery in Conditions of Climate Change
Presentation Abstract
Scientists rely on baselines as a measure of ecosystem recovery, contingent on the assumption that the physical environment supporting ecosystem processes does not change and that baselines can been formulated over sufficiently long and representative time scales to encompass the natural variability of a given system. Long-term aquatic monitoring programs, however, struggle with finding the appropriate baselines because new long-term patterns of variability emerge as the dataset continues to grow. The concept of shifting baselines has been applied in other marine environments (e.g., The Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project that grew from its three founding partners - Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Ocean Conservancy, and Surfrider Foundation), motivating us to figure out how such approaches can be specifically adapted to the Salish Sea temperature and salinity records. Given that the climate-land-ocean connection sensitively impacts physical processes in the Salish Sea through hydrological cycles, the use of baselines in context of ecosystem recovery has to be pragmatically addressed.
Session Title
Climate Change and Marine Response
Conference Track
Climate & Ocean Condition Changes
Conference Name
Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2020 : Online)
Document Type
Event
SSEC Identifier
2020_abstractID_5483
Start Date
21-4-2020 9:00 AM
End Date
22-4-2020 4:45 PM
Genre/Form
presentations (communicative events)
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Baselines (Law of the sea)--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Biotic communities--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Geographic Coverage
Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Evaluating the Concept of Baselines to Detect Ecosystem Recovery in Conditions of Climate Change
Scientists rely on baselines as a measure of ecosystem recovery, contingent on the assumption that the physical environment supporting ecosystem processes does not change and that baselines can been formulated over sufficiently long and representative time scales to encompass the natural variability of a given system. Long-term aquatic monitoring programs, however, struggle with finding the appropriate baselines because new long-term patterns of variability emerge as the dataset continues to grow. The concept of shifting baselines has been applied in other marine environments (e.g., The Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project that grew from its three founding partners - Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Ocean Conservancy, and Surfrider Foundation), motivating us to figure out how such approaches can be specifically adapted to the Salish Sea temperature and salinity records. Given that the climate-land-ocean connection sensitively impacts physical processes in the Salish Sea through hydrological cycles, the use of baselines in context of ecosystem recovery has to be pragmatically addressed.
