About the project
Project title
Enhancing resilience of coastal ecosystems and human communities to oceanographic variability: social and ecological feedbacks
Project summary
The ecosystems and associated small-scale fisheries of Baja California, Mexico, have been affected by ENSO events, with significant decline in key resources during the extreme events of 1982-83 and 1997-98. More recently, climate-driven low-oxygen events (hypoxia) have been documented in coastal areas of the California Current region, including Baja California, resulting in high mortality of ecologically and commercially important nearshore marine species. The capacity of ecosystems and human communities to adapt to environmental change depends on their resilience, i.e., the ability of ecosystems to absorb disturbance while maintaining function and the provision of ecosystem services, and the ability of people to adapt to environmental change by altering their behaviors and interactions. Thus, although local interactions cannot directly influence the pressures of climatic and oceanographic variability on coastal communities and ecosystems, human-natural feedbacks determine the capacity of these systems to adapt to change. This research program will investigate the impacts of oceanographic variability on coastal marine ecosystems and human communities of the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico, and the influences of local and global feedbacks on the resilience and adaptive capacity of these systems. We will (1) characterize coastal oceanographic variability and the patterns and drivers of hypoxic events; (2) assess the impacts of coastal oceanographic variability, particularly hypoxic events, on nearshore species, ecosystems, and fisheries, and compare these impacts with past influence of ENSO events; (3) assess the cultural, social, and economic variables that influence the responses of local communities to these impacts, particularly their willingness and ability to invest in local conservation and adaptation; and (4) assess the willingness of selected groups of US citizens to support these local conservation efforts and determine what factors influence such contributions.
A better understanding of adaptive capacity of social-ecological coastal systems to past and current oceanographic variability will offer insights into their adaptive capacity to future oceanographic variability stemming from natural and anthropogenic drivers, including climate change. First, this project will generate new insights into the patterns and drivers of the recently discovered hypoxic events along the western coast of North America, their influences on marine ecosystems and fisheries, and the function of marine reserves in contributing to the resilience of social-ecological coastal systems. Second, research will explicitly address responses to environmental change within both local and ‘global’ communities not directly associated with the impacted ecosystems, as well as their interactions. Third, this research program will train undergraduate and graduate students in integrated social and ecological studies. Finally, results will guide the development and implementation of marine conservation and climate adaptation strategies in coastal areas.