- Report
Scale dependencies and its influence on EBM
This report provides a review of the existing knowledge of scale dependencies in Sustainable Seas research project and compares between phase I and II of the challenge. Ellis J, Rullens V, Fisher K & Hewitt J (December 2022)
Ecosystem-based management (EBM) of marine environments is a dynamic process and requires a good understanding of the system across a range of disciplines and spatial and temporal scales. Issues of scales are often acknowledged in individual disciplines, but we haven’t looked at pulling this together and how it may impact decision making processes and its success.
Here, we surveyed past and present research projects within the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge to identify the existing knowledge of scale dependencies. Ecological, socio-cultural, organizational, and economic scales over which projects operate were identified and categorized to identify scale patterns in our approach and knowledge gaps of scales we have not addressed. Overall, we found a focus on longer time scales and larger spatial scales and found a shift from phase II projects to work over a wider range of scales. Finally, we identified how scale impacts tools developed in the challenge, risk and value practices, and how scale may aid or hinder EBM.
