Title

Evaluating tradeoffs among ecosystem services to inform marine spatial planning

Author Info

Sarah E. Lester, University of California - Santa Barbara
Christopher Costello, University of California - Santa Barbara
Benjamin S. Halpern, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Steven D. Gaines, University of California - Santa Barbara
Crow White, University of California - Santa BarbaraFollow
John A. Barth, Oregon State University

Recommended Citation

Postprint version. Published in Marine Policy, Volume 38, March 1, 2013, pages 80-89.

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Crow White was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.05.022.

Abstract

A central challenge for natural resource management is developing rigorous yet practical approaches for balancing the costs and benefits of diverse human uses of ecosystems. Economic theory has a long history of evaluating tradeoffs in returns from different assets to identify optimal investment strategies. There has been recent progress applying this framework to the delivery of ecosystem services in land use planning. However, despite growing national and international interest in marine spatial planning, there is a lack of parallel frameworks in the marine realm. This paper reviews an ecosystem service tradeoff analysis framework and provides a more comprehensive synthesis for how it can be applied to marine spatial planning and marine ecosystem-based management. A tradeoff analysis approach can reveal inferior management options, demonstrate the benefits of comprehensive planning for multiple, interacting services over managing single services, and identify ‘compatible’ services that provide win–win management options.

Disciplines

Biology

Copyright

2013 Elsevier.