Browsing by Subject "Seagrass"
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Open Access Comanagement of U.S. Marine Protected Areas: Current Efforts and their Potential Implications for Seagrass Management at Fishers Island, New York(2016-04-27) Collier, ChantalComanagement is practiced in many countries and recommended as an appropriate, equitable and effective approach to place-based, marine resource management. However, few examples of collaboratively managed marine protected areas (MPAs) involving government and community partners are found in the United States (U.S.). Efforts to share management of MPAs by the state and local communities have emerged in Florida, Hawai‘i, and California. These cooperative agreements demonstrate an alternative to the top-down, centralized government approach to natural resource management commonly practiced in the U.S. What conditions enabled or challenged the emergence of comanagement for these MPAs? How have local community norms, values and knowledge contributed to marine resource problem-solving in each case? Can experiences drawn from these cases inform or improve MPA management in other states? Recent legislation requiring the State of New York to designate Seagrass Management Areas and consult with local community members to effectively protect, manage and restore seagrass provides an opportunity to investigate these questions. This study reveals the conditions and strategies whereby solutions to MPA management problems emerged as a result of iterative, collaborative processes for Rookery Bay in Florida, Hā‘ena in Hawai‘i, and Catalina Island in California, where the state and local community share management responsibilities. For each case, I describe the development of MPAs and the collaborative agreement, identify the conditions that gave rise to comanagement, and map its problem-solving functions in the context of the social-ecological system. Drawing upon my analysis, I recommend strategies to enhance MPA comanagement and propose new conditions or drivers essential for comanagement of MPAs. Existing preconditions and the potential for a cooperative approach to seagrass management at Fishers Island, New York are derived from community members’ perceptions, values, hopes and concerns regarding local marine resources and the prospect of Seagrass Management Areas.Item Open Access Environmentally Friendly Aids to Navigation Buoy Moorings(2015-04-23) Slivinski, LukeAids to navigation (ATON) established and maintained by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) negatively impact coral and a seagrass species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These negative impacts are caused by physical contact between the threatened species or the benthic environment surrounding them and the ATON itself, the ATON’s mooring, or the temporary anchoring/mooring devices employed by the USCG vessels installing and maintaining the ATON. These interactions constitute a “take” under the ESA and are detrimental to the health and vitality of those species. The USCG should explore practicable new ATON mooring technologies and installation and maintenance procedures that eliminate or lessen negative impacts on the threatened seagrass and coral species. This paper focuses on USCG ATON impacts to threatened seagrass and coral species and includes: a characterization and quantification of USCG ATON impact areas in critical seagrass and coral habitats; and an analysis of novel (to the USCG) and more environmentally-friendly commercial-off-the-shelf anchoring and mooring systems suitable for USCG ATON, including an analysis of their installation and maintenance requirements and a cost comparison between them and traditional ATON anchoring and mooring systems.Item Open Access Incorporation of Species Interactions in Seagrass Conservation and Restoration(2019) Zhang, Yin San StacyCoastal ecosystems and the valuable services they provide have and continue to be degraded by anthropogenic stressors across the globe. Conservation efforts to mitigate deleterious impacts have largely failed at aiding ecosystem recovery such that restoration has become a predominant method of stemming the loss of critical habitats and the communities they support. Globally, it is estimated that 29% of seagrass beds have been lost or converted, and this translates to trillions of dollars lost in ecosystem services as well as commercial and recreational prospects. In this dissertation, I evaluate how ecological interactions can alter restoration trajectories and shift community dynamics. Namely, I focus on facilitative and trophic interactions among seagrasses, bivalves, and the associated nekton and mesograzer communities propagate through seagrass ecosystems. To do this, I use a combination of scientific literature review, surveys, and manipulative field experiments to apply ecological theories of species interactions in seagrass restoration and conservation. Reviews of the coastal restoration research reveal a paucity of studies that consider biological interactions as important factors that may determine restoration success (Chapter 1). Because foundation species, such as seagrasses, can promote the success and survival of numerous other organisms through facilitation, I further tested if and how a facilitation cascade among seagrass beds and pen clams, Atrina rigida, may affect local diversity and ecosystem functions (Chapter 2). Since studies have, in fact, shown that positive interactions can also enhance restoration of coastal foundation species, I investigated in how the inclusion of intra- and interspecific interactions can affect seagrass restoration from seed and adult shoots. Finally, given that top-down influences can also affect bivalve abundances and seagrass productivity, I explored how large predator removals (via exclusion stockades) may shift seagrass community structure and propagate onto primary producers.
In these studies, I find that facilitative interactions can promote not only the success and yield of bivalve populations, but that in some instances, bivalves can also, in turn, facilitate the growth of seagrasses. Similarly, alteration to diversity at higher trophic levels can have positive top-down impacts on bivalve abundances despite alterations to mesopredator abundances. Whereas biological interactions have historically been ignored in the restoration literature, my dissertation research makes the argument that consideration and incorporation of species interactions is necessary for understanding the ecology that underlies the stability, recovery, and resilience of coastal ecosystems.
Item Open Access Operationalizing the Duke Restore Seagrass Farm(2023-04-25) Domeyer, DevinI lent support for 18 months as a volunteer project manager to support the Duke Restore Seagrass Farm’s goal of operationalizing a hub for seagrass restoration. This work entailed geospatial analysis for potential farm sites, grant writing, permit acquisition, volunteer management, and relationship building with local community groups and landowners. Using my GIS site suitability analyses, we found fifteen potential locations for the Seagrass Farm in Carteret County, North Carolina and planted 0.3 acres for preliminary research.