Adaptive Management of Ecosystems using Interdisciplinary and System-Science Approaches - Part 2

11:00 - 12:30 Monday, 30th January, 2023

Location The Edge: Margarinfabrikken 3

Track 6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Type Oral: Hybrid Event

Chairs Igor Eulaers, Gary Griffith, Raul Primicerio, Niels Martin Schmidt, Cecilie von Quillfeldt

Arctic ecosystems are facing climate change at a pace far higher than the global average. Additionally, the Arctic faces multiple pressures from pollution and intensifying human activities. Ultimately, to safeguard the resilience of the Arctic in the face of multiple pressures calls for adaptive management, requiring increased interdisciplinary and system-science approaches, especially considering the socio-ecological milestones set for 2030 under the Ocean Decade, Paris Agreement and United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

This session seeks to gather expertise on interdisciplinary and socio-ecological system approaches that support adaptive management of the Arctic in the face of climate change.


11:00 - 11:20

138 From monitoring to management – continuous improvement of the connecting link.

Dr Louise K Jensen PhD, Dr. Hanne Johnsen PhD, Dr Cecilie v Quillfeldt PhD
Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway

Session Description

The Norwegian sea areas are rich in both renewable and non-renewable resources. The purpose of the integrated management plans is to provide a framework for value creation through the sustainable use of the marine areas' resources and ecosystem services and at the same time to maintain the ecosystems' structure, functioning, productivity and natural diversity. 

Informed decisions rely on availability of updated and relevant knowledge. In Norway, the knowledge informing the management on the marine areas is frequently updated and presented by two multi-sectoral forums, the Forum for Integrated Ocean Management and the Advisory group on Monitoring. Within these forums, all authorities with environmental or economical interest in the sea areas are represented. 

A reliable management depend on monitoring systems which are continuously developed to embrace better and broader information. The basic information needed, is monitoring data on among others, population sizes, distribution of species, physical forces impacting the system, the category and extent of human activity and other directly measurable variables. 

However, separate monitoring data series on various indicators is not an applicable management tool. A significant challenge for the management is the application of monitoring data in a way that enables us to better understand the internal and external interactions in the marine ecosystems. Relevant tools are continuously developed by the scientific community. For each update of the knowledge base for the marine management plans, new tools are implemented, and existing tools may be improved. The knowledge base, to be delivered to the steering group in 2023, will contain the same elements as the former delivery in 2019 but several of the deliveries have been further developed. One example is that new expert assessments using criteria defined in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to assess ecologically and biologically significant areas (EBSAs) have now been used to redefine particularly valuable and vulnerable areas in all Norwegian sea areas in a cohesive manner. Another long-standing challenge have been how to evaluate the combined impact of all existent pressures/stressors on the marine environment. The current knowledge base has taken this challenge a step further by adjusting and implementing a module from the method develop in the EU funded project ODEMM (Options for delivering Ecosystem based Marine Management). This method involves an area-based risk assessment of all present stressors and implications for the environment.  

This presentation will provide examples of adaptive monitoring and management in practice within the Norwegian ocean management system and how collaboration strengthens the knowledge management decisions are based on.


Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.

11:20 - 11:30

64 Management tool to evaluate multiple pressures from intensifying human activities in a rapidly changing high Arctic ecosystems: the work of the ICES-PICES-PAME working group on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (WGICA) for the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO).

senior scientist Lis L Jørgensen Dr1, senior scientist Sei-Ichi Saitoh Dr.2, senior scientist Martine van den Heuvel-Greve Dr.3
1Institute of Marine Research, Tromsø, Norway. 2Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan. 3Wageningen University and Research, Yerseke, Netherlands

Session Description

The Arctic faces multiple pressures from intensifying human activities and a need to safeguard the resilience by increased interdisciplinary and system-science approaches. WGICA aims to provide a holistic analysis of the present status of the CAO ecosystem and human activities therein. This analysis shall provide managers with the option of evaluating the cumulative pressures from human activities, and which ecosystem components that are impacted. During the past years, WGICA has studied and described human activities in and around the CAO and resulting pressures. In this presentation we present the main results from the ongoing reporting of the main human activities (global sources, shipping, military and tourism), pressures (contaminants, garbage, noise, etc) and the work on describing the vulnerability of the ecosystem. We will present the plans on how to use this information into a method for Integrated Ecosystem Assessment as used in ICES.

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

11:30 - 11:40

68 Establishing a comprehensive and adaptive terrestrial ecosystem monitoring program in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

Dr. Jesper B. Mosbacher PhD, Dr. Virve Ravolainen PhD, Dr. Eva Fuglei PhD, Dr. Åshild Pedersen
Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway

Session Description

The structure and functioning of the Arctic tundra is currently challenged by global climate change with profound impacts already being evident. To effectively conserve and manage Arctic ecosystems we require a thorough understanding of the complex dynamics and trends of species, habitats and ecological processes and functions, drivers of change, and their interactions at multiple scales. Ambitious ecosystem-level approaches are needed for this, with coordinated, multi-disciplinary efforts integrating long-term monitoring and research. Unfortunately, most monitoring efforts in the Arctic are short-term and focused narrowly. Consequently, terrestrial biodiversity monitoring has sparse, unequal spatial coverage in large parts of the Arctic, with only a few local examples having extensive coverage. 

With its location and infrastructure, Ny-Ålesund Research Station provides unique opportunities for observational and experimental studies along physical, chemical, hydrological, climatic, and ecological gradients. Secondly, the history of Ny-Ålesund is rich, with research and monitoring have been conducted for more than five decades already. There is already strong evidence of past and ongoing biotic changes caused by climate change in the area, including negative impacts on the population growth rates of many taxa and impacts of rain-on-snow events acting across multiple trophic levels.

In this presentation we argue the need for long-term monitoring programs across the Arctic and present the newly established Ny-Ålesund Terrestrial Ecology Monitoring Programme. It is a very ambitious adaptive ecosystesm-based monitoring programme aiming at covering a span of taxonomic groups at a high temporal resolution. The programme incorporates COAT monitoring already occurring on Svalbard, but in turn expands, intensifies, and extends the protocols and key taxa monitored in the area to unravel trophic interactions and phenology trends. Finally, we will give an overview of trends of species where possible and provide a current state of the Svalbard tundra ecosystem. 

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.

11:40 - 11:50

85 The Case for Using Adaptive Governance to Support Adaptive Management of Arctic Marine Resources

Ms Kristine E Dalaker PhD (Law)
Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Session Description

Elinor Ostrom’s research on the robustness of institutional arrangements informed the further examination of the relationship between social and ecological considerations in managing common-pool resources (CPRs). Her efforts (and those of her colleagues) contributed to the evolving field of socio-ecological system (SES) studies. These studies explore the relationship between social actors and institutions within ecosystems. The interdisciplinary field of SES research draws in part on the study of robustness. Within the SES tradition: ‘[A SES] is robust if it prevents the ecological systems upon which it relies from moving into a new domain of attraction that cannot support a human population, or that will induce a transition that causes long-term human suffering’. (Marshall, 2008 (quoting Anderies et al and Ostrom)). Following in this tradition, when the management of SESs results in unsustainable outcomes, academics explore how governance choices of such systems affect their robustness. This presentation follows in that same tradition by exploring how governance choices (using an adaptive governance approach) could be used to support adaptive management of Arctic marine resources in the face of climate change. 

Adaptive governance should however be distinguished from adaptive management, a related term with which it is often confused. Adaptive governance focuses on how institutional arrangements integrate adaptive management in conserving and sustainably using the resources in diverse commons where change is omnipresent (i.e., Arctic marine resources). In adaptive governance, ‘[t]he legal and administrative arrangements need to enable flexibility and responsiveness; [and] institutions need to learn, problem-solve and connect across diverse stakeholders and knowledge basis’. (Marshall, 2008) Adaptive management, in contrast, focuses on the ecosystem and how to improve policy implementation in the face of changing circumstances within that ecosystem (i.e., regular monitoring by ‘learning through doing’). Because of its focus on the ecosystem, adaptive management often forms part of an ecosystem approach. 

The institutional focus of adaptive governance makes it uniquely suited for this presentation’s aim of making a case for using adaptive governance in concert with adaptive management in managing CPRs within Arctic marine ecosystems in the face of climate change. This aim is achieved by analysing the relevant existing Arctic institutional arrangements using the requirements for adaptive governance, which include: (i) obtaining accurate and relevant information for use in rule making, by focusing on the creation and use of timely scientific knowledge that is updated on a regular basis for monitoring CPRs; (ii) enhancing rule compliance by users through monitoring of CPRs by the users themselves (rather than through centralised or external arrangements); (iii) dealing with conflict across multiple levels quickly and effectively; (iv) providing physical, technological and institutional infrastructure to increase the effectiveness of internal operations, as well as to provide necessary linkages to other large regimes (i.e., coordination); and (v) an overall requirement of encouraging adaption and change of the decision-making mechanisms in institutional arrangements to respond to errors and emerging developments. From this analysis, this author develops recommendations for strengthening existing Arctic institutional arrangements and/or establishing new ones.

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.

11:50 - 12:00

125 The Involvement of Civil Society Organizations in Arctic Governance

Emilie Broek MSc1, Dr. Nicholas Olczak PhD2, Professor Lisa Dellmuth PhD2
1SIPRI, Stockholm, Sweden. 2Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Session Description

The Arctic is seeing considerable change, warming four times faster than the global average, and attracting more attention from states around the world, eager to develop its resources and emerging shipping routes. Legitimate and effective international governance institutions are needed to respond to these rapid changes and ensure that they are managed to produce benefits and minimize harm to all stakeholders. The governance of the Arctic has traditionally been state-centered but is increasingly opened up to non-state actors such as civil society organizations (CSOs) who increasingly participate and contribute to the region’s governance. Failing to understand the involvement of CSOs in Arctic governance risks missing an important piece in the puzzle of how to make governance in the Arctic more legitimate and effective.

CSOs both redefine and contest governance and can provide alternative routes to responding to the rapid changes facing the Arctic. Because CSOs are less hindered by sovereignty issues that typically deter state-led processes, they can bring different perspectives and contributions to decision-making. CSOs have provided alternative routes to cooperation around cross-border governance challenges facing the Arctic such as climate change, biodiversity loss, unsustainable fishing practices, and human insecurity. As stakeholders in the Arctic, members working in CSOs also hold legitimacy beliefs about the appropriateness and rightfulness of the region’s governance institutions, which may impact on their involvement in these institutions. They also engage in practices that legitimate or delegitimate these institutions, where these practices may be based on their own beliefs.

To analyze CSO involvement in Arctic governance, this study draws on existing literature and novel survey data to address two main research questions: (1) How are CSOs involved in Arctic governance? (2) To what extent do members of CSOs, taken as representatives of these organizations, believe in the legitimacy of Arctic governance institutions? By answering these questions, this research will contribute to the existing but still growing literature on the roles and impacts of CSOs in Arctic governance. It will map out the central CSOs and international organizations active in Arctic governance and conclude with recommendations for the further involvement of CSOs in Arctic governance.


Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.

12:00 - 12:10

146 New tools for adaptive management of the Arctic Ocean marine ecosystem, Dynamic Ecoregions and Connectivity Analysis.

Tsuyoshi Wakamatsu1, Caglar Yumruktepe1, Annette Samuelsen1, Stefanie Rynders2, Chris Wilson2, Yevgeny Aksenov2
1Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway. 2National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom

Session Description

The Arctic Ocean is undergoing major and rapid environmental changes including warming, sea ice reduction, freshwater flux increases in river runoff, glacier melt and precipitation and increases in organic/inorganic matter flux from coastal erosions and permafrost thawing. These changes together with new opportunities for economic development create multiple stressors and pressures on Arctic marine ecosystems. Marine ecoregions have become a key component of ecosystem management to alleviate the multiple stressors. A foundational paradigm in regionalization of marine ecosystem is that a body of ocean is divided into distinct regions where the characteristics of water masses, and quantity and quality of environmental resources are generally similar. The concept of ecoregions has long been deemed to be static to a geographical coordinate, but the view would not be applicable to the Arctic Ocean in the coming decades under such rapid environmental transformation. Given recent advances in global and regional ocean circulation models, earth system models and ocean reanalysis products, we are now equipped with data to define ecoregions that meaningfully delimit marine biological communities in the Arctic Ocean based on their environmental classification and to follow their evolution and inter connectivity over time. Two new tools to analyse the dynamic ecoregions and their connectivity are recently developed under EU Horizon project COMFORT and are tested with CMIP6 future projection data and global ocean hindcast model output. View emerged from the analyses is profoundly dynamic.  For example, ecoregion surrounding deep Arctic basins and ecoregion characterized by the current Atlantic water will be diminished by the end of this century and replaced by minor ecoregions in the southern domain. Further, analysis of material transport structure is found to be highly sensitive to the surface circulation regime, suggesting connectivity of ecoregions itself is highly dynamic. In summary, the Arctic Ocean ecoregions will be transformed to new state towards the end of this century and their connectivity is complex and dynamic. This observation suggests that the development of new common tools for adaptive marine ecosystem management in the Arctic Ocean based on the dynamical system analysis tools is a high priority.

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

Yes, I'd be happy to judge the posters.

12:10 - 12:20

209 Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS) and the concept of Shared Arctic Variables

Jan Rene Larsen1, Sandy Starkweather2, Mikko Strahlendorff3
1Arctic PASSION, Tromso, Norway. 2CIRES/CU and NOAA, Boulder, USA. 3Finland, Helsinki, Finland

Session Description

In recent decades, sustained observations of Arctic environmental and socio-economic systems have revealed a pace, magnitude, and extent of change that is unprecedented by many measures.

The aim of the Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS) planning process is to align diverse, pan-Arctic partners engaged in observing around high priority observing foci - called Shared Arctic Variables (SAVs). The ROADS process will stimulate multinational resource mobilization around specific plans for coordinated observation of the Arctic, to serve as a tool for the joint utilization of Indigenous Knowledge and science, to coordinate engagement and to ensure that maximal benefits are delivered. Sustained observing is a prerequisite for the management of ecosystems. 

The presentation will provide an update on the ROADS advisory process, and highlight progress being made on candidate SAVs under four pilot efforts. Some of these pilot efforts are developed under the EU-funded Arctic PASSION project.

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.

12:20 - 12:30

218 Adaptive management of cumulative risk in High North ecosystems

Professor Raul Primicerio PhD
UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Session Description

The rapid pace of climate warming and expansion of human activities in the High North calls for an increased attention to cumulative risk for ecosystems to help promote sustainable management. Multiple stressors research helps to understand, assess and predict cumulative impact and risk for ecosystems providing guidance to advice. But progress in science and management of multiple stressors is hindered by specialization within the scientific community, challenging integration, and by fragmentation of governance and management regimes. Ongoing research projects on multiple stressors in High North ecosystems are addressing these challenges in dialog with stakeholders. In Norway, Fram Centre research program CLEAN aims to catalyze and harmonize such research efforts to help promote adaptive management of cumulative risk in the High North. The research program expands the scope of current practice in cumulative risk research and assessment, focused on human activities, by incorporating climate change and long range transported pollutants among the environmental stressors and by emphasizing interactions between stressors. Adaptive management in the High North must cope with rapid climate driven environmental change and northward redistributions of species that are modifying ecosystem structure and function. An evaluation of recent efforts in cumulative risk assessment to develop advice products for the Barents Sea and Norwegian coast ecosystems provides the context for reflections on current status and future progress of cumulative risk science and adaptive management in the High North.

Which science session are you submitting to?

6: Adaptive management of rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems using interdisciplinary and system-science approaches

Would you be interested in taking part or judging the Early Career Scientist (ECS) poster award?

No thank you.