Historical dynamics of coastal and marine ecosystem services.

Project Information

MarHIST

Grant agreement ID: 787671

DOI

10.3030/787671

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2018

Start date 1 October 2018

End date 30 September 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MarHIST (Historical dynamics of coastal and marine ecosystem services.)

Reporting period: 2018-10-01 to 2020-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Natural ecosystems provide services that we rely upon for survival and well-being, yet many of these systems are experiencing profound changes as a result of accelerating habitat degradation and biodiversity loss. Ecosystem services are the benefits humans gain from ecosystems. While this is a rapidly expanding area of research, research into ecosystem services gained from coastal and marine systems lags behind its terrestrial counterpart. Moreover, long-term dynamics of ecosystem services are frequently overlooked. Without understanding the direction and rate of change in ecosystem service dynamics, we risk missing declines in services that may affect our well-being. This project aimed to explore historical sources (archival, material and oral history) to reveal the dynamics of coastal and marine ecosystem services over decadal to centennial timescales. By integrating sources and approaches from history and ecology, the project aimed to understand past marine ecosystem service dynamics in provisioning, regulating and cultural coastal marine ecosystem services.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Three work packages were progressed during the project.
Work Package 1 aimed to develop methods to use historical and long-term datasets to reconstruct marine and coastal ecosystem service dynamics.
Work Package 2 aimed to discover key social and ecological factors and their interactions that lead to ecosystem service production over time.
Work Package 3 aimed to identify past and present ecosystem service values and quantify changes over time among user groups.

Research is still underway for specific work packages, with manuscripts in preparation. To date, three related peer-reviewed papers have been published. Published results highlight the wide variety of services provided through time by coastal marine ecosystems such as oyster reefs, and the transformation in particular services as habitats became degraded, or as groups of people became marginalized from their traditional practices. Research also demonstrates the variance in ecosystem services provided across bivalve marine species and habitats. Research currently underway highlights the strong regional identities fostered as the result of provisioning practices for particular marine species (e.g. the flat oyster), and demonstrates some of the interactions across different types of ecosystem services (Thurstan et al. In prep). Interviews with stakeholders (delayed due to Covid restrictions with research still underway) highlights the many conceptual challenges around cultural ecosystem services which lead to further challenges when attempting to value these services, but it also demonstrates the ways in which interviewees define multiple marine cultural services and their interconnections.

Early results were disseminated via oral presentations and project outputs were worked on with collaborators at three international working groups: International Council for Exploration of the Sea Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries 2019 and 2020, Native Oyster Restoration Alliance Historical Ecology Working Group 2020; two international conferences: Oceans Past 2018, Oceans Past 2020; and two international visits where I presented an extended seminar on my research: Boston University (USA) and Murdoch University (Australia).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Ecosystem services are vital to human well-being, yet very few studies have tracked ecosystem service dynamics over long time frames. This study is beginning to fill some important knowledge gaps in our understanding of trends in marine ecosystem condition and how these link to ecosystem service provision. This project has begun to leverage historical ecology insights to examine the social and ecological factors that interact to produce ecosystem services. The impacts of this work include new academic insights from novel, peer-reviewed research that aims to improve our understanding of ecosystem service dynamics and that provides insights into the status of marine and coastal ecosystem services, with relevance to blue growth agendas. It is hoped that this new knowledge will have wider societal implications by providing an evidence base for future research and policy with significant environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits to the European community.

Image: Lockwood 1874. The Natural History of the Oyster.

Lockwood 1874 The Natural History of the Oyster