Project groups

F2.4 | ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT OF COASTAL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES - AN ISLAND MODEL

Project leader:
Uwe Zajonz

The loss of marine and coastal ecosystem services (ESS) due to climate change impacts threatens livelihoods and sustenance of millions of people, especially in subtropical and tropical countries. The climate signal effects coastal ESS by impacting critical variables such global sea level rise, sea surface temperatures, extreme weather events and changed precipitation and hydrodynamic regimes, water chemistry and nutrient content. Coral reefs are especially susceptible to rises of sea water temperatures and acidity. It is expected that biogene reef communities respond with substantial shifts in community composition and structure towards marginal reef structures. This will be associated with a substantial decline of biodiversity and productivity, not least with regard to living resources which are subject to coastal fisheries. Such shifts are critical to human food security in developing countries and likely to divert resource use pressure towards other coastal ESS requiring adaptive climate-proof management solutions.
The Project therefore aims at investigating to which degree Climate Change will cause systemic changes to the ESS potential of tropical island systems which are dominated by a) marginal “subtropical” reef communities, and b) by “classical” tropical biogene reefs. Consequences for adaptive resource use and conservation management will be identified.
The Socotra Archipelago in the Indian Ocean is a global biodiversity hotspot which population relies heavily on coastal resource use. It will serve as a case study for the development of a social-ecological system (SES) island model and a derived coastal resource use regime. A key delivery of the study is an integrated vulnerability assessment (ecological-, focusing on the climate change sensitivity of the ESS potential of its marginal reef communities. In a second step the results will be compared with a SES island model which will be elaborated for an island dominated by tropical reefs (e.g. Rodrigues).
Envisaged process steps consist of: a) Multi-criteria assessment and mapping (status quo) of ESS (including employing remote sensing and GIS); b) ecological and economic accounting and vulnerability analysis; c) scenario- and model development, and trade-off analysis, and; d) development of recommendations for adaptive management and governance systems. Conceptually, the ESS analysis is elaborated in collaboration with project group F1.

The Project forms part of the research programme of the integrated work group “Tropical Marine Systems” (TMS). It thus builds upon the projects F5.1 and F5.2 (see below F2.4) and B2.3 of the 1st phase of LOEWE BiK-F and works accomplished by the Section Ichthyology of the Senckenberg Research Institute. The work approach of TMS is genuinely integrative and will be pursued also in the 2nd phase of LOEWE BiK-F by maintaining transdisciplinary collaboration with TMS projects and others especially of Project Area B and A. It seeks to contribute to the cross-cutting themes “Biotic Interactions” and “Multiple Stressors” and the focal area “shelf ecosystems”. Logistically, the project capitalizes on the Socotra Field Research Station, which is jointly operated by the SGN and BiK-F, and a network of Yemeni colleagues and collaborators.

CURRENT EVENT
Aktueller Artikel über Sokotra in National Geographic
Soqotra Symposium 2012

Team
Dr. Rebecca Klaus (part time)
Moteah Sheikh Aideed (MSc Student, University of Mukallah, Yemen)
Matthias Goerres (BSc student, University of Mainz)
Fouad Naseeb Saeed (local staff, Socotra)
Malek Abdulassiz (voluntary collaborator, Ministry of Water and Environment, Republic of Yemen)

Collaborating member of the work group TMS
Maren Ziegler (Area B)
Hannes Pulch (Area B)
Edouard Lavergne (Area B, SGN)
Dr. Tilman Alpermann (Area A)

Publications

Ziegler, M. & S. Uthicke S (2011) : Photosynthetic plasticity of larger benthic coral reef Foraminifera. Journal of Experimental marine Biology and Ecology 407: 70-80.

Gill, A. & Zajonz, U. (2011). Pseudochromine and pseudoplesiopine dottyback fishes from the Socotra Archipelago, Indian Ocean, with descriptions of two new species of Pseudochromis Rüppell (Perciformes: Pseudochromidae). - Zootaxa 3106: 1-23.

Lavergne E., Zajonz U. & Sellin, L. (submitted). Length-weight relationships of Terapon jarbua (Forsskål, 1775) from the northwestern Indian Ocean including Socotra Island. (submitted to Journal of Applied Ichthyology)

Goerres, Matthias (2011, BSc Thesis). Coastal and terrestrial ecosystem services, uses and users: a case study from Socotra Island, Yemen. Bachelor Thesis, March 2011, University of Mainz, Germany.

Lavergne E., Calves I., Zajonz U. & Laroche J. (2011) Isolation and characterization of nine microsatellite loci of Terapon jarbua (Forsskål, 1775) from Socotra Island (Gulf of Aden) using multiplex PCR. Molecular Ecology Resources. (accepted in December 2010, summary published January 2011, electronic resources online in March 2011)

Zajonz, U., Klaus, R., Pulch, H., Lavergne, E., Naseeb, F., Ziegler, M., Alpermann, T., Goerres, M. & Krupp, F. (2011, unpubl. report). Socotra Research Projects. Summary Progress Report 2009-2010 to the Environment Protection Authority and the Ministry of Water and Environment of the Republic of Yemen. Tropical Marine Ecosystems Group. 40 pp. + 1 Annex. Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum und Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Pulch, H. (2010, Diploma Thesis). Autökologie und Populationsbiologie des endemischen Zwergbarsches Pseudochromis „sp.“ (Perciformes: Pseudochromidae) vom Sokotra-Archipel. Frankfurt am Main, 2010. (Diploma thesis in German language, equivalent to an MSc thesis in the Anglo-american system)

Pulch, H., Pfenniger, M. & Zajonz, U. (2010). Poster presentation at ICRS Conference Wageningen 2010: Connectivity of Dottyback Populations (Perciformes; Pseudochromidae) around Socotra Island (Yemen).

Publications

Gill, A. & Zajonz, U. (2011) : Pseudochromine and pseudoplesiopine dottyback fishes from the Socotra Archipelago, Indian Ocean, with descriptions of two new species of Pseudochromis Rüppell (Perciformes: Pseudochromidae). - Zootaxa 3106: 1–23.

Lavergne, E., Zajonz, U. & L. Sellin (2012) : Length-weight relationships of Terapon jarbua (Forsskål, 1775) from the northwestern Indian Ocean including Socotra Island. - Journal of Applied Ichthyology, online first, DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0426.2012.02018.x

Ziegler, M. & S. Uthicke (2011) : Photosynthetic plasticity of larger benthic coral reef Foraminifera. - Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 407: 70-80
Link to Publication