Tools for Oceanography and Ecosystemic Modeling

André Monaco, Patrick Prouzet

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Edition: 1
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Print ISBN:
  9781848217782
• Subtopic: Oceanography
• eBook ISBN:
  9781119330240

Studying the Ocean Planet requires measuring and sampling instruments to feed models that take into account its complexity.  This book presents the diversity of observation and monitoring techniques at various scales, but also different kinds of model that take into account some conceptual schemes incorporating various scientific knowledge.

Sampling is approached via the efficiency of fishing gears; underwater acoustics is used to detect, count, identify and listen to live and mobile living resources. Bio-logging allows us to rely on the behavior of marine animals to help investigate environments that are difficult to sample by conventional means, while listing the physiological changes they undergo.

Modeling is presented not only in a functional framework, but also in an exploratory design incorporating various scenarios for ecosystem changes under the pressure of global change.

This ninth volume completes the "Seas and Oceans" Set that adopts a transversal approach leading to the governance and sustainable management of the marine environment.

1
For a Systemic and Transdisciplinary Approach to the Environment

1.1. Introduction

In terms of research and technologies, the last ten years have been marked by an undeniably increased awareness of the problems posed by the evolution of our natural environment and societies. In the face of the visible changes of the dynamics of systems and the uses of resources, we called upon science to provide the elements necessary to understand these changes and to pave the way for the future by providing those tools that can help us make decisions.

Furthermore, the researchers working in the wide field of the environment have become familiar with the several initiatives, methods, and programs resulting from the reflection of the international community on the notion of “earth system research for global sustainability” (ESRGS); [REI 10] identify five “great challenges of future earth” which link global change to sustainable development. In France, the research and development programs follow the main directions of public policies, especially those of the National Research and Innovation Strategy (NRIS, Paris, 2009) of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, to cope with and adapt to the accelerated development of economic, social and environmental pressures.

Internationally, programs are deeply rooted in several bodies and actions, including the international council for science (ICSU) and the joint programming initiative (JPI), which focus on water, climate, agriculture or the sea, and the International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA)/Belmont Forum¹, a group of funding agencies for global research on environmental change. The “Belmont” challenge aims at “providing the knowledge necessary to action aiming to adapt to and reduce harmful changes in the environment and extreme events”. The priorities of collaborative research action (CRA) have to do with the safety of water resources and the vulnerability of coastal areas. These organizational concepts and priorities can be found in national research institutions in Europe as well as in the United States. We could even start to worry about the standardization of the research calls from authorities concerned.

Whatever the research field may be, every one of these programs advises a multi- inter- transdisciplinary approach which details the historical development of environmental sciences. This transversality represents and denotes, quite simply, an increasing amount of disciplines being integrated and applied to the environment, in particular social studies and finally, an interaction with the users and policy makers who use the research results in management strategies (see section 3.1). There is even talk of a “co-design” of research programs involving all the actors and participants to the projects. This stage really still seems out of reach. Nevertheless, the literature offers such a variety of terms, concepts and paradigms that it has become difficult for the lay person to get his or her bearings (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1. Semantic proliferation of environmental research.

After this quick reminder about the development of environmental research, and while there is an increasingly wider range of occupations and professions in the environmental field, we have to make this observation: the future practitioners,, i.e. students at different stages in their education, who are increasingly specialized in their sector, seem almost completely dissociated from these national and international considerations and projects. This explains the current difficulties faced when attempting to concretely apply the scientific knowledge into the complex problems posed by changes in the environment (Figure 1.2).

This remark constitutes the basis for thee “Seas and Oceans” collection, which draws from the most recent reflections and national and international directives in terms of earth and environmental sciences to propose: i) a systemic approach to the ocean and its interfaces; ii) an order in which the volumes are published, which simulates the strategies advised for the organization of environmental studies; in other words, starting with the way the marine system works and ending with ocean governance, passing by various cases of vulnerability (Figure 1.3). To ensure this transition between the environment and the socio-economic sector, we have focused on the living resource which best integrates the functions and the changes in the natural environment and its usages.

Figure 1.2. Conceptual framework for a systemic and transversal approach (from ANR-ESS SSC).

This transition, through the resources that make up a vulnerable human capital, is essential and raises awareness among the public with less scientific knowledge since it is closely linked to society and its uses. For example, the “earth overshoot day”, when our planet has consumed more than what it produces yearly, makes it possible to raise public awareness about the pressure that our societies exert on these resources and somehow represents the degree of pressure that we exert on the environment. In French, this is called jour du dépassement global, i.e. the date on which theoretically the Earth’s renewable resources have been depleted²: the first “earth overshoot day” dates back to the December 31, 1986, when the world first consumed in a year more than the planet could offer. However, in 2015 it was on August 3 that we consumed the renewable resources of a whole year.

1.2. A complex and vulnerable ocean system

The Seas and Oceans set of books that we have coordinated has been defined by an editorial board³ of experts in different scientific domains covering a wide range of subject fields, making it possible to tackle the complexity of marine ecosystems but also their vulnerability⁴. The contribution of experts in economics and social studies has also allowed us to see how human societies have exploited, but also sometimes destabilized, marine resources and how these societies could adapt to the change factors resulting from different natural and anthropogenic pressures. The value of resources has not only focused on traditional activities like fishing, aquaculture or maritime transport; it is also derived from the exploitation of the diversity of goods and services offered by the marine environment: renewable forms of energies, pharmacology of marine organisms, microalgae and biotechnology. Figure 1.3 describes the structure of the set schematically.

Its goal is to provide a body of work that allows us to get a better grasp of how the ocean system works in order to more precisely analyze the vulnerability of ecosystems and become more aware of the risks run by a liquid environment that covers more than two-thirds of our planet, the resources of which are increasingly being constrained by the global change. The latter does not only take into account the effects induced by climate change, but also those caused by the increasingly harmful consequences of our formidable technological power, which we find difficult to control [LAR 01, JON 97].

Figure 1.3. Schematic overview of the structure of the Seas and Oceans set

Our actions, usually performed in an exceedingly sectorial context (not much thought is given to the synergy of the effects of our actions upon the functioning and quality of the environment), have consequences and impacts on different levels – local, regional or global – which are illustrated in the various chapters of this set of books⁵.

The authors have been chosen in relation to the general subject treated: each contributes in his or her own specialty, creating a work of multidisciplinarity across several chapters and volumes. Nonetheless, if interdisciplinarity is difficult to implement, it is perhaps more effective wh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• 1 For a Systemic and Transdisciplinary Approach to the Environment
• 2 Vulnerability to Global Change: Observation Strategies for the Marine Environment
• 3 Fishing Technology for Fisheries Research
• 4 Acoustics to Detect and Measure Underwater Organisms
• 5 “Bio-logging” as a Tool to Study and Monitor Marine Ecosystems, or How to Spy on Sea Creatures
• 6 Modeling Strategies for Ecosystems
• 7 The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries: Reconciling Conservation and Exploitation
• 8 Modeling in Contemporary Sciences: Efficiency and Limits Examples from Oceanography
• List of Authors
• Index
• End User License Agreement