Ecosystem Approach and Ecosystem-Based Management

Introduction: As Planque (2016) points out prediction is very difficult at the ecosystem level. The human desire to foretell the future has been with us since ancient times. Often it is not a matter that we would like to know what is going to happen, but that we really need to know so that we can make the best changes in the present to prepare for the coming future. As living beings, we are anticipatory systems and anticipation is a major adaption that helps life succeed on this planet. As Robert Rosen said: “anticipatory systems read off the future”.

Purpose of Quiz: many things are difficult to do when working with middle number systems. Two of these things are ecological prediction and EBM. The purpose of this quiz is to consider how these two difficulties interact in real world management.

Instructions:

Do the reading for this section. This quiz builds upon the Planque paper. Check the terms to see if you know the basic concepts and terminology of this section and can answer the questions. Now you are ready to begin preparing the quiz.

In one paragraph, summarize your overall opinion of the Planque paper. (1pt.)

List and explain two reasons why ecosystem behaviour especially when confounded by human activities such as fishing is difficult to predict. (2 pt.)

Suggest 3 ways that we could improve prediction in EBM with more ecosystem-based indicators. (3 pts.)