Description: The ability of management strategies to achieve the fishery management goals are impacted by environmental variation and, therefore, also by global climate change. Management strategies can be modified to use environmental data using the "dynamic B 0 " concept, and changing the set of years used to define biomass reference points. Two approaches have been developed to apply management strategy evaluation to evaluate the impact of environmental variation on the performance of management strategies. The "mechanistic approach" estimates the relationship between the environment and elements of the population dynamics of the fished species and makes predictions for population trends using the outputs from global climate models. In contrast, the "empirical approach" examines possible broad scenarios without explicitly identifying mechanisms. Many reviewed studies have found that modifying management strategies to include environmental factors does not improve the ability to achieve management goals much, if at all, and only if the manner in which these factors drive the system is well known. As such, until the skill of stock projection models improves, it seems more appropriate to consider the implications of plausible broad forecasts related to how biological parameters may change in the future as a way to assess the robustness of management strategies, rather than attempting specific predictions per se .

Description: Welcomme, R. L. 2011. An overview of global catch statistics for inland fish. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 1751–1756. The reported global inland fish catch passed 10 million tonnes in 2008, after almost linear growth from the early 1950s. The rise coincides with an increasing number of reports of falling catches resulting from environmental degradation. It is thought that catches from inland waters were underreported in the past because of constraints on collecting the relevant data. National approaches to data collection are not generally comparable and their accuracy not usually assessed. National data processing and reporting should be audited, and training undertaken to harmonize these activities. The apparently bigger catches probably result from better reporting of actual catches rather than any increase in the amount of fish landed. Current data are sufficient only for a general overview of global inland catches of fish, rather than for the detailed analysis needed for management, policy formulation, and the valuation of inland fisheries. There is a need for improved approaches to data collection and for historical catches to be corrected to account for changes in methodologies and reporting procedures.

Description:    European larch ( Larix decidua Mill.) forests in the Alps are cultural landscapes that have been shaped by humans for centuries through traditional management. Biological and historical data sources were employed, and a multi-scale approach was adopted to capture the influence of factors affecting the structure of these forests. Landscape and stand scale dynamics were analyzed in four watersheds (c. 13,000 ha) of the western and central Italian Alps that have experienced different land-use intensities. Observed landscape changes were generalized using path analyses developed from a common conceptual model. Stand structure and a range of environmental variables were sampled in 203 circular plots, and land use and anthropogenic variables were derived from thematic maps and aerial photographs. We used multivariate statistical analyses (ordination and SEM models) to relate forest structure, anthropogenic influences, land uses, and topography. The most commonly observed land cover transition was an expansion of forests at the expense of open areas. All studied watersheds were dominated by larch forests, but their structure and spatial pattern differed greatly. Anthropogenic variables were less important at Ventina, the least accessible site, but emerged as fundamental to explain stand structure in the other study sites. Complexity of topography and proximity to roads had influenced past human activities mainly in the most accessible sites. Regeneration density was greatest at lower elevations and closer to human settlements. Quantification of the role played by forest harvesting and cattle grazing in past centuries is critical for understanding how global change factors may influence future dynamics of mountain forests in the European Alps and similar cultural landscapes worldwide. Content Type Journal Article Category Research Article Pages 1-13 DOI 10.1007/s10980-012-9792-6 Authors Matteo Garbarino, Department of Agronomy, Forest and Land Management, University of Torino, Via L. da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy Emanuele Lingua, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Agripolis, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro, PD, Italy Peter J. Weisberg, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada Reno, Mail Stop 186, Reno, NV 89557, USA Alessandra Bottero, Department of Agronomy, Forest and Land Management, University of Torino, Via L. da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy Fabio Meloni, Department of Agronomy, Forest and Land Management, University of Torino, Via L. da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy Renzo Motta, Department of Agronomy, Forest and Land Management, University of Torino, Via L. da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco, TO, Italy Journal Landscape Ecology Online ISSN 1572-9761 Print ISSN 0921-2973

Description: Wigand, L. A., Klinger, T., and Logsdon, M. G. 2013. Patterns in groundfish abundance along the Eastern Bering Sea outer continental margin. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 1181–1197. Place-based management approaches require understanding the spatial arrangement and interaction of elements. To address this need, we explored the utility of spatial-pattern analysis to understand the distribution of groundfish in the Eastern Bering Sea outer continental margin. We divided this region into discrete geomorphological units to explore spatial pattern on a range of scales. We used groundfish catch per unit effort (cpue) trawl survey data collected in four years to quantify spatial autocorrelation. Global statistics indicated that groundfish cpue was dominated by clusters of low values in all years. Local statistics showed that clusters of low values in groundfish cpue were confined to the southern portion of the study area, while clusters of high values varied across the study area. Outliers were most commonly found in close proximity to the shelf–slope break. Our results reveal the existence of spatial dependency in groundfish abundance and demonstrate that spatial analysis can be used to better understand spatial arrangements of these and other living marine resources, and to quantify and validate the local ecological knowledge of resource users. Our results indicate the feasibility of using spatially explicit tools to improve integration and visualization of marine environmental data for purposes of management and conservation.