Coastal ecosystem-based management with nonlinear ecological functions and values

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A common assumption is that ecosystem services respond linearly to changes in habitat size. This assumption leads frequently to an “all or none” choice of either preserving coastal habitats of converting them to human use. However, our survey of wave attenuation data from field studies of mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass beds, nearshore coral reefs, and sand dunes reveals that these relationships are rarely linear. By incorporating nonlinear wave attenuation is estimating coastal protection values of mangroves in Thailand, we show that the optimal land use option may instead be the integration of development and conservation consistent with ecosystem-based management goals. This result suggests that reconciling competing demands on coastal habitats should not always result in stark preservation-versus conversion choices.

This work was conducted as part of the “Measuring ecological, economic, and social values of coastal habitats to inform ecosystem-based management of land-sea interfaces” Working Group supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, funded by NSF grant DEB-0553768; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the State of California; and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. We thank B. Halpern for his assistance with this project and work, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.