Articulating the ecosystem approach in Europe’s Seas: socio-ecological indicators for adaptive management.

New strategies for managing our marine areas are developing very rapidly, particularly in the light of the forthcoming Marine Bill in the UK, the European Marine Strategy and the increasing focus on global ocean governance. Ecosystem-based management and adaptive management are key paradigms in this process and regard marine and coastal areas as coupled socio-ecological systems. The effectiveness of this approach depends upon the availability of reliable suites of indicators however, and additional research is required for their development and testing. This project, co-financed by a HEIF-II award and English Nature, will:
(1) Examine the concept of reference states of the marine environment.
(2) Explore publicly understandable long-term ‘Ecosystem Quality Objectives.
(3) Develop and test science-based system indicators used to support shorter-term (3-5 year) operational targets for adaptive management.

The Marine and Coastal Policy Research Group of the University of Plymouth is a world-class multidisciplinary research and advisory group offering the combined skills of natural and social scientists with emphasis in teamwork. The award will be supervised by Prof. Laurence Mee and Prof. Martin Attrill (of the Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre of the University).

Candidates should posses masters or honours degrees (II.1 or above) in relevant natural or social sciences and have proven experience in multidisciplinary work. The deadline for application is 3 October 2005 and the studentship will commence by 31 October.

Further information available at:
Research Group Homepage

Applications, including cv, should be sent to lmee@plymouth.ac.uk

Submitted by: M. Putrawidjaja