tailieunhanh - Top Predators in Marine Ecosystems Their Role in Monitoring and Management

This book began its evolution in 1999 when the British Antarctic Survey, where I worked at the time, began a new research programme on the management of marine ecosystems. This programme concentrated upon the krill-based ecosystem at SouthGeorgia which has been the subject of almost continuous study since the Discovery Expeditions in the 1920s. Latterly, international efforts to understand the dynamics of this ecosystem and the wider Southern Ocean have been coordinated by the Commission for the Conservation of AntarcticMarine Living Resources (CCAMLR) | Top Predators in Marine Ecosystems Their Role in Monitoring and Management Edited by Ian Boyd. Sarah Wan ess and c J . Cam ph ưysen Cambridge 9780521847735 This page intentionally left blank Top Predators in Marine Ecosystems Their Role in Monitoring and Management The sustainable exploitation of the marine environment depends upon our capacity to develop systems of management with predictable outcomes. Unfortunately marine ecosystems are highly dynamic and this property could conflict with the objective of sustainable exploitation. This book investigates the theory that the population and behavioural dynamics of predators at the upper end of marine food chains can be used to assist with management. Since these species integrate the dynamics of marine ecosystems across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales they offer new sources of information that can be formally used in setting management objectives. This book examines the current advances in the understanding of the ecology of marine predators and will investigate how information from these species could be used in management. IAN BOYD is Director of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St Andrews. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a recipient of the Bruce Medal and the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London for his scientific studies in Antarctica. SARAH WANLESS of the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology works on long-term studies of bird populations. c. J. CAMPHUYSEN S current research interests include foraging ecology mortality and distribution patterns of seabirds in the Atlantic Ocean and in the North Sea the impacts of fishing on marine birds and the spatial distribution and temporal trends in abundance of cetaceans in the North .