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Developing an Ecological Suitability Index to Inform Estuarine Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico
Citation:
Smith, L., E. Reschke, J. Bousquin, James Harvey, L. Cheskiewicz, AND J. Summers. Developing an Ecological Suitability Index to Inform Estuarine Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico. 2022 Coastal & Estuarine Summit, New Orleans, LA, December 04 - 08, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
The multi-trophic approach proposed for the ecological suitability index is intended to support ecosystem management decisions for prioritizing GOM estuarine restoration and monitoring over time.
Description:
Ecosystem management requires a holistic and systematic approach that considers both ecological and social outcomes. Effective restoration practices promote a balance of ecological and social goals by addressing ecological integrity, efficiently maximizing benefits while minimizing investment, and encompassing collaborative stakeholder participation. Socio-ecological assessments can be utilized to prioritize restoration activities, monitor restoration effectiveness and inform adaptive management. In estuarine systems, socio-ecological assessments should evaluate the ability of habitats to support both ecologically and locally relevant species. The composite index approach presented utilizes a combination of ecological and social measures to characterize species level ecological suitability for a set of Gulf of Mexico estuarine species. The ecologically and locally relevant species of interest are identified in the NOAA Estuarine Living Marine Resources Program species database. The ecological suitability index (ESI) for a given spatial unit is based on a suite of biophysical measures of habitat suitability for each species, species’ trophic importance in a food web context, and societal importance of each species in relation to stakeholder values and benefits. ESI values for individual spatial units can be aggregated to estimate the areally-weighted distribution of ecological suitability at the estuarine scale. The information provided by ESI is intended to support restoration prioritization decisions for Gulf of Mexico estuaries and to serve as a baseline for restoration effectiveness over time.
