Operationalising a social-ecological system perspective on the Arctic Ocean

Area of Science:

• Marine ecosystem management
• Arctic Oceanography
• Climate change impacts

Background:

• The Arctic Ocean faces significant climate-driven changes impacting its ecosystems and socio-economic systems.
• Effective management requires understanding complex interactions within social-ecological systems.
• Policy-relevant scenarios highlight the need for adaptive management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a management framework based on a social-ecological system perspective for the Arctic Ocean.
• To illustrate the framework's application using scenarios of climate-driven change.
• To aid managers in identifying and prioritizing problems and solutions in complex Arctic systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed a framework integrating socio-economic, natural, and governance systems.
• Applied the framework to two policy-relevant scenarios: zooplankton shift and crab invasion.
• Analyzed archetypical system dynamics under changing environmental conditions.

Main Results:

• The framework facilitates the identification of potential problems arising from interconnected system dynamics.
• It enables prioritization of management interventions based on system interactions.
• Demonstrated applicability even with limited data availability.

Conclusions:

• A social-ecological system approach provides a holistic view for Arctic Ocean management.
• The proposed framework supports proactive identification and prioritization of management challenges.
• This approach is valuable for navigating uncertainty and complexity in Arctic environmental management.