Assessment and regulation of ocean health based on ecosystem services: Case study in the Laizhou Bay, China
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Assessment and regulation of ocean health based on ecosystem services: Case study in the Laizhou Bay, China SHEN Chengcheng1, 2, ZHENG Wei2*, SHI Honghua2, DING Dewen2, WANG Zongling2 1 College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China 2 The First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao 266061, China
Received 20 July 2015; accepted 21 Septemper 2015 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract
The ecosystem-based management of nearshore waters requires integrated assessment of ocean health and scientific guidance on artificial regulations to promote sustainable development. Quantitative approaches were developed in this paper to assess present and near-term ocean health based on ecosystem services. Results of the case study in the Laizhou Bay of China showed that the index score of ocean health was 0.785 6 out of 1.0 at present and was expected to range from 0.555 1 to 0.804 1 in the near-term future depending on different intensities of artificial regulation of negative pressures. Specifically, the results of ocean health at present mainly indicated that cultural services and provisioning services performed essentially perfectly while supporting services and regulating services functioned less well. It can be concluded that this nearshore ecosystem would partially lose supporting and regulating services in the near-term future if the increasing pressures were not wellregulated but that all of these categories of ecosystem services could be slightly improved if the negative pressures were fully controlled. Additionally, it is recommended that publicity and education on ecosystem services especially on cultural services and regulating services should be further strengthened. The analytical process and resulting quantification provide flexible tools to guide future development of regulations so as to facilitate ecosystem-based management in the coastal zone. Key words: ocean health, ecosystem services, nearshore waters, regulation, pressure, Laizhou Bay Citation: Shen Chengcheng, Zheng Wei, Shi Honghua, Ding Dewen, Wang Zongling. 2015. Assessment and regulation of ocean health based on ecosystem services: Case study in the Laizhou Bay, China. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 34(12): 61–66, doi: 10.1007/s13131-0150777-6
1 Introduction The ecosystem of nearshore waters is crucial to support human development in the areas around it. However, human activities such as pollution, overfishing and coastal reclamation have eroded its capacity to maintain health and further to provide valuable goods and services both at present and in the future (Halpern et al., 2012; Halpern et al., 2008; Lotze et al., 2006; MA, 2005; Shi et al., 2012). Setting rules and regulations to address ecological pressures is an important action of ecosystem-based management and also the internal need of coupled human-natural systems (Halpern et al., 2012; MA, 2005; Shi et al., 2012). Therefore, we urgently need integrated and quantitative
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