Optimizing Restoration Activities for Ecosystem Services

For the week of 12 March 2018

Letter from the Editor

Join us Thursday, March 22, 2018 at 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 6pm UTC for a webinar on Optimizing Restoration Activities for Ecosystem Services: The Restoration Opportunities Optimization Tool (ROOT). Presented by Peter Hawthorne of the University of Minnesota and the Natural Capital Project.

Restoration Opportunities Optimization Tool (ROOT) is a software tool that helps decision makers evaluate trade-offs among different ecosystem services and visualize where investments in restoration could be made to optimize benefits for multiple landscape goals. It uses information about the potential impacts of restoration or management activities together with spatial prioritization or serviceshed maps to identify key areas for ecosystem service provision. It then uses multi-objective analysis to allow users to consider how to best manage tradeoffs between different project goals. ROOT has been applied in Costa Rica, Myanmar, Malawi, Colombia, and Brazil’s Espirito Santo State to help these countries optimize the placement of restoration activities for ecosystem services in national and subnational conservation, development, and agricultural objectives in support of increased ecological function to benefit people and livelihoods. It has not yet been applied in a coastal context but is applicable to coastal areas as well. The tool is free for download and use at https://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/root.

Webinar co-sponsored by EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OCTO) 

To register, visit: https://oct.to/Webinar169

Thank you for being part of the OpenChannels Community,

- Allie Brown, Raye Evrard, and the rest of the OpenChannels Team

26 News posts this week

• Perspective: Is it naïve to think the Arctic can be transformed in a positive way? (https://oct.to/OC1270)

• The Skimmer: A very quick update on what’s going on in the Arctic Ocean region and why you should care, found on MEAM (https://oct.to/OC1271)

• Fish Vaccines Falter When Infections Overlap (https://oct.to/OC1272)

• Survey: Most people don’t understand science, want their kids to do it (https://oct.to/OC1273)

• Arctic Birds Carry Signs of an “Atlantifying” Ocean (https://oct.to/OC1274)

• Fishing Boats 'Going Dark' Raise Suspicion Of Illegal Catches, Report Says (https://oct.to/OC1275)

• Cambodia creates its first marine national park where pirate fishers prowl (https://oct.to/OC1276)

• Easter Island Is Eroding (https://oct.to/OC1277)

38 new Literature items this week

• Scientific Reports has published, Coinfection takes its toll: Sea lice override the protective effects of vaccination against a bacterial pathogen in Atlantic salmon (https://oct.to/OC1278).

• Nature Communications has issued, Marine spatial planning makes room for offshore aquaculture in crowded coastal waters (https://oct.to/OC1279).

• FACETS has released, Quantifying the contribution of zoos and aquariums to peer-reviewed scientific research (https://oct.to/OC1280).

1 new Webinar this week

• Two perspectives on evaluating MPA management effectiveness: lessons learned from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and India (https://oct.to/OC1281) 

2 new Trainings this week

• São Paulo Summer School of Advanced Science on Ocean Interdisciplinary Research and Governance (https://oct.to/OC1282) 

• Introduction to Marxan with Zones Course (https://oct.to/OC1283)

12 new Jobs this week

• The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, FL is hiring for a Research Ecologist. Apply by March 21st (https://oct.to/OC1284)

• The Michigan Technological University has a Tenure-Track position in Oceanography/Limnology opening (https://oct.to/OC1285)