Robert Steneck
School of Marine Sciences
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
207.563.3146
steneck@maine.edu
http://www.ume.maine.edu/~marine/steneck.htm
Since the early 1990s, sea urchin landings, catch per unit effort, and number of harvesters have decreased dramatically. Management measures to date have been ineffective in stemming the decline. To explore new management tools, the sea urchin industry and state regulators established conservation areas, previously productive habitats that are closed to harvesting, to determine how long it will take for stocks to recover once fishing mortality rates are reduced. In this study, researchers will contrast conservation areas with adjacent fished control areas to characterize rates of recovery and resilience of overharvested urchin populations and associated changes to algal communities. These studies could provide the urchin industry with information on how to harvest the resource sustainably.
3-year project
Year 1: $36,743
Year 2: $37,047
Year 3: $37,038
Total: $110,828
Associated Publications
Berkes, F., Hughes, T. P., Steneck, R. S., Wilson, J. Bellwood, D. R., Crona, B., Folke, C., Leslie, H., Norberg, J., Nystron, M., Olsson, P., Scheffer, M., Worm, B., 2006, Globalization, roving bandits and marine resources, Science, 311: 1557 – 1558.
Hughes, T. P., Bellwood, D. R., Folke, C., Steneck, R. S. and Wilson, J. E., 2005, New paradigms for supporting resilience of marine ecosystems, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20:380 - 386.
Ray, J. C., Redford, K. H., Berger, J., and Steneck, R. S., 2005, Is large carnivore conservation equivalent to biodiversity conservation and how can we achieve both?, In: Large Carnivores and the conservation of biodiversity, (Ray, J., Redford, K., Steneck, R. and Berger, J.(eds)), Island Press. (Book Chapter)
Sale, P. F., Cowen, R. K., Danilowicz, B. S., Jones, G. P., Kritzer, J. P. Lindeman, K. C., Planes, S., Polunin, N. V. C., Russ, G. R., Sadovy, Y. J. and Steneck, R. S., 2005, Critical science gaps impede use of no-take fishery reserves, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20: 74-80.
Steneck, R. S., 2005, An ecological context for the role of large carnivorous animals in conserving biodiversity, In: Large Carnivores and the conservation of biodiversity, (Ray, J., Redford, K., Steneck, R. and Berger, J.(eds) ), Island Press. (Book Chapter)
Steneck, R. S. and Sala, E. A. , 2005, Large marine carnivores: trophic cascades and top-down controls in coastal ecosystems past and present., In: Large Carnivores and the conservation of biodiversity, (Ray, J., Redford, K., Steneck, R. and Berger, J.(eds) ), Island Press. (Book Chapter)
Steneck, R. S., J. Vavrinec, and A. V. Leland, 2004, Accelerating Trophic-level Dysfunction in Kelp Forest Ecosystems of the Western North Atlantic, Ecosystems, 7:323-331.
For a full list of publications associated with research projects, please visit our Journal Repints page.