| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 18, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 20, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 1716066 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Elizabeth Blood
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,500,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,518,777.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2021 = $18,777.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2801 SHARON TPKE MILLBROOK NY US 12545-5721 (845)677-7600 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Millbrook NY US 12545-0129 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
DYN COUPLED NATURAL-HUMAN, Ecosystem Science |
| Primary Program Source: |
01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
This interdisciplinary research project will explore the dynamics of freshwater recreational fishery landscapes, where social and ecological processes interact in complex ways to determine the status of fish populations and the human populations that depend on them. The project will enhance basic understanding about the dynamics of fisheries systems and the governance of these and other kinds of common-pool resources. It will contribute to theoretical development in the social, ecological, and social-ecological sciences. The project will provide robust tests of theories related to the design principles that allow successful collective action to avoid common-pool resource problems. It will provide empirical tests of theories that are central to freshwater and marine fisheries ecology, and it will explore new economic models designed to examine the dissipation of social welfare in spatially complex, open-access systems. The project will help decision makers and citizens to better understand coupled natural-human dynamics in recreational fisheries landscapes, thereby improving their capabilities to identify pathways and overcome obstacles to successful governance of fishery resources. The project also will provide valuable education and training opportunities for post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
Recreational fishery landscapes across the United States and other parts of the world have tremendous cultural and economic value, but they are vulnerable to degradation, and in many regions, they are suffering collapses similar to the collapses that have plagued many marine fisheries. Previous research suggests that the involvement of local organizations in governance may improve outcomes in common-pool resource systems, but it is not clear whether this arrangement can be effective. The investigators will focus on identifying pathways and obstacles for effective governance of recreational fishery landscapes, and they will study these systems to test and extend social, ecological, and social-ecological theory. The investigators will conduct fish counts and engage in large-scale experiments to assess how habitat complexity influences juvenile fish mortality and the relationship between fish abundance and angler catch. They will interview anglers and will develop and test economic models to understand how angler preferences and information sources determine the allocation of fishing effort across the landscape. The investigators will conduct interviews with local organizations and will catalog their institutional arrangements to understand how the organizations make decisions about investments in fishery quality, and they will analyze the organizational characteristics that lead to successful collective action. The investigators will combine stage-structured fisheries models with agent-based social models to synthesize their work and explore pathways and obstacles to effective governance of recreational fishery landscapes. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Recreational fisheries have tremendous cultural and economic value, but are vulnerable to degradation. This project sought to improve the sustainability of recreational fisheries by improving understanding of the natural, human, and coupled natural-human processes that make these systems work. The research team showed how humans, habitat, and fish can interact in ways that enhance or degrade the stability of fish populations, and demonstrated how gradual changes in society can threaten the sustainability of fisheries for future generations. They developed new approaches to improve the ways that managers learn about and monitor fisheries, providing new tools for tracking fish populations in multiple lakes across a landscape and important mathematical adjustments that will allow managers to better understand how angler catch rates respond to changes in fish abundance. The team then worked with state agencies, local citizen groups, popular media, and other partners to get these new approaches into the hands of people who need them. They also advanced theoretical understanding of fisheries ecology, fisheries economics, and common pool resources; trained over 30 students and early-career researchers in key concepts of fisheries management and social-ecological dynamics; have published over 20 peer-reviewed papers, theses, and dissertations describing their findings; contributed to a new open-access textbook for fisheries managers and students; and created new regional and national databases that provide a foundation for future research.
Last Modified: 07/07/2022
Modified by: Christopher T Solomon
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