ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6982-9381
Current Organisations
University of Western Australia
,
University of Oxford
,
Balliol College
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 14-08-2018
DOI: 10.7287/PEERJ.PREPRINTS.27113V1
Abstract: There is a lot of uncertainty about how we pick the best invasive species management strategies to improve the environment, local economy, and human well-being, as invasive species management involves complex and multidimensional challenges. Invasive species management on inhabited islands is especially challenging, often due to perceived socio-political risks and unexpected technical difficulties. Failing to incorporate local knowledge and local perspectives in the early stages of planning can compromise the ability of decision-makers to achieve long-lasting conservation outcomes. Hence, including local knowledge and accounting for subjective stakeholder perceptions is essential for invasive species management, yet this often remains unaddressed. To address this gap, we present an application of invasive species management based on structured decision-making, and the resource allocation tool INFFER, on Minjerribah-North Stradbroke Island (Australia). We assessed the cost-effectiveness of six management scenarios, co-developed with local land managers and community groups, aimed at preserving the environmental and cultural significance of the island by eradicating European red foxes and feral cats. We further conducted a survey eliciting local stakeholders’ perspectives regarding the significance of the Island, their perception of the benefits of the proposed management scenarios, funding requirements, technical feasibility of implementation, and socio-political risk. We found that the best decisions when the budget is low are less cost-effective than when the budget is high. The best strategy focusses on control of European red fox on Minjerribah. However, our results also highlight the need for more research on feral cat management. This work demonstrates how to use a structured decision support tool, like INFFER, to assess contesting management strategies, this is particularly important when stakeholders’ perceptions regarding management outcomes are heterogeneous and uncertain.
Publisher: UCL Press
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.14324/111.444/UCLOE.000002
Abstract: Maintaining bio ersity is crucial for ensuring human well-being. The authors participated in a workshop held in Palenque, Mexico, in August 2018, that brought together 30 mostly early-career scientists working in different disciplines (natural, social and economic sciences) with the aim of identifying research priorities for studying the contributions of bio ersity to people and how these contributions might be impacted by environmental change. Five main groups of questions emerged: (1) Enhancing the quantity, quality, and availability of bio ersity data (2) Integrating different knowledge systems (3) Improved methods for integrating erse data (4) Fundamental questions in ecology and evolution and (5) Multi-level governance across boundaries. We discuss the need for increased capacity building and investment in research programmes to address these challenges.
Publisher: UCL Press
Date: 22-02-2019
DOI: 10.14324/111.444/000014.V1
Abstract: Maintaining bio ersity is crucial for ensuring human well-being. We participated in a workshop held in Palenque, Mexico, in August 2018, that brought together thirty mostly early-career scientists working in different disciplines (natural, social and economic sciences) with the aim of identifying research priorities for studying the contributions of bio ersity to people and how these contributions might be impacted by environmental change. Five main groups of questions emerged: (1) Enhancing the quantity, quality, and availability of bio ersity data (2) Integrating different knowledge systems (3) Improved methods for integrating erse data (4) Fundamental questions in ecology and evolution and (5) Multi-level governance across boundaries. We discuss the need for increased capacity building and investment in research programs to address these challenges.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-06-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-08-2022
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13812
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-11-2018
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12895
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 11-09-2019
DOI: 10.1101/755835
Abstract: Every year, 100 hectares of saltmarsh in the United Kingdom are lost due to sea level rise. The remaining areas are threatened by land conversion, agricultural activities, and climate change. There are important economic consequences to saltmarsh loss, as saltmarsh provides valuable ecosystem services including flood protection, carbon sequestration, and nursery habitat for commercially fished species. Quantifying the economic value of these ecosystem services can help target policies for saltmarsh restoration, or ‘managed realignment’, of new saltmarsh areas. In this study, we quantify the economic value of saltmarsh as a habitat for commercially fished species by developing a residency index. The residency index weights the relative importance of saltmarsh along a species’ lifecycle by explicitly incorporating the target species’ life histories and the estimated proportion of time it spends in saltmarsh at juvenile and adult life stages. Using this index, we estimate the value of saltmarsh to UK commercial fisheries landings. We find that UK saltmarsh contributes annually between 16.7% and 18.2% of total UK commercial landings for European seabass ( Dicentrarchus labrax ), European plaice ( Pleuronectes platessa ), and Common sole ( Solea solea ). Our findings highlight the importance of saltmarsh protection and restoration. Furthermore, our approach provides a general framework that integrates population ecology methods and economic analyses to assess the value of saltmarsh and other coastal habitats for fisheries worldwide.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 30-09-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.29.462338
Abstract: Human actions led to the worldwide decline of marine mammal populations in the 18 th –19 th centuries. However, the global uptake in protective legislation during the 20 th century has recently allowed many marine mammal populations to recover. This positive trend is particularly true of pinnipeds (e.g., seals and sea lions), whose recovering populations are increasingly in conflict with fisheries. Many fisheries organisations call for managed culls of sea lion populations to reduce competition for target fish species as well as damage to catch and fishing gear through operational interactions. However, despite widespread perceptions that sea lion populations are generally increasing, to-date culls have been considered or implemented without quantitative evidence of their impacts on seal lion population viability. This knowledge gap is particularly concerning given the expected increase in extreme climate conditions, such as extreme El Niño events, which together with culls could push sea lion populations in some parts of the world into the extinction vortex. In this analysis, I develop and parameterise stochastic matrix population models of the South American sea lion ( Otaria flavescens ) to project the impact of (1) three cull scenarios with different intensity and temporal frequency targeting adult females, (2) extreme El Niño events whose frequency is modelled using a Markovian transition matrix, (3) and the interaction of culls and extreme climate events on population dynamics. I focus on the Chilean population of O. flavescens , where recent increases in sea lion numbers have triggered widespread conflict with small-scale fisheries, and where sea lion populations will increasingly be affected by extreme El Niño conditions. I find that sea lion populations decline below minimum viable population sizes under all scenarios involving culls and extreme climate events. By explicitly considering parameter uncertainty, this approach is a call to action for future research to focus on collecting stage-specific, annual population data to reduce uncertainty regarding marine mammal vital rates.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 10-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.29.462372
Abstract: Human activities are drastically reshaping Earth’s ecosystems. Across the tree of life, species become threatened and ultimately go extinct when they are unable to cope with these changes. Hence, understanding the resilience of natural populations is necessary to understand and predict species’ capacity to cope with increasing human pressures. Here, we use high-resolution demographic information for 921 populations of wild plants and animals to assess how they respond to increasing levels of human pressure. We show that fewer successful resilience strategies, allowing population to persist in disturb environments, exist in human-influenced habitats compared to pristine habitats. In contrast, pristine habitats host species with higher resistance and faster recovery than more altered environments. Importantly, the examined macroecologial patterns of demographic resilience are kingdom- and mobility-specific: natural populations of plants recover faster and have a propensity to grow faster after a disturbance ( i.e ., compensation) in urban areas than in pristine habitats, while these tendencies do not appear in animals. Likewise, populations of animals with limited mobility are less able to resist or compensate for disturbances in human altered environments than highly mobile populations. Our results suggest that human activities have eroded the ersity of natural populations’ resilience strategies. This finding implies that species will be less tolerant to disturbance in the future, as continuing bio ersity loss and increasing human impacts will ultimately shrink the spectrum of resilience strategies of organisms.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 31-10-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-09-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12835
Abstract: Global commitments prioritize protection of wildlife and improvements to human wellbeing. Local disconnects in these commitments are rarely acknowledged—or their implications assessed—preventing the development of effective solutions. National and international efforts to protect marine mammals along South America's west coast have contributed to species recovery, but also to conflict between sea lions and small‐scale fisheries. To understand the concerns ultimately motivating this conflict, we assessed how 301 coastal small‐scale fishers perceive their interactions with South American sea lions ( Otaria flavescens ). We then reviewed the terrestrial human–wildlife literature to identify potential management solutions to resolve the conflict. We find that fishers are chiefly concerned with increases in sea lion populations, perceive that sea lion interactions have significantly increased over the past 80 years, and report sea lion‐driven catch and income losses of ≥26%. We propose solutions to manage conflict that are sensitive to heterogeneity among fisher groups.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2022
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-05-2019
DOI: 10.1002/PAN3.27
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-12-2017
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Date: 07-2019
DOI: 10.3368/LE.95.3.353
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.363
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.2879
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-04-2018
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 02-01-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.01.892422
Abstract: Globally, the populations of many marine mammals remain of critical concern after centuries of exploitation and hunting. However, some marine mammal populations (e.g. pinnipeds) have largely recovered from exploitation, and interactions between these species and fisheries—particularly small-scale fisheries—is once again of concern globally. The large scope and widespread scale of interactions highlights the local disconnect between two global policies: marine mammal conservation and small-scale fisheries protection. In this research, we explore these conflicting global policies by assessing the perceptions of coastal small-scale fishers in Peru and Chile regarding their interactions with pinnipeds, including the South American sea lion ( Otaria flavescens ) and South American fur seal ( Arctocephalus australis ). We surveyed 301 gill net fishers and assess perceptions using a best-worst scaling methodology. We find that fishers are chiefly concerned with the increase in pinniped populations, perceive that their interactions with pinnipeds have significantly increased over the past 80 years, and report pinniped-driven catch and income losses ≥ 26 per cent. Surprisingly, fishers do not believe that compensation schemes will resolve this issue—instead they overwhelmingly call for pinniped population culls. The reported number of pinnipeds illegally killed by fishers suggests the potential for large negative impacts on these protected species, and a loss of legitimacy in marine regulation. Collectively, our results portray a sense of marginalisation from fishers’—that global policy treats them as less “important” than marine mammals. Our results highlight the increasing disconnect in global policy, which on one hand seeks to protect threatened marine mammal populations, and on the other seeks to promote the welfare of small-scale fishers.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-06-2021
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.488
Abstract: The need to scale‐up conservation initiatives is widely accepted, but understanding how to catalyze the adoption of conservation initiatives remains elusive. To address this challenge, we used diffusion of innovation theory and Best‐Worst Scaling experiments to rank the factors that influence the adoption of Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) by villages in north Madagascar. The most important driver for respondents to adopt LMMAs was the wellbeing of future generations, while the most important barrier was conflict within and between villages that could arise from the adoption of LMMAs. This emphasis on the benefits and costs of adoption is consistent with diffusion of innovation theory. However, our results indicate that people's intrinsic values (e.g., benevolence and peace) were more important to survey respondents in the adoption of LMMAs than is generally reported in the diffusion of innovation literature. Concerns about conflict from LMMAs and the distribution of livestock incentives warrant further consideration to support the adoption of this conservation initiative in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Our study can guide future conservation research and practice to identify the “best” and “worst” attributes of LMMAs and other initiatives to increase the adoption of conservation.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-01-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-08-2015
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12358
Abstract: Marine fish stocks are in many cases extracted above sustainable levels, but they may be protected through restricted-use zoning systems. The effectiveness of these systems typically depends on support from coastal fishing communities. High management costs including those of enforcement may, however, deter fishers from supporting marine management. We incorporated enforcement costs into a spatial optimization model that identified how conservation targets can be met while maximizing fishers' revenue. Our model identified the optimal allocation of the study area among different zones: no-take, territorial user rights for fisheries (TURFs), or open access. The analysis demonstrated that enforcing no-take and TURF zones incurs a cost, but results in higher species abundance by preventing poaching and overfishing. We analyzed how different enforcement scenarios affected fishers' revenue. Fisher revenue was approximately 50% higher when territorial user rights were enforced than when they were not. The model preferentially allocated area to the enforced-TURF zone over other zones, demonstrating that the financial benefits of enforcement (derived from higher species abundance) exceeded the costs. These findings were robust to increases in enforcement costs but sensitive to changes in species' market price. We also found that revenue under the existing zoning regime in the study area was 13-30% lower than under an optimal solution. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for both the benefits and costs of enforcement in marine conservation, particularly when incurred by fishers.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13008
Abstract: Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1086/701303
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Date: 25-08-2021
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 25-11-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.11.24.517843
Abstract: The global recovery of pinniped populations is a conservation success. However, pinniped population recovery has increased human-wildlife conflict with fisheries, an issue often reported and requiring management, but one that lacks global synthesis. We conduct a meta-analysis to estimate the impacts of operational interactions (specifically, lost catch) between pinnipeds and fisheries. Where quantifiable interactions are reported (n = 36), on average fishers have a 33.7% chance of interacting with pinnipeds on any given fishing day, and 13.8% lost catch. We find a large degree of heterogeneity between studies, with some fisheries experiencing much more negative interactions than others. Specifically, smaller-scale fisheries using nets are up to twice as likely to have negative interactions and lose up to five times more catch compared to large-scale fisheries. We conclude that pinniped-fishery conflict is a substantial global issue, but its impacts are not uniform. To successfully manage long-term coexistence between pinnipeds and humans, explicit data quantifying operational interactions is required. Population recoveries can have unintended consequences for fisheries, and management of ecological, social and economic outcomes is needed for long-term coexistence. Pinniped population recoveries have led to significant impacts on fisheries, but small-scale fisheries lose out most.
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Date: 07-2019
DOI: 10.3368/LE.95.3.409
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-01-2018
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2017
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Katrina Davis.