By Frances Mynott and Clement Garcia, Cefas leads for the mNCEA programme.
Our understanding of the benefits that our marine and coastal environments provide are improving through the Marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (mNCEA) programme. Started in 2022, mNCEA is a 3-year Defra funded programme which aims to deliver the evidence, tools and guidance needed to help policymakers integrate natural capital approaches into policy and decision making for marine and coastal environments.
The Cefas-led Seascapes project aims to help policymakers understand the different uses and values of marine natural capital for people and society, as well as the competing uses and pressures facing marine resources. It also aims to provide more holistic understanding of the benefits and complex trade-offs involved in managing our marine environment, with the aim of supporting the sustainable use of coastal and marine environments.
Taking into account the whole marine system, Cefas works alongside its partners the Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Management Organisation, and Natural England to deliver these projects and outcomes.
New publications
We are pleased to announce that six of the reports Cefas produced during Year 1of the Seascapes project have been published (all reports can be found on Defra's Science Search Portal).
- Marine Natural Capital Logic Chains - linking human activities to potential impacts on human beneficiaries of ecosystem services: Logic chains are used to outline the ecosystem processes that link marine natural capital assets (e.g., benthic habitats) to the ecosystem services they provide. This report developed, integrated and expanded on the logic chains to include human activities and pressures, and benefits and beneficiaries. A total of 4,224 unique marine natural capital logic chains were catalogued, each representing a potential pathway through which one of 22 human activities could impact either broad society or one of four industries that depend on marine ecosystem services.
- Quantifying links between humans and marine natural capital assets using case studies This report introduced a series of case studies to fill gaps and generate evidence on: 1) how physical disturbance to benthic habitats by demersal (bottom) fisheries affects the quantity of seafood produced by altering demersal food web productivity; 2) how contaminants within benthic habitats at dredge disposal sites affect the quantity and quality of seafood produced by altering demersal food web productivity and being transferred up the food web; 3) how nutrient and microbial pathogen input through agricultural run-off and wastewater disposal interact with bivalve fisheries to affect water quality and seafood quality; and 4) how nutrient and microbial pathogen input through agricultural run-off and wastewater disposal affect recreation and tourism by altering several pelagic ecosystem processes.
- Marine Ecosystem Services Trade-offs and testing the applicability of ecosystem service efficiency frontiers This work developed and demonstrated modelling approaches to evaluate how management decisions and regulatory scenarios influence the provision of ecosystem goods and services and trade-offs between uses. Efficiency frontiers (EFs) provide a conceptual framework through which to evaluate trade-offs between provisioning services and regulating, supporting or cultural services. The trade-offs and synergies between services delivered across the coastal, nearshore pelagic and seabed environment, and the consequences of these relationships on beneficiaries, were explored through four case studies.
- Towards Ecosystem Service Efficiency Frontiers Case study four: Saltmarsh restoration and human preferences for ecosystem services: The case study provided a proof of concept and test of stated preferences methods and in particular choice experiments, to derive indifference curves that can be coherently used within a sustainability framework (proposed by Cavender-Bares et al. (2015)). The case study built on previous work and data collected during the Defra Marine Pioneer programme. The choice experiment was developed to measure individual preferences for the restoration of the Deben Estuary saltmarsh in the East of England, as part of the Suffolk Marine Pioneer. This case study report by Grilli (2024) formed the basis for the fourth case study on saltmarsh restoration presented in the Greenwood et al. (2024) report.
- Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services Assessment Products Review and Recommendation: The study reviewed eight evidence products and evaluated whether they could be used to help inform natural capital-based decision making in English marine and coastal waters. The study evaluated which parts of the Drivers-Activity-Pressure-State-Impact-Response integrated systems framework (linked with ecosystem and NC-centred management), are captured in the products. The study also produced a product selection or 'signposting' guide for users.
- The report documented the outcomes of workshops and discussions around data flows for Cefas' and other programme partners' contribution to the mNCEA programme. The project assessed data flows against Q-FAIR (quality, findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) standards and summarised opportunities for improvement and investment. It documented twenty-six actions that are needed throughout the mNCEA programme.
We are currently undertaking delivery of Seascapes Part II project in Year 3 of the mNCEA programme. Please stay tuned for further news of report publications in 2025.