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Pages 1-10

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From page 1...
... Gulf of Mexico coast in the context of long-term environmental trends; to consider effects of acute events and long-term environmental changes; to discuss synergistic and antagonistic effects of multidecadal restoration activities; and to recommend adaptive management strategies to address these factors. In addition, the committee was asked to assess the relevant existing resources, including the available data, for informing decision making and to consider what additional efforts are needed (see Box 1.1 in Chapter 1 for the full Statement of Task)
From page 2...
... Further, these forces are themselves impacted by system-wide stressors, such as those associated with the DWH oil spill, and their rate of change is accelerating as a result of climate change. Assessment of long-term environmental trends that describe the changing conditions of an ecosystem are essential for providing decision makers and restoration practitioners with useful insight in their assessment of cumulative effects of multiple restoration actions.
From page 3...
... For example, a conceptual model can capture the potential synergistic and antagonistic effects that occur as a result of interactions among habitats being restored, knowledge that may be tested by future studies and assessment of the effectiveness of actions over time. Multiple Lines of Evidence -- An Approach for Assessing Cumulative Effects Evaluating the effects of a restoration effort often involves an individual body of water or watershed and is therefore unreplicable.
From page 4...
... Possessing baseline and trend data for important environmental variables when evaluating restoration efforts provides fundamental support for the synthesis activities needed to inform cumulative effects assessment and adaptive management actions. Building on existing monitoring efforts, filling in known data gaps, and moving toward a Gulf-wide ecosystem monitoring network could help practitioners move forward.
From page 5...
... Without serious synthesis efforts, it seems unlikely that it can be quantitatively determined whether and to what degree GoM habitats and ecosystems have improved. Steps Needed to Assess Cumulative Effects Figure S.1 summarizes the key components needed for assessing cumulative effects of multiple restoration efforts.
From page 6...
... Conclusion 2: Because environmental changes can influence the success or failure of restoration efforts and can hinder the ability to detect potential cumulative effects of multiple restoration efforts, a thorough understanding of long-term environmental trends is essential for decision makers and restoration practitioners. Advanced monitoring techniques and approaches, including satellite remote sensing, connected sensor networks, and automation, can greatly assist in determining long-term environmental trends and assessing acute events.
From page 7...
... Recommendation A: Enhanced, consistent, and sustained long-term monitoring, analysis, synthesis, and reporting of environmental trends and indicators are urgently needed to enable the detection and tracking of cumulative effects of multiple restoration projects. Monitoring efforts should focus on developing the lines of evidence to support the assessment of cumu lative effects at estuarine, regional, and larger scales. The Deepwater Horizon funding entities should immediately evaluate methods, identify funding mechanisms, and charge an entity to lead efforts to coordinate and enhance long-term priority monitoring efforts and promote consistent data collection, analysis, synthesis, and reporting among programs; support pe riodic assessments of collected data; assess the use of advanced techniques; and ensure data availability, with the goal of implementing these changes within 3–5 years.
From page 8...
... Recommendation E: The Deepwater Horizon funding entities should evaluate mechanisms that support cross-state and Gulf-wide collaboration among researchers, resource managers, and practitioners, with an objective to design and implement restoration efforts that allow assess ment of antagonistic and synergistic effects. Conclusion 5: The use of multiple lines of evidence to develop a framework to help assess cumulative effects for large-scale restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico has been proposed and, in some cases, applied.
From page 9...
... Mechanisms could include providing explicit responsibility to and support for existing Gulf-wide entities; development of an independent, regional, multidisciplinary, multiagency team; or a distribution of effort between existing entities. Recommendation G: As additional monitoring data and scientific evidence become available, Deepwater Horizon program managers should continue to collaboratively develop and imple ment an adaptive management strategy for the Gulf of Mexico restoration effort, including the development of ecosystem conceptual models.


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