Coral reefs ecosystem services under global environmental change : interdisciplinary approaches to guide science and action

• Main Author: Comte, Adrien
• Other Authors: Aménagement des Usages des Ressources et des Espaces marins et littoraux - Centre de droit et d'économie de la mer (AMURE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Bretagne occidentale - Brest, Linwood H. Pendleton
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: Global environmental change; Climate change; Ocean acidification; Coral reefs; Ecosystem services; Multiple stressors; Vulnerability; Resilience; Adaptive management; Global assessments; Adaptation; Changements environnementaux globaux; Changements climatiques; Acidification de l’océan; Récifs coralliens; Services écosystémiques; Facteurs de stress multiples; Vulnérabilité; Gestion adaptative; Évaluations globales; [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance
• Online Access: https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01870213; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01870213v2/document; https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01870213v2/file/These-2018-SML-Sciences_economiques-COMTE_Adrien.pdf

Global environmental change (GEC) in the ocean threatens marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them. A growing scientific effort is attempting to evaluate the impacts of environmental changes on ecosystems and ecosystem services and guide policy-making to respond to this global issue. Focusing on social-ecological systems of coral reefs, this thesis critically reviews the approaches put forward in the literature to understand gaps and to design new methodologies, assessments, and indicators to guide science and policy. Our findings show that a regionally targeted strategy of research should address complexity and provide more realistic projections about the impacts of GEC on coral reefs ecosystems and ecosystem services. We map global-scale indicators to understand where human dependence on coral reef ecosystems will be affected by globally-driven threats expected in a high-CO2 world. We then analyze how science is responding to the challenge posed by GEC on coral reefs and to identify gaps in research.Finally, we attempt to operationalize an overlooked component of vulnerability assessments, ecological adaptive capacity, to serve as a tool to help assess where local actions can be effective in the context of climate change. This manuscript contributes to theoretical and methodological advances to evaluate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to GEC. It develops interdisciplinary approaches for the study of social-ecological systems and ecosystem services, targeting coral reefs as a case study. Finally, it synthesizes critically the emergence of a scientific field on solutions to GEC for coral reef social-ecological systems. Les changements environnementaux globaux (CEG) menacent les écosystèmes marins et les populations humaines qui en dépendent. Une recherche scientifique croissante tente d’évaluer les impacts des changements environnementaux sur les écosystèmes et les services écosystémiques, notamment pour guider les politiques publiques. Focalisée sur les systèmes socio-écologiques (SSE) des ...