Global change has systematically increased uncertainty for people balancing short-term needs with long-term resource sustainability. Here, we aim to understand how uncertainty drives changes in human behavior and the underlying mechanisms mediating use of behavioral strategies. We utilize a novel behavioral approach – dynamic common-pool resource economic experiments in the field – and apply it to small-scale fisheries as a system that is particularly vulnerable to global change.

Goal 2017: Global shrimp production review and forecast

Given its ability to yield predictions for very diverse phenomena based only on two parameters—body size and temperature—the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE) has earned a prominent place among ecology’s efficient theories. In a seminal article, the leading proponents of the MTE claimed that the theory was supported by evidence from Pauly’s (On the interrelationships between natural mortality, growth parameters, and mean environmental temperature in 175 fish stocks.

Restoration of degraded and depleted mangrove habitats and planting of mangroves over coastal mudflats is happening at many places, but there are few studies that evaluate the flow of ecosystem services from these regenerated ecosystems. The state of Gujarat in Western India has planted thousands of hectares of mangroves over the coastal mudflats and, today, the state’s mangrove cover is nearly double that in the 1930s. However, these mangroves have limiting features: for example, these are mostly single-species, Avicenna marina, and are sparse, and lack freshwater supply.

Fishery management of straddling stocks is conditional on available knowledge about relevant environmental shocks, such as El Niño events, affecting stock behavior. But knowledge of these issues is scant, particularly in developing world fisheries.

This paper assesses the potential for rent generation in the North Sea herring fishery. The assessment distinguishes between rents and intra-marginal profits—the sum of which constitutes variable profits in the fishery. A bioeconomic model combining fish population dynamics and the economics of the fishery is constructed to allow the computation of these different components of profits. In order to assess the dynamics of both rents and intra-marginal profits, the model is computed under various assumptions with regard to price, costs, and discount rates.

This paper explores the factors underlying both innovation choices and intensity among small-scale aquaculture producers.