Jason Landrum

Calls to support co-designed and usable science to inform management of natural resources are growing. Making the shift will require diverse collaborations between those who hold, share, and use knowledge. Over the past 20 years, the Lenfest Ocean Program has attempted to merge two well-established, but not well-connected, paths: identifying and supporting credible, legitimate, and salient research, and communicating research results to audiences who are in positions to use that information for… Show more

Calls to support co-designed and usable science to inform management of natural resources are growing. Making the shift will require diverse collaborations between those who hold, share, and use knowledge. Over the past 20 years, the Lenfest Ocean Program has attempted to merge two well-established, but not well-connected, paths: identifying and supporting credible, legitimate, and salient research, and communicating research results to audiences who are in positions to use that information for the public good. We assert that we need a culture shift in the way science is funded, research is designed, and knowledge is shared and used to catalyze lasting change. We believe it is the responsibility of everyone
in the natural resource community to create the enabling conditions for science to be impactful in decision-making. To do so will require knowledge holders, users, and supporters to pave pathways that expand how knowledge is generated and used for decision-making. Show less

Marine spatial, or place-based, management, including marine protected areas (MPAs), represent a critical approach to reducing overfishing, conserving ocean and coastal biodiversity, enhancing socio-ecological resilience, and sustaining thriving marine economies. A growing body of evidence suggests that knowledge has a greater likelihood of being considered into management decisions when various rights and stakeholders and/or decision-makers engage collectively in determining what knowledge is… Show more

Marine spatial, or place-based, management, including marine protected areas (MPAs), represent a critical approach to reducing overfishing, conserving ocean and coastal biodiversity, enhancing socio-ecological resilience, and sustaining thriving marine economies. A growing body of evidence suggests that knowledge has a greater likelihood of being considered into management decisions when various rights and stakeholders and/or decision-makers engage collectively in determining what knowledge is known and what is needed. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030; “Ocean Decade”) has recognized the need to provide a broader platform to advance and expand the use of co-design and collaborative knowledge production to address global challenges facing the ocean and people. In this report, we present some of the observations and reflections offered in this session that serve to add to a growing understanding of the need to create inclusive, participatory knowledge systems for effective marine spatial management and protection. Show less

For almost 20 years, the Lenfest Ocean Program has funded research projects around the world to generate information that managers, policymakers, and communities can use to develop solutions to ocean and coastal threats. To assess our grantmaking, we wanted to understand whether our philanthropic contribution has had an impact both inside and outside of academic circles. We found that narrative storytelling, as an alternative to a formal analysis, allowed us to explore the different dimensions… Show more

For almost 20 years, the Lenfest Ocean Program has funded research projects around the world to generate information that managers, policymakers, and communities can use to develop solutions to ocean and coastal threats. To assess our grantmaking, we wanted to understand whether our philanthropic contribution has had an impact both inside and outside of academic circles. We found that narrative storytelling, as an alternative to a formal analysis, allowed us to explore the different dimensions of research impact, such as how scientific information can prompt progress toward sustainable management or policy change, how a research project’s structure can facilitate impact, and how building relationships and trust among project participants throughout a project may increase the use of future research results. Both the process of documenting the activities and events that resulted from funded projects from various perspectives and the writing of the story itself, helped us understand how science was or wasn’t used. By sharing what we have learned about projects that successfully informed management decisions as well as projects that fell short of their goals, we hope to shed light on the complex relationship between science and environmental decision-making through the lens of research impact. Show less

Decades of scholarship and practice highlight the need for scientific research that informs individuals on the front lines of decision-making. Funding organizations can play an important role in supporting useful and usable research by discussing the criteria and processes they use to guide the development and review of funded projects. However, practical examples of how funders can engage with grantees on the design of research efforts are not widely available. In this article, we respond to… Show more

Decades of scholarship and practice highlight the need for scientific research that informs individuals on the front lines of decision-making. Funding organizations can play an important role in supporting useful and usable research by discussing the criteria and processes they use to guide the development and review of funded projects. However, practical examples of how funders can engage with grantees on the design of research efforts are not widely available. In this article, we respond to calls for more information in this area by presenting one example of evaluation criteria and guidance questions used by a philanthropic grant-making program that is focused on user-driven research. We describe this process through the lens of a funded research project that was designed to inform improvements in coastal habitat restoration. We hope that a closer look at an example of how to evaluate project ideas for their potential to provide critical information to decision-makers can be useful for other funders and researchers trying to produce useful and usable science. Show less

Anticyclonic (warm-core) mesoscale eddies (WCEs) in the Eastern Indian Ocean carry higher surface chlorophyll signatures than cyclonic (cold-core) eddies (CCEs). Paradoxically, WCEs host rock lobster larvae (phyllosomas) with lower lipid stores and protein reserves than phyllosomas in CCEs, suggesting a poorer nutritional status. We assess primary productivity and zooplankton isotopic data from eight eddies across four research voyages (2003–2011) to determine how this contradiction might… Show more

Anticyclonic (warm-core) mesoscale eddies (WCEs) in the Eastern Indian Ocean carry higher surface chlorophyll signatures than cyclonic (cold-core) eddies (CCEs). Paradoxically, WCEs host rock lobster larvae (phyllosomas) with lower lipid stores and protein reserves than phyllosomas in CCEs, suggesting a poorer nutritional status. We assess primary productivity and zooplankton isotopic data from eight eddies across four research voyages (2003–2011) to determine how this contradiction might occur. We find that WCEs and CCEs are equally productive per unit chlorophyll a, but depth-integrated primary production (PP) is greater in eddies with shallower mixed layers (MLs), especially in CCEs. MLs tend to be shallower in CCEs than in WCEs because the pycnocline is closer to the surface. This, in combination with stronger stratification in CCE euphotic zones than those of WCEs, supports greater flagellate and dinoflagellate populations in CCEs. These phytoplankton provide high-quality nutrition for zooplankton, which feed on average ~ 0.6 trophic level lower in CCEs with the shallowest MLs, accumulating high lipid stores. Conversely, WCEs have, on average, ~ 70 m deeper MLs than CCEs, and host a phytoplankton community with more diatoms. Diatoms provide lower quality food for zooplankton, and zooplankton lipid stores in WCEs decline with trophic level, and possibly, with time after initial (or seasonal) nutrient injection. As a result, phyllosomas in CCEs have higher energy and lipid content than those in warm-core eddies. The resolution of the paradox, therefore, is that the higher surface chlorophyll signatures of WCEs are not representative of the nutritional value of the prey field of the phyllosoma. We also conclude that interannual variations of mixed layer depth occur at a regional scale, controlling PP. Show less

A random utility maximization (RUM) travel cost model is used to characterize trips to beaches by residents of Orange County, CA. The authors collected on-site measurements of marine debris at 31 beaches in the Orange County area. These data, combined with data on beach trips obtained from a general population survey, were used to estimate a RUM model capable of isolating the impact of marine debris on beach choice. The model is used to estimate the economic benefits associated with several… Show more

A random utility maximization (RUM) travel cost model is used to characterize trips to beaches by residents of Orange County, CA. The authors collected on-site measurements of marine debris at 31 beaches in the Orange County area. These data, combined with data on beach trips obtained from a general population survey, were used to estimate a RUM model capable of isolating the impact of marine debris on beach choice. The model is used to estimate the economic benefits associated with several hypothetical reductions in marine debris. The estimated per capita seasonal benefit associated with a 25% reduction in marine debris at all beaches in the choice set is $12.91 (aggregate benefits of $29.5 million in 2013 dollars), while the estimated per capita seasonal benefit associated with a hypothetical improvement potentially associated with the full implementation of the Los Angeles River Trash total maximum daily load (TMDL) is $20.36 (aggregate benefits of $46.5 million). Show less

Climate change will have serious repercussions for agriculture, ecosystems, and farmer livelihoods in Central America. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable due to their reliance on agriculture and ecosystem services for their livelihoods. There is an urgent need to develop national and local adaptation responses to reduce these impacts, yet evidence from historical climate change is fragmentary. Modeling efforts help bridge this gap. Here, we review the past decade of research on… Show more

Climate change will have serious repercussions for agriculture, ecosystems, and farmer livelihoods in Central America. Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable due to their reliance on agriculture and ecosystem services for their livelihoods. There is an urgent need to develop national and local adaptation responses to reduce these impacts, yet evidence from historical climate change is fragmentary. Modeling efforts help bridge this gap. Here, we review the past decade of research on agricultural and ecological climate change impact models for Central America. Show less

Mesoscale eddies may drive a significant component of cross-shelf transport important in the ecology of shelf ecosystems and adjacent boundary currents. The Leeuwin Current in the eastern Indian Ocean becomes unstable in the austral autumn triggering the formation of eddies. We hypothesized that eddy formation represented the major driver of cross-shelf transport during the autumn. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler profiles confirmed periodic offshore movement of ∼2 Sv of shelf waters into the… Show more

Mesoscale eddies may drive a significant component of cross-shelf transport important in the ecology of shelf ecosystems and adjacent boundary currents. The Leeuwin Current in the eastern Indian Ocean becomes unstable in the austral autumn triggering the formation of eddies. We hypothesized that eddy formation represented the major driver of cross-shelf transport during the autumn. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler profiles confirmed periodic offshore movement of ∼2 Sv of shelf waters into the forming eddy from the shelf, carrying a load of organic particles (>0.06 mm). The gap between inflow and outflow then closed, such that the eddy became isolated from further direct input of shelf waters. Drifter tracks supported an anticyclonic surface flow peaking at the eddy perimeter and decreasing in velocity at the eddy center. Oxygen and nutrient profiles suggested rapid remineralization of nitrate mid-depth in the isolated water mass as it rotated, with a total drawdown of oxygen of 3.6 mol m−2 to 350 m. Depletion of oxygen, and release of nitrate, occurred on the timescale of ∼1 week. We suggest that N supply and N turnover are rapid in this system, such that nitrate is acting primarily as a regenerated nutrient rather than as a source of new nitrogen. We hypothesize that sources of eddy particulate C and N could include particles sourced from coastal primary producers within ∼500 km such as macrophytes and seagrasses known to produce copious detritus, which is prone to resuspension and offshore transport. Show less

New N inputs via biological N2-fixation play a critical role in supporting oceanic primary production and influencing global biogeochemical cycles. Numerous studies have documented significant N2-fixation rates in the North Atlantic, but relatively little is known of the pathways and fluxes of new N through planktonic food webs. Here, we report the natural abundance of 15N in, and contribution of diazotroph N (ND) inputs to, suspended particles and mesozooplankton collected along two transects… Show more

New N inputs via biological N2-fixation play a critical role in supporting oceanic primary production and influencing global biogeochemical cycles. Numerous studies have documented significant N2-fixation rates in the North Atlantic, but relatively little is known of the pathways and fluxes of new N through planktonic food webs. Here, we report the natural abundance of 15N in, and contribution of diazotroph N (ND) inputs to, suspended particles and mesozooplankton collected along two transects in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean (STNA). Samples were collected in April–May 2000 along the two main transects to evaluate spatial trends of 15N within the Western Atlantic and across the basin. We found that N2-fixation is a key component in supporting both primary and secondary productions throughout the STNA. ND contribution was generally higher for suspended particles than for mesozooplankton, and we observed a high ND contribution to suspended particles over large spatial scales in the western and central STNA. Mesozooplankton ND incorporation suggests that diazotroph production supports oceanic food webs over longer timescales (e.g., weeks to months) than that of particle turnover (e.g., days). Larger mesozooplankton (1000–4000 μm) generally incorporated more ND than smaller mesozooplankton (250–1000 μm), and thus may exert a stronger influence on an ND movement within the water column. Spatial and vertical patterns of variation in mesozooplankton δ15N also suggest either broad geographical differences in an ND contribution to secondary production, or temporal variations in ND incorporation via mesozooplankton communities. Show less

Aquatic crustaceans often play a major role in organic matter (OM) transformation and recycling through their feeding and excretory activities. In this study, we measured the isotopic and elemental composition of organic matter fed to Palaemonetes sp. shrimp and the fecal pellets they produced. Nitrogen (N) content of the food (8.2 ± 0.2%, mean ± SD) was significantly higher than the fecal pellets (2.0 ± 0.9%), a pattern that also applied to the carbon (C) content of food (46.7 ± 1.0%) and… Show more

Aquatic crustaceans often play a major role in organic matter (OM) transformation and recycling through their feeding and excretory activities. In this study, we measured the isotopic and elemental composition of organic matter fed to Palaemonetes sp. shrimp and the fecal pellets they produced. Nitrogen (N) content of the food (8.2 ± 0.2%, mean ± SD) was significantly higher than the fecal pellets (2.0 ± 0.9%), a pattern that also applied to the carbon (C) content of food (46.7 ± 1.0%) and fecal pellets (14.3 ± 6.8%). We also found a significant decrease in the N content of undigested, macerated food (6.1 ± 0.9 %) relative to food that had been soaked in artificial seawater (ASW) and artificial seawater that had previously contained shrimp (CASW) in the absence of feeding shrimp. We found no significant difference in N or C isotopic composition between the dry food, ASW- and CASW-soaked control food, and fecal pellets. We did, however, observe a significant increase in δ15N of the undigested, macerated food (δ15N = 6.3 ± 0.6‰) relative to both the dry flake food (δ15N = 5.6 ± 0.2‰) and controls incubated in the absence of shrimp in either ASW (δ15N = 5.6 ±0.3‰) or CASW (δ15N = 5.8 ± 0.1‰). Our results differ from previous findings of isotopic alteration of OM during processing by crustaceans (copepods), suggesting that isotopic changes related to feeding might be either taxon- or food-specific. This study also provides information on the influence of grazers/shredders on both the elemental and isotopic composition of POM, suggesting that larger aquatic shredders can influence the chemical composition of particles by either physical manipulation of the POM (release of DOM) or by facilitating microbial colonization of the POM. Show less