Socio-ecological vulnerability of reef fish systems in the mexican Pacific. by Science for people
Please find below the
Semi-Finalist Evaluation
Judges'' comments
- A valuable idea, but it would seem just as useful without a software tool. Also, the results seem predetermined to show that socio-ecological systems are vulnerable. Maybe if the author could do it without the software to refine pilot sites to narrow down the most vulnerable of the 300+ communities, then so some community outreach to get a better idea of what challenges these communities face. No software tool is going to convince fishing communities to “respect closures”. Communication and education to the community over the benefits of respecting closures while shifting to other activities during specific poor resource seasons must be done by government, protected area managers and backed by civil associations and NGOs.
- The project consists of three linked modelling/indicator construction exercises: identifying the effect of the RCPs on SST, SST impact on key fish species, and a prediction of species abundance using neural networks. There is also mention of an "indicator of social vulnerability". While these modelling exercises are intriguing and a prediction of key reef species using only temperature as a driver would be of value, the Judges are unconvinced that this is possible. Species abundance is linked to much more than just SST; reef health, harvesting behaviour, cascading effects from the abundance of other species and so on would be very important. No mention is made of the uncertainty associated with these modelling efforts. Furthermore, while the proposal lists a number of papers which the Judges recognize as peer-reviewed literature (and some which the Judges don't), the references are incomplete and not cited in the proposal itself. The proposal would need to explicitly address uncertainty and model inputs in its scientific portion and, just as importantly, include a communication strategy. At this point, it seems to be of the "we'll build it and people will use it" variety.
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