Providing demonstrable and quantifiable evidence to substantiate the value of Marine Protected Areas like National Marine Sanctuaries is important for understanding their role in the blue economy, as well as gaining management and financial support for their protection. This study employs economic contribution analysis to estimate the economic contributions of ocean recreation spending of visitors to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) and the coastal Georgia region. Employing economic contribution analysis is found to be more useful in influencing stakeholder decisions, and can therefore be a useful tool in providing inputs for management decisions related to marine protected areas. This study shows that visitors to coastal Georgia spent about USD 1.4 billion on ocean recreation activities in a single year. This translates to a total economic contribution of 18,950 jobs, USD 603 million labor income, USD 938 million value added, and USD 1.8 billion output. About USD 123 million of the total visitor spending can be attributed to GRNMS, contributing 1702 total jobs, USD 54 million in total labor income, USD 84 million in total value added, and USD 159 million in total output. This study highlights the importance of coastal Georgia and GRNMS as economic drivers of the region’s economy, supporting the need for continued management and investment in the Sanctuary and its resources.
Marine sanctuaries serve as popular destinations for ecotourism, natural resource exploration, and recreation across the US. While often positive, visitation in marine and coastal areas can cause ecological threats to these ecosystems. Increased visitation in marine environments has led to the need for management due to negative ecological and social impacts. Understanding environmental values, attitudes, and perceptions is important to the success of environmental protection. Using online surveys sent via Qualtrics asking questions regarding the users’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of ocean resources, goods and services, this research focused on identifying user profiles and understanding their environmental perception associated with Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, an offshore marine protected area, and surrounding coastal Georgia. The results show that across multiple types of threats or phenomena, respondents are most concerned about threats to resources related to pollution. Furthermore, they support marine protection and are willing to adjust their consumption habits, such as recycling and energy use, to ensure the sustainable use of ocean resources. The inclusion of insights achieved through research about visitor perceptions into management decision making and planning can positively contribute to the success of environmental protection.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2137826
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10487713
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI, Water
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Water
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2073-4441
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1425
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Ecosystems across the United States are changing in complex and surprising ways. Ongoing demand for critical ecosystem services requires an understanding of the populations and communities in these ecosystems in the future. This paper represents a synthesis effort of the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network addressing the core research area of “populations and communities.” The objective of this effort was to show the importance of long-term data collection and experiments for addressing the hardest questions in scientific ecology that have significant implications for environmental policy and management. Each LTER site developed at least one compelling case study about what their site could look like in 50–100 yr as human and environmental drivers influencing specific ecosystems change. As the case studies were prepared, five themes emerged, and the studies were grouped into papers in this LTER Futures Special Feature addressing state change, connectivity, resilience, time lags, and cascading effects. This paper addresses the “connectivity” theme and has examples from the Phoenix (urban), Niwot Ridge (alpine tundra), McMurdo Dry Valleys (polar desert), Plum Island (coastal), Santa Barbara Coastal (coastal), and Jornada (arid grassland and shrubland) sites. Connectivity has multiple dimensions, ranging from multi-scalar interactions in space to complex interactions over time that govern the transport of materials and the distribution and movement of organisms. The case studies presented here range widely, showing how land-use legacies interact with climate to alter the structure and function of arid ecosystems and flows of resources and organisms in Antarctic polar desert, alpine, urban, and coastal marine ecosystems. Long-term ecological research demonstrates that connectivity can, in some circumstances, sustain valuable ecosystem functions, such as the persistence of foundation species and their associated biodiversity or, it can be an agent of state change, as when it increases wind and water erosion. Increased connectivity due to warming can also lead to species range expansions or contractions and the introduction of undesirable species. Continued long-term studies are essential for addressing the complexities of connectivity. The diversity of ecosystems within the LTER network is a strong platform for these studies.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/w15071425
