Pyramids of Life: Working with nature for a sustainable future
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Mathematics
Abstract
Our planet's natural resources face unsustainable demands and there is evidence that current management approaches are failing to move resource use towards a sustainable future. This failure is particularly acute in marine ecosystems where about 95% of fisheries are fully- or over-exploited. A step-change is needed to achieve sustainability, but such change can only be affected if it aligns with consumer demand, real world fishing practicalities, and with sustainable national policies such as the Natural Capital Approach described by the UK's 25 Year Environment Plan. The 'Pyramids of Life' approach to a sustainable future captures and helps to communicate complex relationships between different species, human behaviours, and marine ecosystem functions.
Ecological pyramids represent different size-based trophic levels with the relative scarcity of larger organisms being regulated by well-understood scaling principles based on energy flow from smaller prey. Human needs can also be represented in hierarchical pyramids where lower level physiological needs (e.g. need for food) must be satisfied before higher level needs (e.g. need for self-esteem) can influence behaviour (e.g. value systems). If presented together, information from such pyramids would allow stakeholders to understand complex and dynamic systems and their interdependencies, contribute to inform adaptive decision-making and lend itself to efficient and scalable modelling tools based on existing datasets
The problem for the UK's marine resources is that fisheries management agreements typically use metrics which are based, for a given species, on the number of tonnes landed above some given minimum size. This can distort the size structure of naturally productive pyramids, causing local crashes in populations. It can also be wasteful where catches inevitably encompass many species. Consumer preference and market forces also play a role, promoting "plate-sized" catches and well-known species at the possible expense of more ecologically sustainable alternatives.
We have shown that management which better respects ecological pyramids, and where harvest at a particular size class is proportional to the production at that size class (in units of carbon per year), can be both more productive and surprisingly resilient to external challenges. The challenge is to convert this academic observation into practical reality. To do this, we need to understand the behaviour of consumers, and of fishers, and to identify where change can be commercially viable as well as ecologically sustainable. Again the pyramid concept, this time describing values and behaviours, is helpful. Co-development with our partner organisations has identified key target species and fisheries, and existing datasets, where targeted changes in management can align with both the realities of human behaviour and economic value, and ecological sustainability.
The research combines overlapping expertise in socio-economics and human behaviour (University of East Anglia), ecology and detailed spatio-temporal datasets (Cefas),and mathematics and marine ecology (University of York). Our partners Seafish and Waitrose bring detailed expertise in market dynamics, consumer behaviour and fishing effort, as well as matching our commitment to long-term sustainability. Together, this body of work will provide a multidimensional perspective of the value of marine ecosystems so that future management interventions are based squarely on what is sustainable.
Ecological pyramids represent different size-based trophic levels with the relative scarcity of larger organisms being regulated by well-understood scaling principles based on energy flow from smaller prey. Human needs can also be represented in hierarchical pyramids where lower level physiological needs (e.g. need for food) must be satisfied before higher level needs (e.g. need for self-esteem) can influence behaviour (e.g. value systems). If presented together, information from such pyramids would allow stakeholders to understand complex and dynamic systems and their interdependencies, contribute to inform adaptive decision-making and lend itself to efficient and scalable modelling tools based on existing datasets
The problem for the UK's marine resources is that fisheries management agreements typically use metrics which are based, for a given species, on the number of tonnes landed above some given minimum size. This can distort the size structure of naturally productive pyramids, causing local crashes in populations. It can also be wasteful where catches inevitably encompass many species. Consumer preference and market forces also play a role, promoting "plate-sized" catches and well-known species at the possible expense of more ecologically sustainable alternatives.
We have shown that management which better respects ecological pyramids, and where harvest at a particular size class is proportional to the production at that size class (in units of carbon per year), can be both more productive and surprisingly resilient to external challenges. The challenge is to convert this academic observation into practical reality. To do this, we need to understand the behaviour of consumers, and of fishers, and to identify where change can be commercially viable as well as ecologically sustainable. Again the pyramid concept, this time describing values and behaviours, is helpful. Co-development with our partner organisations has identified key target species and fisheries, and existing datasets, where targeted changes in management can align with both the realities of human behaviour and economic value, and ecological sustainability.
The research combines overlapping expertise in socio-economics and human behaviour (University of East Anglia), ecology and detailed spatio-temporal datasets (Cefas),and mathematics and marine ecology (University of York). Our partners Seafish and Waitrose bring detailed expertise in market dynamics, consumer behaviour and fishing effort, as well as matching our commitment to long-term sustainability. Together, this body of work will provide a multidimensional perspective of the value of marine ecosystems so that future management interventions are based squarely on what is sustainable.
Description | Cefas webinar on Fishing for Biodiversity, and the broader implications of MSY and balanced harvest |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Webinar delivered by Pyramids of Life Co-I, Richard Law, to Cefas, focusing on the results of his latest work on balanced harvesting. This represented an opportunity to share our research with like-minded professional practitioners with the aim of forging further collaborations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Chair of panel discussion for the session 'Can diversity help save our oceans?' as part of Food Diversity Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Pyramids of Life Co-I, Bryce Stewart, chaired a panel of UK marine stakeholders (Mitch Tonks - Rockfish, Sanjay Kumar - chef, Caroline Bennett - Sole of Discretion, and Chris Bean - fisher) in discussion of the topic 'Can diversity help save our oceans?' as part of Food Diversity Day. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KOy3A-J0MY |
Description | Exploring Narratives in Environmental Challenges - Webinar and Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Additional NERC funding (UoY) facilitated a webinar and workshop about constructing narratives of complex systems. Pyramids of Life was used as a case study and the learning from this work is being incorporated into our thinking about future communication strategies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpd1U7nuZBE |
Description | Introduction to mizer webinar for SMMRNet |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Webinar by University of York Co-I, Gustav Delius, to promote the use of the mizer model (https://sizespectrum.org/mizer/) amongst UK marine stakeholders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.smmr.org.uk/event/size-based-multi-species-fisheries-modelling-with-mizer-a-practical-in... |
Description | Plenary presentation to ICES WKLIFE workshop on size spectra in the context of data limited stocks |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The presentation raised awareness of the work we are doing amongst data limited stock experts and will hopefully lead to the integration of our group's work in future WKLIFE outputs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/report/Eleventh_Workshop_on_the_Development_of_Quantitati... |
Description | Presentation at UST Global lunch and learn event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | An introduction to the Pyramids of Life project by PI, Jon Pitchford, to help foster and build relations with a potential collaborator. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presentation at Waitrose lunch and learn event for Ethics and Sustainability Team |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | An introduction to the Pyramids of Life project by PI, Jon Pitchford, to foster relations with our project partners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Pyramids of Life Twitter account - @SMMR_Pyramids |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Twitter account to promote work of the project. Created April 2022. ~135 followers. Specific tweets have 850+ views. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
URL | https://twitter.com/SMMR_Pyramids |
Description | Pyramids of Life project website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Website to promote project. Contains project outputs and regular blog and newsletter updates. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://pyramidsoflife.york.ac.uk/ |
Description | Talk at Challenger Society Conference (London, UK) titled 'Pyramids of life - fishing for biodiversity and conservation' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk by Pyramids of Life PI, Jon Pitchford, providing an introduction to the Pyramids of Life project. The purpose of the talk was to raise awareness and interest in the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/science-events/the-challenger-society-conference-2022-in-london.ht... |
Description | Talk at SMMR annual conference (Bristol, UK) titled 'Exploring the ecosystem consequences of changes in exploitation' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Discussion of the mizer modelling tool and approach that underpins the Pyramids of Life project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://pyramidsoflife.york.ac.uk/blog-newsletters |
Description | Talk at SMMR annual conference (Bristol, UK) titled 'Pyramids of Life: Working with Nature' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Talk to introduce Pyramids of Life project to UK marine stakeholders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://pyramidsoflife.york.ac.uk/blog-newsletters |
Description | Training courses for Mizer in fisheries management |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Training in the use and application of the mizer modelling tool delivered by University of York Co-I, Gustav Delius, and postdoc, Kennedy Osuka, in August 2022 and over three weeks in November 2022. Over 150 individuals registered for the training courses from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America. UK delegates included representatives from Defra, Marine Scotland Science, and Cefas. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://mizer.course.nov22.sizespectrum.org/ |
Description | Workshop at SMMR annual conference (Bristol, UK) - Behaviour change and policy influencing: practical insights for interdisciplinary working |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Dr Sarah Collings (UWE Bristol) shared insights on behavioural change and policy influencing in the sphere of transport decisions and policy, and how similar approaches may be applied to encourage change amongst diverse marine stakeholders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |