PNCIMA Pilot ERAF Metadata

1.1. Introduction

The Pacific Region ERAF provides a comprehensive approach for assessing all threats to marine ecosystems by evaluating cumulative risk from multiple activities to multiple ecosystem components for ecosystem-based management (EBM), improving upon international and national best practices in risk assessment that focus solely on single activities (e.g., ERAFs for assessing fisheries impacts) or single ecosystem-components (e.g., habitat-based risk assessments). This project aims to apply this ERAF in the Pacific Region to the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA) as a pilot project to assess the feasibility and suitability of the ERAF as a tool for determining risk of harm to ecosystem components, and its usefulness for providing transparent and defensible science-based advice on prioritising ecological risk of different activities for ecosystem-based management and MPA management. Because it is based on a subset of SECs and stressors affecting PNCIMA and the resulting scores have not been vetted by experts, the results of this pilot application should not be used for policy or management decisions at this stage.

1.2. File Descriptions

CSV File Name	Description	Research Document Reference
PNCIMA_input_17VECS_formatted	This table can be used directly in the associated R script to estimate risk to each SEC, cumulative risk across all stressors by SEC and potency of each stressor across all SECs. The script can also reproduce the figures found in the research document.	Results section Note: the Clark et al. (2016) Appendix 4 does not contain sufficient information to reproduce the tables and figures in the Results section.

1.3. Field Descriptions for CSV Files

1.3.1. PNCIMA_input_17VECS_formatted

Column Heading	Description
VEC	Valuable Ecosystem Component name
Sector	One of Sea, Fisheries, Land, L.Term
Activity	Activity name
Stressor	Stressor name
Intensity	Estimation of intensity (amount, level, effort or density) of the activity/stressor (score binned 1-3).
U_int	Uncertainty associated with estimation of stressor intensity.
Temporal	Extent of SEC-stressor temporal overlap (estimated as a percent, score binned 1-3).
U_temp	Uncertainty associated with estimation of SEC-stressor temporal overlap.
Spatial	Extent of SEC-stressor spatial overlap (estimated as a percent, score binned 1-3).
U_spatial	Uncertainty associated with estimation of SEC-stressor spatial overlap.
Consequence	Consequence associated with stressor/VEC exposure (score binned 1-6).
U_cons	Uncertainty associated with estimation of SEC-stressor consequence score.

1.4. Abbreviations used in input file:

1.4.1. Sector

L.Term

Long Term

1.4.2. VEC

Cassins	Cassin’s Auklet
Clam	Geoduck Clam
Corals	Cold Water Coral
Crab	Dungeness Crab
Hb.whale	Humpback Whale
Herring	Pacific Herring
K.whale	Resident Killer Whale
P.plank	Phytoplankton
S.Dogfish	Spiny Dogfish
SS.lion	Steller Sea Lion
Z.plank	Zooplankton

1.4.3. Activities

Climate	Climate change
Fin.aqua	Finfish aquaculture
H.dig	Hand digging
Hook	Hook and line fishing
Human.s	Human settlement
Land.act	Land-based activities
Log.h	Log handling
LRCont	Long-range contaminants
L.vessel	Large vessel
Mar.Tour	Marine tourism
Recfish	Recreational fishing
ShelAqua	Shellfish aquaculture
S.Vessel	Small vessel

1.4.4. Stressors

Contam	Contaminants
D.capture	Direct capture
Dis.wild	Disruption of wildlife
Fish.Esc	Fish escapement
FW.flow	Fresh water flow
Hab.Dist	Habitat disturbance
Inv.spe	Invasive species
Inc.Mort	Incidental mortality
Nut.Inp	Nutrient input
O.acid	Ocean acidification
POPs	Persistent organic pollutants
PredContr	Predatory control
Sed	Sedimentation
SLRise	Sea level rise
Temp_ch	Temperature change

1.5. References

O, M., Martone, R., Hannah, L., Greig, L., Boutillier, J. and Patton, S. 2015. An Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF) for Ecosystem-based Oceans Management in the Pacific Region. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2014/072.vii + 59 p.

Murray, C.C., Mach, M.E., and O, M. 2016. Pilot ecosystem risk assessment to assess cumulative risk to species in the North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA). DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/049. vii + 59 p.