This setup helps highlight that ecosystems comprise many different components, including organisms, each of which can give rise to differing ES and ES priorities buy Bortezomib within different regions. The ESPM could be modified in many ways. A key feature is that it provides a framework which can be readily adapted depending on the requirements.

Additional ES could be added where appropriate, and additional categories and sub-categories of ecological components could be created. For example, the cetacean and fish components could be broken down further, highlighting particular species or groups. To make the prioritization results more robust and widely accepted, additional stakeholder groups could be involved to aid with the evaluation of relative value and stress. This could include, for example, input from local community, user group, industry, academic and government representatives. As explained in [13], determining the distribution of values among stakeholders can be a powerful means of informing and improving sustainable decision making. It is important to recognize that the categorization

of ES ‘priorities’ is also relatively flexible. In this study, only the ‘highest-priority’ ES (i.e., ‘high value’ and ‘high stress’) were taken forward for indicator analysis. Other ‘priority’ ES for EBM could of course include any ES with a high or medium value or stress level. By revealing the priority of ES and the extent to which many ES are related to specific habitat types or www.selleckchem.com/products/ch5424802.html categories of organisms, the ESPM can be a useful tool to define suitable EBM actions. This Progesterone requires the selection of indicators that can be used to monitor, foreshadow, and, where possible, understand changes in ES health. Due to the many environmental factors influencing ES, a large number of potential indicators could be identified as possible measurement targets. This clearly highlights the need to prioritize monitoring indicators for EBM based on a set of scoring criteria that best reflect the

overall monitoring goals. One possible set of scoring criteria is suggested in Table 2. Additional criteria could be considered, for example, to address factors related to cost or timing, especially in cases where these factors could be limiting. Criteria or groups of criteria can also be weighted to change their relative contribution to the overall score depending on situation and need. Independent of the details of the scoring system, using a set of defined criteria provides a structured, consistent way to evaluate benefits and shortcomings associated with different indicators that can assist with the prioritization of monitoring efforts. Ranking indicators based on a set of suitable criteria is a helpful tool to identify priority indicators, but should not be the only measure for indicator selection.