There are multiple other manager and stakeholder entities with which regional programs have engaged with as part of inclusive community implementation of the IEA approach for specific management efforts.

These include but are not limited to:

The NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) program partners with several state natural resource management agencies to support their ecosystem-based management needs using the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach.

Below are each of the IEA regions working with state agencies:

IEA Approach Supports Science and Management needs for Sanctuaries

The NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment program partners with NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) to support Ecosystem-Based Management using the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) approach.

ONMS “serves as the trustee for a network of underwater parks encompassing more than 600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters”.

The NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment program partners with several of the eight Fisheries Management Councils in the United States that are responsible for managing our Nation’s fishery resources. We work together to advance the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) using the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach.

Evaluating management strategies is the fifth step of the NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) approach and builds off information from the previous steps. Management Strategy Evaluations (MSE) evaluate the potential outcomes of alternative management actions on ecosystem components (natural and human) and identify trade offs within management objectives. MSEs do not prescribe management approaches but rather inform managers which strategies could be the most useful in achieving their objectives.

The fourth step in the NOAA Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) approach is to conduct a risk assessment. Risk assessments determine the probability of undesirable events occurring to the ecosystem components identified in the first step of the IEA. Risk is generally described by the sensitivity and/ or resilience of a given ecosystem component (measured by the indicators) to various natural and human pressures and perturbations (including management actions) that result in a change in the system.

In a collaborative effort with researchers, managers, and community members, NOAA scientists are using the IEA approach to provide ecosystem science to support natural resource management of the Hawaiian Islands. In contrast to more conventional approaches to resource management, the IEA relies on collaborative, interdisciplinary, and adaptive methods to consider interactions among multiple components of Hawaii’s coastal and marine ecosystem and recognizes that local communities are an integral part of the ecosystem.

In a collaborative effort with researchers, managers and local community members, a team of NOAA scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Ecosystem Dynamics and Assessment Branch are leading the use of the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment approach in 3 distinct ecosystems: Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Mid-Atlantic Bight to bring social and ecological science to natural resource managers in the Northeast United States.

Regional Goals

The CCIEA is an interdisciplinary research effort led by U.S. West Coast NOAA scientists. Our goal is to provide science support for ecosystem-based management of the California Current – a complex ecosystem in which natural and human systems are inextricably linked.

We’ve broadly identified and adopted the following ecosystem endpoints for the California Current Ecosystem.

Ecosystem Integrity

The structure and function of marine and coastal ecosystems and ecological communities.