Aquatic ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and home to a diverse array of species and habitats
providing a wide variety of benefits to human beings. Many of these valuable ecosystems are at
risk of being irreversibly damaged by human activities and pressures including pollution
contamination invasive species overfishing and climate change. Such pressures threaten the
sustainability of these ecosystems their provision of ecosystem services and ultimately human
well-being. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) is now widely considered the most promising
paradigm for balancing sustainable development and biodiversity protection and various
international strategies and conventions have championed the EBM cause and the inclusion of
ecosystem services in decision-making. This open access book introduces the essential concepts
and principles required to implement ecosystem-based management detailing tools and techniques
and describing the application of these concepts and tools to a broad range of aquatic
ecosystems from the shores of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland to the estuaries of the US
Pacific Northwest and the tropical Mekong Delta.
