
Kate WatermeyerDeakin University · Centre for Integrative Ecology
Kate Watermeyer
PhD
About
25
Publications
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Introduction
Research fellow in the Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Melbourne. Working on testing and development of biodiversity indicators for conservation and monitoring, including the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.
I am an ecologist with a background in marine biology, ocean and atmosphere science. My research interests include ecosystem modelling, function, and monitoring, as well as drivers of ecosystem change.
Publications
Publications (25)
As the United Nations develops a post-2020 global biodiversity framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity, attention is focusing on how new goals and targets for ecosystem conservation might serve its vision of ‘living in harmony with nature’1,2. Advancing dual imperatives to conserve biodiversity and sustain ecosystem services requires r...
Despite substantial conservation efforts, the loss of ecosystems continues globally, along with related declines in species and nature’s contributions to people. An effective ecosystem goal, supported by clear milestones, targets and indicators, is urgently needed for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and beyond to support biodiversity co...
Ecosystems are central to the definition of biodiversity. Sustaining ecosystems is essential for safeguarding species, ecosystem processes, and the natural capital and ecosystem services on which people rely. A new goal and associated action targets for ecosystem conservation form a core part of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (OEWG 202...
It is nearly three decades since the world recognized the need for a global multilateral treaty aiming to address accelerating biodiversity loss. However, biodiversity continues to decline at a concerning rate. Drawing on lessons from the implementation of the current strategic plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 2010 Aichi Targe...
At the global scale, biodiversity indicators are typically used to monitor general trends, but are rarely implemented with specific purpose or linked directly to decision making. Some indicators are better suited to predicting future change, others are more appropriate for evaluating past actions, but this is seldom made explicit. We developed a co...
Global biodiversity indices are used to measure environmental change and progress toward conservation goals, yet few indices have been evaluated comprehensively for their capacity to detect trends of interest, such as declines in threatened species or ecosystem function. Using a structured approach based on decision science, we qualitatively evalua...
The global food system is causing unsustainable
pressures on the environment, leading to widespread
land use change, increased greenhouse gas emissions,
disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles,
biodiversity loss, and freshwater depletion and
pollution. Environmental pressures are mounting
as populations grow and diets change, escalating th...
Assessing risks to marine ecosystems is critical due to their biological and economic importance, and because many have recently undergone regime shifts due to overfishing and environmental change. Yet defining collapsed ecosystem states, selecting informative indicators and reconstructing long-term marine ecosystem changes remains challenging. The...
A number of ecologically and economically important species in the southern Benguela, including the forage fish sardine Sardinops sagax and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus, have undergone southward/eastward shifts in their distribution in the 1990s/early 2000s. In addition to the effects of changes in prey availability to top predators, the spatiall...
The historical approach of sector-specific, largely top-down management in favor of highly capitalized industry sectors has seemingly left southern Benguela fisheries management in a Gordian knot. The modern systems approach to management of human activities in the oceans forbids cutting through the knot, making it necessary to develop methodology...
Several commercially and ecologically important species in the southern Benguela have undergone southward and eastward shifts in their distributions over previous decades, most notably the small pelagic fish sardine Sardinops sagax and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus. Understanding these changes and their implications is essential in implementing an...
Overlap in area (ROA) and biomass (ROB) between M. capensis, M. paradoxus and horse mackerel, and all other species, east and west of Cape Agulhas.
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Overlap in area (ROA) and biomass (ROB) between chub mackerel, kingklip and chokka squid, and all other species, east and west of Cape Agulhas.
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Overlap in area (ROA) and biomass (ROB) between yellowtail and geelbek, and all other species, east and west of Cape Agulhas.
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Overlap in area (ROA) and biomass (ROB) between sardine, anchovy and redeye and all other species, east and west of Cape Agulhas.
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Average distribution of sardine, anchovy and redeye recruits (May) and spawner biomass (Nov) during each period, based on pelagic survey data.
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Overlap in area (ROA) and biomass (ROB) between Silver kob, snoek and yellowfin tuna, and all other species, east and west of Cape Agulhas.
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Overfishing and human-induced climate change are putting severe pressure on marine ecosystems. In the southern Benguela, most of South Africa's commercial fisheries have a long history of exploitation and this, coupled with spatio-temporal changes in key species over the last three decades has severely impacted some of South Africa's fisheries and...
The marine pelagic social-ecological system in the southern Benguela, which supports important forage fisheries, has been undergoing both human-induced and environmentally-induced long-term, system-scale changes. While people have learnt to adapt to the high interannual variability in the natural system, the effects of long-term changes have largel...
A number of ecologically and economically important species in the southern Benguela, including sardine Sardinops sagax and anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus, have undergone southward/eastward shifts in their distribution in recent decades. In addition to the effects of changes in prey availability to top predators, the spatially-distinct nature of th...
Recent changes have been observed in South African marine ecosystems. The main pressures on these ecosystems are fishing, climate change, pollution, ocean acidification and mining. The best long-term datasets are for trends in fishing pressures but there are many gaps, especially for non-commercial species. Fishing pressures have varied over time,...
Ecosystem models provide a platform allowing exploration into the possible responses of marine food webs to fishing pressure and various potential management decisions. In this study we investigate the particular effects of overfishing on the structure and function of the southern Benguela food web, using two models with different underlying assump...
Despite a human presence in the Benguela region for at least one million years, exploitation of marine resources by European seafarers only began in earnest in the 1400s. Ecopath with Ecosim was used to construct and compare mass-balanced foodweb models of the southern Benguela ecosystem, representing the following eras of human influence: aborigin...
Exploitation of marine resources has been occurring in the northern Benguela ecosystem for centuries. Understanding the cumulative long-term effects of this exploitation is important toward effective management of the modern system. Retrospective mass-balanced models of the ecosystem have been constructed, using Ecopath with Ecosim, for each of the...