Kirsten OlesonUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa | UH Manoa · Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management
Kirsten Oleson
PhD, MS, Ir, BS
About
102
Publications
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - present
January 2010 - December 2011
September 2007 - September 2009
Education
September 2003 - September 2007
January 2000 - January 2005
June 1996 - April 1997
Publications
Publications (102)
Bumphead parrotfish ( Bolbometopon muricatum ) and Napoleon wrasse ( Cheilinus undulatus ) are large, charismatic species with high economic and cultural value in Palau and are important for ecosystem function.
As a result of intense fishing pressure, landings in Palau for both species declined dramatically in the 1990s and, in response, national l...
On-site Sewage Disposal Systems (OSDS) are globally common, and in Hawai'i they present a risk of contamination to drinking water sources and nearshore waters. State legislation has commanded that all cesspools are to be banned by 2050, thus requiring tens of thousands of systems to be converted in the coming decades. This project followed a partic...
We develop a travel-cost random utility model to estimate the value of recreational ecosystem services provided by more than 170 outdoor sites located on the island of Maui (Hawaii, USA). Particular emphasis is placed on the role of coastal ecosystems by combining recent fine-scale data on coral cover and fish biomass with information on almost 300...
Mauka-to-makai (mountain to sea in the Hawaiian language) hydrologic connectivity – commonly referred to as ridge-to-reef – directly affects biogeochemical processes and socioecological functions across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems. The supply of freshwater to estuarine and nearshore environments in a ridge-to-reef system supports th...
International development country classifications are important for achieving development goals by directing differential support to a group of countries facing common development constraints. The small island developing States (SIDS) classification is a widely used country classification supporting developing island nations. Some nations are now s...
The United States and European Union (EU) face common challenges in managing natural capital and balancing conservation and resource use with consumption of other forms of capital. This paper synthesizes findings from 11 individual application papers from a special issue of Ecosystem Services on natural capital accounting (NCA) and their applicatio...
Fisheries are often conceptualized through a biophysical lens resulting in management approaches that fail to account for stakeholder conflicts and sociopolitical inequities. Using a fisher engagement approach, this case study examines the sociopolitical dimensions of fisher-shark interactions in pursuit of more complete problem definitions and eff...
Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management is a holistic management approach that integrates the dynamics of an entire ecosystem, including societal dimensions. However, this approach seldom lives up to its promise because economic and social objectives are rarely specified. To fill this gap, we explored how an ecosystem model could better integrate econ...
Understanding the feedbacks between food systems and conservation policies can help avoid unintended environmental consequences. Using a survey-based choice experiment and economic modelling, we quantify the potential impact of tourists’ responses to a shift in offshore fish supply after the designation of a large-scale marine protected area in Pal...
Globally, an increasing recognition of the importance of ecosystem-based management (EBM), Indigenous resource management (IRM), and Indigenous-led research and management is emerging; yet, case studies within scholarly literature illustrating comprehensive application of these theories and philosophies are scarce. We present the collaborative mana...
Coastal zones are popular recreational areas that substantially contribute to social welfare. Managers can use information about specific environmental features that people value, and how these might change under different management scenarios, to spatially target actions to areas of high current or potential value. We explored how snorkelers' expe...
Large‐scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs) have proliferated in recent years, now accounting for most of the world's MPA coverage. However, little is known about LSMPA outcomes and the factors that affect them. Here we argue that policy interactions—the cumulative effect of co‐existing policies for an issue and/or geographical area—can play a crit...
Ecosystem accounts, as formalized by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounts (SEEA EEA), have been compiled in a number of countries, yet there have been few attempts to develop them for the U.S. We explore the potential for U.S. ecosystem accounting by compiling ecosystem extent, condition, and ecosystem ser...
The Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD) is a follow-up to the “The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” (TEEB) database which contained over 1,300 data points from 267 case studies on monetary values of ecosystem services across all biomes. The TEEB database had not been updated since 2010 and naturally many gaps exist across biomes,...
Large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs) are increasingly enacted to manage marine resources and meet international targets, yet their socioeconomic impacts are not well documented. In 2015, Palau passed the Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) Act, which will close 80% of its exclusive economic zone to fishing by 2020. An assessment of Palau'...
Large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs) are increasingly enacted to manage marine resources and meet international targets, yet their socio-economic impacts are not well documented. In 2015, Palau passed the Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) Act, which will close 80% of its exclusive economic zone to fishing by 2020. An assessment of Palau...
Here, we expand on the term “ecomimicry” to be an umbrella concept for an approach to adaptive ecosystem-based management of social-ecological systems that simultaneously optimizes multiple ecosystem services for the benefit of people and place. In this context, we define ecomimicry as a strategy for developing and managing cultural landscapes, bui...
A cocktail of land-based sources of pollution threatens coral reef ecosystems, and addressing these has become a key management and policy challenge in the State of Hawai'i, other US territories, and globally. In West Maui, Hawai'i, nearly one quarter of all living corals were lost between 1995 and 2008. Onsite disposal systems (OSDS) for sewage le...
Coral reefs worldwide face unprecedented cumulative anthropogenic effects of interacting local human pressures, global climate change and distal social processes. Reefs are also bound by the natural biophysical environment within which they exist. In this context, a key challenge for effective management is understanding how anthropogenic and bioph...
A cocktail of land-based sources of pollution threatens coral reef ecosystems, and addressing these has become a key management and policy challenge in Hawaiʻi, US and territories, and globally. In West Maui, Hawaiʻi, nearly one quarter of all living corals were lost between 1995-2008. Onsite disposal systems (OSDS) for sewage are common contaminan...
A cocktail of land-based sources of pollution threatens coral reef ecosystems, and addressing these has become a key management and policy challenge in Hawaiʻi, US and territories, and globally. In West Maui, Hawaiʻi, nearly one quarter of all living corals were lost between 1995-2008. Onsite disposal systems (OSDS) for sewage are common contaminan...
The nation's economic accounts provide objective, regular, and standardized information routinely relied on by public and private decision-makers. But they are incomplete. The United States and many other nations currently do not account for the natural capital—such as the wildlife, forests, grasslands, soils, and water bodies—on which all other ec...
There are growing efforts around the world to restore biocultural systems that produce food while also providing additional cultural and ecological benefits. Yet, there are few examples of integrated assessments of these efforts, impeding understanding of how they can contribute to multi-level sustainability goals. In this study, we collaborated wi...
Abstract Coral reefs worldwide face an uncertain future with many reefs reported to transition from being dominated by corals to macroalgae. However, given the complexity and diversity of the ecosystem, research on how regimes vary spatially and temporally is needed. Reef regimes are most often characterised by their benthic components; however, co...
Coral reefs provide numerous ecosystem goods and services, but are threatened by multiple environmental and anthropogenic stressors. To identify management scenarios that will reverse or mitigate ecosystem degradation, managers can benefit from tools that can quantify projected changes in ecosystem services due to alternative management options. We...
We introduce a special issue that aims to simultaneously motivate interest in uncertainty assessment (UA) and reduce the barriers practitioners face in conducting it. The issue, “Demonstrating transparent, feasible, and useful uncertainty assessment in ecosystem services modeling,” responds to findings from a 2016 workshop of academics and practiti...
The Hawaiian Islands are home to a complex and dynamic marine ecosystem that serves as a backbone to the state's economy and society's well-being. The marine ecosystem currently faces numerous threats that undermine ecosystem integrity and compromise socially valuable ecosystem services. The socio-economic and ecological complexity of the region in...
Using islands as a model system, this paper seeks to understand how ecosystem service valuation (ESV) has and can move from a monetized, single-service paradigm to an integrated valuation paradigm, a participatory approach that represents a more diverse set of the values of nature, and beyond, to a more fully realized conception of the island socia...
Declining natural resources have led to a cultural renaissance across the Pacific that seeks to revive customary ridge-to-reef management approaches to protect freshwater and restore abundant coral reef fisheries. Effective ridge-to-reef management requires improved understanding of land-sea linkages and decision-support tools to simultaneously eva...
Modeling framework predictor variables description and processing methods.
This table provides a description of all the predictor variables modeled in the coral reef models. Each metric is classified by type (terrestrial drivers or marine drivers) and assigned a code for modeling. The table below indicates the data source and analytical tool used t...
Copyright permission Charles Fletcher.
(PDF)
Response variables and drivers’ relationships.
This table provides the hypothesized relationships between the drivers and coral reef indicators.
(DOCX)
Measured versus modeled nutrients for groundwater and coastal discharge at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
(TIFF)
Response curves of benthic indicators at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
(TIF)
Response curves of herbivore fish indicators at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
(TIF)
Response curves of piscivore fish indicators at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
(TIF)
Observed versus predicted coral reef indicators at Hā‘ena.
(TIF)
Observed versus predicted coral reef indicators at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
(TIF)
Fish species composition per functional groups.
(DOCX)
Coral reef predictive model performance per indicator.
The percent deviance explained (PDE) by the BRT models for the calibration and cross-validation (CV) processes and the final number of predictors (Xi) is shown for Hā‘ena and Kaʻūpūlehu.
(DOCX)
Response curves of the benthic indicators at Hā‘ena.
(TIF)
Response curves of the herbivore fish indicators at Hā‘ena.
(TIF)
Modeling framework response variables description.
Benthic (% cover) and fish biomass (g.m-1) coral reef indicators were derived from the coral reef surveys and used as response variables in the coral reef models.
(DOCX)
Coastal water quality data at Ka‘ūpūlehu.
See Carlson and Wiegner [169] for more details on sample collection, processing, and analytical methods.
(DOCX)
Response curves of the piscivore fish indicators at Hā‘ena.
(TIF)
A major challenge for coral reef conservation and management is understanding how a wide range of interacting human and natural drivers cumulatively impact and shape these ecosystems. Despite the importance of understanding these interactions, a methodological framework to synthesize spatially explicit data of such drivers is lacking. To fill this...
Driver data analysis, assumptions, and limitations.
(DOCX)
Correlation matrix for driver layers used in PCA.
(XLSX)
Detailed GIS methods used to create fisheries catch maps.
(DOCX)
Patterns and processes on land influence coastal seas. Although coastal ecosystems have evolved to thrive in various conditions, modifications to landscapes by human activities have led to excessive loads of minerals, nutrients, and toxins in coastal waters, sometimes with degrading impacts. Understanding the connectivity between land and sea is cr...
Our oceans are peopled seascapes that nourish communities, support household economies, protect coastal populations from storms, and give us lifesaving medicines. Yet the intersecting threats of overharvesting, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction continue to threaten the ocean's ability to support the well-being of global humanity, a...
Nonnative, invasive grasses displace native plant communities and challenge ecological restoration globally. Ecological monitoring of restoration is typically short term and rarely reassessed to determine if initial findings are indicative of multiyear outcomes, and economic costs of restoration are seldom quantified. To address these knowledge gap...
Despite their importance for human well-being, nearshore fisheries are often data poor, undervalued, and underappreciated in policy and development programs. We assess the value chain for nearshore Hawaiian coral reef fisheries, mapping post-catch distribution and disposition, and quantifying associated monetary, food security, and cultural values....
Box 1 data.
Data obtained regarding imports of reef fish in coolers.
(XLSX)
Box 1 survey.
Survey used to interview individuals transporting reef fish in coolers aboard commercial passenger flights.
(DOCX)
Value added data.
Economic data used in analysis.
(XLSX)
The economic value of water quality is poorly understood in Hawaii. Quantifying the economic value of coastal water quality would inform policy decisions that impact the coast and help justify expenditures in water quality improvements. We conducted a non-market valuation of beach recreationalists’ preferences and willingness to pay for water quali...
Land-based source pollutants (LBSP) actively threaten coral reef ecosystems globally. To achieve the greatest conservation outcome at the lowest cost, managers could benefit from appropriate tools that evaluate the benefits (in terms of LBSP reduction) and costs of implementing alternative land management strategies. Here we use a spatially explici...
Accurate fishing ground maps are necessary for fisheries monitoring. In Velondriake locally managed marine area (LMMA) we observed that the nomenclature of shared fishing sites (FS) is villages dependent. Additionally, the level of illiteracy makes data collection more complicated, leading to data collectors improvising when recording FS. In this c...
Coral reefs are increasingly threatened despite being essential to coastal and island economies, particularly in the
Pacific. The diving industry relies on healthy reefs and can be positively and/or negatively impacted by ecological
change. Quantifying divers' ecological preferences that influence economic outcomes can help inform managers and
just...
One approach to get a good fishing site map that can be adapted to existing situation and thus be used to get an inspiration for improvements.
Accelerated loss of sea ice in the Arctic is opening routes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for longer periods each year. These changes may increase the ease and frequency with which marine birds and mammals move between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins. Indeed, recent observations of birds and mammals suggest these movements have i...
Ocean and coastal ecosystems provide critical fisheries, coastal protection, and cultural benefits to communities worldwide, but these services are diminishing due to local and global threats. In response, place-based strategies involve communities and resource users in management have proliferated. Here, we present a transferable community-based a...
Eight years of octopus fishery records from southwest Madagascar reveal significant positive impacts from 36 periodic closures on: (a) fishery catches and (b) village fishery income, such that (c) economic benefits from increased landings outweigh costs of foregone catch. Closures covered ~20% of a village's fished area and lasted 2-7 months.
Octop...
Eight years of octopus fishery records from southwest Madagascar reveal significant positive impacts from 36 periodic closures on: (a) fishery catches and (b) village fishery income, such that (c) economic benefits from increased landings outweigh costs of foregone catch. Closures covered ~20% of a village’s fished area and lasted 2-7 months. Fishe...
Eight years of octopus fishery records from southwest Madagascar reveal significant positive impacts from 36 periodic closures on: (a) fishery catches and (b) village fishery income, such that (c) economic benefits from increased landings outweigh costs of foregone catch. Closures covered ~20% of a village’s fished area and lasted 2-7 months. Fishe...
Accelerated loss of sea ice in the Arctic is opening routes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for longer periods each year. These changes will increase the ease and frequency with which marine birds and mammals are able to move between the Pacific and Atlantic ocean basins. Indeed, recent observations of birds and mammals suggest these mov...
Accelerated loss of sea ice in the Arctic is opening routes connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for longer periods each year. These changes will increase the ease and frequency with which marine birds and mammals are able to move between the Pacific and Atlantic ocean basins. Indeed, recent observations of birds and mammals suggest these mov...
Incorporating ecosystem services into management decisions is a promising means to link conservation and human well-being. Nonetheless, planning and management in Hawai'i, a state with highly valued natural capital, has yet to broadly utilize an ecosystem service approach. We conducted a stakeholder assessment, based on semi-structured interviews,...