About
70
Publications
26,668
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,224
Citations
Introduction
Leo X.C. Dutra currently works at the Oceans and Atmosphere, business unit of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Australia. Leo does research in marine resource management and governance, stakeholder engagement, climate change adaptation, and marine ecology.
Additional affiliations
May 1998 - April 2004
Publications
Publications (70)
A growing number of global ocean conflict studies over the last decade have set out to advance sustainability in the Anthropocene. Many of these research projects use multiple case studies to extract lessons for wider contexts. The methods used by these studies, and the extent to which their results have validity beyond the individual case study, o...
Integrated management (IM) has been widely proposed, but difficult to achieve in practice, and there remains the need for evaluation of examples that illustrate the practical issues that contribute to IM success or failure. This paper synthesises experiences of academics and practitioners involved in seven Australian case studies in which there hav...
The coral reefs of the Pitcairn Islands are in one of the most remote areas of the Pacific Ocean, and yet they are exposed to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. The Pitcairn Islands Marine Protected Area was designated in 2016 and is one of the largest in the world, but the marine environment around these highly isolated islands remains p...
Coastal nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognized for their multiple benefits to socio-ecological systems, including climate mitigation and adaptation (e.g. conservation, restoration and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems for climate). National climate plans, such as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) developed...
Ocean governance is complex and influenced by multiple drivers and actors with different worldviews and goals. While governance encompasses many elements, in this paper we focus on the processes that operate within and between states, civil society and local communities, and the market, including industry. Specifically, in this paper, we address th...
Proactive and coordinated action to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be essential for achieving the healthy, resilient, safe, sustainably harvested and biodiverse ocean that the UN Decade of Ocean Science and sustainable development goals (SDGs) seek. Ocean-based mitigation actions could contribute 12% of the emissions reductions required...
Co-design, co-development, and co-delivery (Co-3D for short) are activities within the co-production research pathway that are increasingly being used in climate change science and adaptation projects. However, the research community is still coming to understand how best to incorporate Co-3D in practice, as each project has a specific context arou...
The Torres Strait tropical rock lobster Panulirus ornatus (TRL) fishery is of immense social, cultural and economic importance to the region’s Indigenous fishers from both Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic indirectly impacted this fishery as well as a number of other fisheries reliant on international export m...
Food from the sea can make a larger contribution to healthy and sustainable diets, and to addressing hunger and malnutrition, through improvements in production, distribution and equitable access to wild harvest and mariculture resources and products. The supply and consumption of seafood is influenced by a range of ‘drivers’ including ecosystem ch...
Coral reefs in the tropical Pacific region are exposed to a range of anthropogenic local pressures. Climate change is exacerbating local impacts, causing unprecedented declines in coral reef habitats and bringing negative socio-economic consequences to Pacific communities who depend heavily on coral reefs for food, income and livelihoods. Continued...
In a rapidly changing world, scientists and research institutions need to plan for the infrastructure, skills, and policy engagement that will help society navigate social-ecological challenges. Foresighting draws on approaches used in strategic and long-range (>10 years) planning and participatory futures studies. Here, we describe a new quantitat...
Climate-driven trends in ocean temperature and primary productivity are projected to differ greatly across the globe, triggering variable levels of concern for marine biota and ecosystems. Quantifying these changes, and the complex ways in which resource-dependent communities will need to respond, is inherently difficult. Existing uncertainty about...
This study describes the origin and characteristics of unconsolidated coral reef sediments from Maui Bay (Coral Coast, Viti Levu Island, Fiji), a site declared under customary law as Marine Protected Area (MPA) by traditional owners in Tagaqe village since the year 2000. Sediment samples were collected from five transect lines and analysed in the l...
Design practice, at its contemporary state, contributes to replicating a homogenizing ontology that subjugates aesthetic, functional, and cultural values of non-Western design. In so doing, it becomes an instrument of colonialism and reaffirmation of a Western-centric view of the world. Decolonial Design arises as a reaction to this, proposing the...
In the Pacific Island region, marine resources make vital contributions to food security, livelihoods and economic development. Climate change is expected to have profound effects on the status and distribution of coastal and oceanic habitats, the fish and invertebrates they support and, as a result, the communities and industries that depend on th...
In a rapidly changing world, scientists and research institutions need to plan for the infrastructure, skills, and policy engagement that will help society navigate social-ecological challenges. Foresighting draws on approaches used in strategic and long-range (>10 years) planning and participatory futures studies. Here, we describe a new quantitat...
Avoiding whinges from various and potentially conflicting stakeholders is a major challenge for sustainable development and for the identification of sustainability scenarios or policies for biodiversity and ecosystem services. It turns out that independently complying with whinge thresholds and constraints of these stakeholders is not sufficient b...
Marine social-ecological systems are influenced by the way humans interact with their environment, and external forces, which change and re-shape the environment. In many regions, exploitation of marine resources and climate change are two of the primary drivers shifting the abundance and distribution of marine living resources, with negative effec...
As atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise so too does the risk of severe impacts. Scientists clearly have an important role to play in preparing for and responding to climate change impacts, however, calls by scientists for global action have not led to the required changes. It is timely, therefore, for scientists to critically consider their own...
In the Pacific Island region, anthropogenic-induced ocean warming is impacting coral reefs through thermal coral bleaching (Adjeroud et al., 2009; Cumming et al., 2000; Davies et al., 1997; Kleypas et al., 2015; Lovell et al., 2004; Mangubhai, 2016; Obura and Mangubhai, 2011; Rotmann, 2001) and by reducing coral calcification rates (high confidence...
The internationally important river–floodplains of the Kakadu Region in northern Australia are at risk from invasive species and future sea-level rise–saltwater inundation (SLR–SWI), requiring assessments of multiple cumulative risks over different time frames. An integrated risk-assessment framework was developed to assess threats from feral anima...
Coral reefs are critical for securing food resources and generating income in Fiji. However, reef ecosystems and the people they support are currently at risk from multiple threats, such as poor land-use practices, overfishing, pollution, destruction of habitats for development, and adverse climate change effects. Understanding how socio-ecological...
This paper describes a semi-quantitative approach for the assessment of sea-level rise (SLR) impacts on social–ecological systems (SES), using Yellow Water wetland on Kakadu National Park as a case study. The approach includes the application of a diagnostic framework to portray the existing SES configuration, including governance structures, in co...
A wide range of goals and objectives have to be taken into account in natural resources management. Defining these objectives in operational terms, including dimensions such as sustainability, productivity, and equity, is by no means easy, especially if they must capture the diversity of community and stakeholder values. This is especially true in...
Stakeholder engagement is important for successful management of natural resources, both to make effective decisions and to obtain support. However, in the context of coastal management, questions remain unanswered on how to effectively link decisions made at the catchment level with objectives for marine biodiversity and fisheries productivity. Mo...
Many coastal communities rely on living marine resources for livelihoods and food security. These resources are commonly under stress from overfishing, pollution, coastal development and habitat degradation. Climate change is an additional stressor beginning to impact coastal systems and communities, but may also lead to opportunities for some spec...
The low-lying coastal floodplains of the Kakadu Region in tropical northern Australia encompass World Heritage Kakadu National Park and are highly vulnerable to future sea level-rise (SLR) and extreme weather events, yet there are no modelling tools to assess potential impacts of saltwater inundation (SWI) on freshwater ecosystems and to evaluate f...
Governance describes ‘who’ makes decisions, has powers and responsibilities, and ‘how’ they are exercised. It consists of two interacting components: a) institutions: the rules and protocols (e.g. laws, policies, customs) that shape human action, and b) organisations: the actors who define the rules for decisions. While institutions define how acto...
Governance has long been identified as a crucial part of solving environmental problems. Effective
governance supports and encourages adaptive capacity to maintain or improve the conditions of socioecological
systems. As coastal zones are among the most vulnerable systems to climate change impacts
(e.g. sea-level rise), the adaptive capacity of coa...
Kakadu National Park is a World Heritage icon famous for its natural and cultural values, particularly its coastal floodplains encompassing Ramsar‐listed freshwater wetlands. These floodplains are highly vulnerable to climate change induced sea level rise (SLR) because they are low‐lying, a risk that will exacerbate with increases in extreme weathe...
This article analyzes interviews with natural resource managers in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. The objectives of the research are: (i) to apply and test deductive/inductive text analysis methods for constructing a conceptual model of water quality decision-making in SEQ, (ii) to understand the role of information in the decision-making...
For modellers, stakeholder acceptance of a model usually hinges on data accuracy, model reliability, and problem uncertainty. For social scientists, model acceptance by stakeholders also depends on model context, type of problem, implications of the model, characteristics of the audience and stakeholders, the charisma and reputation of the modeller...
In 2006 the Department of Environment and Heritage - now the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC) - prepared an information paper for
the Australian State of the Environment Committee, noting the lack of any systematic long-term national programs for monitoring and reporting on key features of Austr...
Climate change presents significant challenges to modelling and managing aquatic resources. Equilibrium assumptions common in many modelling approaches need to be replaced by formulations that allow for changing baselines and integration of ongoing changes and adaptations by species, ecosystems and humans. As ecosystems change, so will the ways hum...
Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) is an internationally recognised approach used in fisheries management. Its use to assess adaptive management in fisheries includes specific heuristics aiming at simulating how managers learn from previous decisions and changing contexts. Managers correspond – most of the time - to boat captains, fleet operators...
Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) is a way of informing stakeholders of the likely consequences, costs and benefits of choosing particular management approaches. It uses an iterative approach to assist stakeholders to formulate objectives and make trade-offs between social, economic and environmental outcomes. The aim is to identify management s...
A software application has been created to assist water resource managers in South East Queensland to use Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) techniques as a part of their own planning process. The tool leverages the existing background knowledge and strategic skill of these managers, and enables them to perform rapid development and evaluation of...
Evaluating management strategies to improve water quality in coastal waterways requires flexible models that can be used in computer simulations to link management actions to changes in waterways. These models need to capture the important relationships between management actions and consequent effects on water quality from upper catchments to estu...
South East Queensland (SEQ) is the fastest growing population in Australia. With the projected population growth from nearly 3 million in 2010 to approximately 4 million in 2026, changes in land-use (e.g. from rural to urban) and construction of additional infrastructure are inevitable. More people in the region will also increase demands for water...
Between 1962 and 2003 significant coral species changes within reef assemblages at Todos os Santos Bay (TSB), Bahia (Brazil) have taken place, following what appears to have been a 400 year contraction of coral reefs from the inner, landward reaches of the bay. The last 40 years in particular encompassed rapid and extensive urban and industrial dev...
This paper evaluates the effects of sediment accumulation on reef corals from the Abrolhos area, at the southern coast of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Sediment accumulation rate was measured with sediment traps that were fixed in five reef stations during the months of October/2001 and March/2002. Live coral cover, diameter of the coral colonies and...
Todos os Santos Bay (TSB) is the second largest in Brazil. With an area of 1000 km2, warm and shallow waters, it offers optimum conditions for growth of well-developed coral reefs. Comparing our survey using a video-transect method with data acquired by J. Laborel (1969a), a significant change in the reef coral and octocoral abundance has occurred....
Sand and mud are the most common bottom sediments surrounding the reefs surveyed in
the Abrolhos region. Coarse (gravel) sediments are relatively uncommon.
• Previous work reported relatively high levels of siliciclastic-dominated sediments in the
Abrolhos region, however high levels were not evident in most samples collected during
the current stu...
In March-April 2000, a survey applying the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment benthos protocol was accomplished in the Abrolhos National Marine Park. The Santa Bárbara Island fringing reef and offshore "chapeirões" (isolated columnar reefs) were assessed to evaluate their present status and provide standards for future monitoring programs. The...
Bottom sediment samples from depths between 10 and 60m were examined, comprising an area of about 200km(2) where coral-algal buildups along the northern coast of the State of Bahia, Brazil occur. The composition and distribution of the polychaete fauna classified as functional groups (feeding) to mixed sands, carbonate sands and gravels and carbona...
In this research we used inductive reasoning through design to understand how stakeholders in the Waterfall Way (New South Wales, Australia) perceive the relationships between themselves and the place they live in. This paper describes a collaborative design methodology used to release information about local identities, which guided the regional b...