Patrik Rönnbäck

Uppsala University | UU · Department of Earth Sciences

Recreational fisheries are dynamic social-ecological systems. Identification of anticipated future trends supports the design of policies and management to deliver outcomes for fisheries resources, users, and communities. To this end, we applied a forecasting method (i.e., Delphi survey) to recreational fisheries in five Nordic countries. The surve...

Sustainable management of recreational fisheries requires balancing angler attitudes and behaviour with fisheries' biological potential. Herein, we investigated the balance in the sea-run brown trout (Salmo trutta) fishery around the Swedish island of Gotland using data collected through a creel survey, test fishing, and spawning returns to selecte...

The Delphi method was used to gather assessments from 93 experts about drivers of future angling participation by locals and tourist anglers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The main drivers of future angling participation related to habitat and fish populations, and access to and information about fishing. For Norway and Finland,...

Mangroves are a critical coastal habitat that provides a suite of ecosystem services and supports livelihoods. We undertake the first global analysis to estimate density and abundance of 37 commercially important fish and invertebrates that are known to extensively use mangroves. Geomorphic mangrove type, sea surface salinity and temperature, and l...

Catch-and-release (C&R) is a popular management tool that can support sustainable development of recreational fisheries, if anglers adopt scientifically informed “best practices.” However, although the role of best practices is widely established in the academic literature, this knowledge is not always disseminated to anglers. In this paper, we inv...

Recreational anglers collectively spend a great amount of time on fishing activities. While being out fishing, these anglers perceive various components of aquatic ecosystems, allowing them to accumulate knowledge of the ecological status of the system and the fish they are targeting in it. Such fishers' ecological knowledge (FEK) is increasingly b...

The incorporation of theories and methods from tourism research in recreational fisheries research is not common practice, despite many parallels between the two research fields. Adopting a tourism perspective could contribute to our understanding of angling tourists' attitudes and preferences and help identify the factors affecting the recruitment...

The wide variety of perspectives and actions of individual anglers contribute greatly to success or failure when adopting and implementing fisheries management tools. Catch-and-release (C&R) is one such tool where success is influenced by both variation in human factors, but also species and fishery specific characteristics. In this study, an inter...

In this paper, we critically analyze how sustainability is considered in aquaculture policies and strategies using the Nordic countries as a case. The strong versus weak sustainability concepts are used to define and clarify what sustainability aspects are central to each state. To illustrate these concepts further, we draw on and modify four mains...

The avoidance behaviour of cod and herring to dredging-induced turbidity and the effects of sediment plumes on the buoyancy and mortality of cod egg and larvae have been studied as part of the EIA of the Öresund Link project. The avoidance threshold to suspended sediments of glacial clay or limestone origin was studied in a 15*6 m saltwater flume a...

Mangroves are critical nursery habitats for fish and invertebrates, providing livelihoods for many coastal communities. Despite their importance, there is currently no estimate of the number of fishers engaged in mangrove associated fisheries, nor of the fishing intensity associated with mangroves at a global scale. We address these gaps by develop...

Recreational fishing activities have the potential to negatively affect fish populations worldwide, but data about fishing pressure is lacking in many countries. The Swedish government anticipates tackling this problem by implementing a national catch reporting program. Through an online survey among members of the Swedish Anglers Association (± 60...

International concern to develop sustainably challenges us to act upon the inherent links between our economy, society and environment, and is leading to increasing acknowledgement of biodiversity’s importance. This Review discusses the breadth of ways in which biodiversity can support sustainable development. It uses the Sustainable Development Go...

The sustainable seafood movement has gained increased momentum during recent years and while most eco-labelled seafood originates from capture fisheries, the fastest growth of seafood eco-certification can be observed in the aquaculture sector. The extent to which certification have overall positive environmental impacts however remains uncertain....

Recreational fishing is an important activity that delivers substantial social and economic values. Proper management of recreational fisheries relies on information about resource use and associated values by different fishers, but such information is rare, particularly for open access fisheries. In this study a survey of 471 fishers on the Swedis...

Engaging civil society in conservation activities is an important complementary strategy to counteract ongoing biodiversity decline and loss of ecosystem services. Since 2011, the Swedish Anglers Association (SAA) has cooperated with landowners to restore wetlands nationwide. We investigated factors that enabled or hindered civil society-led wetlan...

Eco-certification has become an increasingly popular market-based tool in the endeavor to reduce negative environmental impacts from fisheries and aquaculture. In this study, we aimed at investigating which psychological consumer characteristics influence demand for eco-labeled seafood by correlating consumers' stated purchasing of eco-labeled seaf...

Eco-certification is widely considered a tool for reducing environmental impacts of aquaculture, but what are the likely environmental outcomes for the world's fastest growing animal-food production sector? This article analyzes a number of eco-certification schemes based on species choice, anticipated share of the global seafood market, size of el...

I dag går vi mer och mer från jakt på fisk till odling av fisk, det som kallas vattenbruk. Det hållbara vattenbruket måste hitta lämpliga foderråvaror och ytor för odlingen, och begränsa utsläpp av närsalter och spridning av sjukdomar. Ur ett resursperspektiv skulle vi med fördel kunna ersätta en del av vår djur- hållning på land med vattenbruk, sk...

Seaweed farming is often depicted as a sustainable form of aquaculture, contributing to poverty reduction and financial revenues in producer countries. However, farms may negatively affect seagrasses and associated organisms (e.g. invertebrate macrofauna) with possible effects on the flow of ecosystem goods and services to coastal societies. The pr...

Biophysical impacts of aquaculture, with consequences for biodiversity, vary with species and culture systems and include issues such as: nutrient enrichment/removal, chemicals, land use, species introductions, genetic flow to wild populations, disturbance of balance or introduction of pathogen/parasites, consumption of capture fishery resources, e...

Biophysical impacts of aquaculture, with consequences for biodiversity, vary with species and culture systems and include issues such as: nutrient enrichment/removal, chemicals, land use, species introductions, genetic flow to wild populations, disturbance of balance or introduction of pathogen/parasites, consumption of capture fishery resources, e...

Mangroves are an imperilled biome whose protection and restoration through payments for ecosystem services (PES) can contribute to improved livelihoods, climate mitigation and adaptation. Interviews with resource users in three Solomon Islands villages suggest a strong reliance upon mangrove goods for subsistence and cash, particularly for firewood...

Coastal cities in East Africa are growing rapidly and consequently there is a rapid increase in urban sewage production, putting added pressure on already strained treatment systems. As a result, peri-urban mangroves are receiving extensive amounts of sewage but very little is know as to the ecological and societal consequences of this. However, UN...

This study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, where ecological data on habitat structure and fish populations are combined with results from economic valuation case studies to assess effects of habitat disturbance. The focus is on three major habitats (soft sediment bottoms, seagrass beds and rocky bottoms with macroalgae), five fish species (co...

There is growing research interest in the ethnobiology, socio-economics and management of mangrove forests. Coastal residents who use mangroves and their resources may have considerable botanical and ecological knowledgeable about these forests. A wide variety of forest products are harvested in mangroves, especially wood for fuel and construction,...

The links between ecosystem processes and functions and ecosystem services (i.e. the human benefits from those) are elusive. In this paper, the food provisioning service of seagrass meadows is operationalized through the study of the stomach contents of 13 important commercial fish species in Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar. Using local fishers' knowledge on...

Swedish coastal habitats provide significant support to the total marine finfish landings in Sweden. The fisheries are dependent on habitat quantity and quality because the fish species being caught are ecologically linked to the habitat and/or because the habitat is used as a location for harvest. Unfortunately, coastal areas are exposed to a vari...

c1 Correspondence: Dr Patrik Rönnbäck e-mail: pat@ecology.su.se

Coastal areas are exposed to a variety of threats due to high population densities and rapid economic development. How will this affect human welfare and our dependence on nature's capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services? This paper is original in evaluating this concern for major habitats (macroalgae, seagrasses, blue mussel beds, and unv...

The juvenile fish community associated with natural, degraded and replanted Sonneratia alba mangroves in Gazi Bay was sampled during the South East and North East monsoons between April 2002 and June 2003. A total of 1800 individuals belonging to 49 taxa and 34 families were collected from the intertidal forest using stake nets. Fish abundance rang...

Recolonization of epibiotic flora and fauna in two fringing Sonneratia alba reforestation plots was investigated and compared to a natural mangrove stand and a denuded site in Gazi Bay, Kenya. The reforested sites differed with respect to land history and planting density. Habitat availability in the form of pneumatophore surface differed among for...

The areal extent of Zostera marina in the archipelago of the Swedish Skagerrak has decreased by 60% over two decades. To investigate the effects of Z. marina loss on the local fish assemblages, the fish fauna was compared between existing seagrass beds and sites where seagrass had vanished. A field study was carried out at four shallow locations in...

Mangrove forests, though essentially common and wide-spread, are highly threatened. Local societies along with their knowledge about the mangrove also are endangered, while they are still underrepresented as scientific research topics. With the present study we document local utilization patterns, and perception of ecosystem change. We illustrate h...

This study quantitatively assessed the distribution of postlarval and juvenile shrimps in natural, degraded and replanted stands of Sonneratia alba mangroves in Gazi Bay, Kenya in 2002–2003. Two plantations (matrix and integrated) differing in historical status and planting strategy were studied. Sampling was conducted using stake nets (2 mm mesh),...

Ecosystems can undergo regime shifts where they suddenly change from one state into another. This can have important implications for formulation of management strategies, if system characteristics develop that are undesirable from a human perspective, and that have a high resistance to restoration efforts. This paper identifies some of the ecologi...

The concept of ecosystem goods and services and the approach of a linked social–ecological system were used to identify and describe the interactions between humans and seagrasses in a rural tropical economy in the East Coast of Zanzibar (Chwaka village). The main stakeholders in the population are fishermen and seaweed farmers. Through in-depth an...

The tropical coastal “seascape” often includes a patchwork of mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs that produces a variety of natural resources and ecosystem services. By looking into a limited number of attempts at substitution and restoration of ecosystem services (e.g. artificial reefs, aquaculture in mangroves, artificial seawalls), we add...

This paper reviews the experience and status of coastal aquaculture of seaweeds, mollusks, fish and crustaceans in eastern Africa and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. In many respects, coastal aquaculture is still in its infancy in the region, and there is a pressing need to formulate development strategies aimed at improving the income and...

Seagrasses are marine angiosperms widely distributed in both tropical and temperate coastal waters creating one of the most productive aquatic ecosystems on earth. In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, with its 13 reported seagrass species, these ecosystems cover wide areas of near-shore soft bottoms through the 12 000 km coastline. Seagrass be...

Seagrasses are marine angiosperms widely distributed in both tropical and temperate coastal waters creating one of the most productive aquatic ecosystems on earth. In the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region, with its 13 reported seagrass species, these ecosystems cover wide areas of near-shore soft bottoms through the 12 000 km coastline. Seagrass be...

Scientific information on how penaeid shrimps are distributed within mangrove ecosystems is scarce, which presents an obstacle for fisheries as well as mangrove management. This study investigated the prime nursery microhabitats for the two major commercial species in Mozambique—Penaeus indicus and Metapenaeus monoceros. Stake net enclosures were u...

Shrimp aquaculture is currently one of the major threats to mangroves, their destruction causing both environmental and social problems. This study investigated the mangrove area in the Pambala–Chilaw Lagoon complex (0730 N, 07949 E) in Sri Lanka. Using air-borne remote sensing, a land-use map was constructed in a geographical information system of...

This paper reviews and discusses, from an ecological perspective, the causes behind the development and spreading of pathogens in shrimp aquaculture. The risk of disease in shrimp farming often increases with culture intensity and high stocking densities, and when polyculture is replaced by monoculture. High pond densities will facilitate the sprea...

This is a commentary on a paper by Gilbert and Janssen (Gilbert, A.J., Janssen, R., 1998. Ecol. Econ. 25, 323–346) that deals with valuation of management alternatives for the Pagbilao mangroves, Philippines. Our main critique focuses on the undervaluation of fisheries as well as the inability to quantify the value of ecological services and intern...

The undervaluation of natural products and ecological services generated by mangrove ecosystems is a major driving force behind the conversion of this system into alternative uses. This trend of undervaluation is partly due to the difficulty involved in placing a monetary value on all relevant factors, but lack of ecological knowledge and a holisti...

For sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems, there is a pressing need to increase our knowledge of fish and invertebrates associated with this system. This study sampled microhabitats (89–258 m2) inside the mangrove forest at Pagbilao, the Philippines, on two consecutive spring tides using stake nets. Distribution patterns of shrimps and fish...

Rapid scale growth of intensive mariculture systems can often lead to adverse impacts on the environment. Intensive fish and shrimp farming, being defined as throughput-based systems, have a continuous or pulse release of nutrients that adds to coastal eutrophication. As an alternative treatment solution, seaweeds can be used to clean the dissolved...