NOAA - Ecosystem Goal Team - To protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management

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Ecosystem Research

Program Mission

NOAA's Ecosystem Research Program (ERP) conducts applied research and development to provide scientific information, tools, and forecasts for implementing and evaluating ecosystem management. ERP’s broad-based approach relies on NOAA and its partner programs to provide characterizations of ecosystems at multiple scales and focuses on natural- and human-related influences on ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes ecosystems. ERP priorities are determined by legislative and executive mandates directing NOAA to manage specific resources and ecosystems, advance regional scientific infrastructure, and support research that catalyzes the discovery, management and conservation of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources for future generations. In addition, ERP strengthens stewardship of those resources through outreach and education to enhance decision making by coastal communities, stakeholders, and users of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources.

Ecosystem Approaches to Management

ERP provides NOAA the scientific information and tools necessary to address its science and management mandates. It is the responsibility of ERP to meet the research requirements of the Ecosystem Goal, and it is working with each of the EGT Programs to identify, address, and evaluate ERP’s success in meeting those requirements.

By providing this scientific foundation to Ecosystem Approaches to Management (EAM) of coastal and ocean resources, ERP enables complex societal choices to be informed by comprehensive and reliable scientific information. Ecosystem research enhances the understanding of physical/chemical/biological interactions and the ability to link ecosystem capacity and models to environmental variability and change. ERP augments the understanding of multi-species relationships, particularly as they relate to environmental variability and change.

Ecosystem Programs