Long-term, large-scale (i.e. landscape) conservation struggles with big questions such as how can a single strategy be identified when there are multiple possible future outcomes? How do we decide which management action or portfolio of actions is the best for all species when different species will likely have conflicting responses to each action? Successful natural resource decision making processes also incorporate an assessment of baseline conditions; current and future stressors; a set of potential management actions; and formal linkages between conditions, actions and biological responses (i.e. a model). It also requires bringing together the elements of conservation decisions into a framework that allows adaptive learning and strategic action. This project will use Structured Decision Making (SDM) as a formal framework for combining these elements in a way that allows decision makers to make choices based on a clear understanding of uncertainties and tradeoffs. This project will prototype an adaptive decision framework that incorporates potential future changes into current aquatic management decisions, using a set of 2 to 5 species for each inland freshwater aquatic system listed in the Integrated Science Agenda, as well as a core group of stakeholders made up of a mix of planners, managers and researchers to represent the diversity within the GCPO.
