| Variable Type | Ordinal |
|---|---|
| Variable Component Type | Natural Resource Unit, Natural Resource System |
| Variable Kind | Interaction |
| Theme | Biophysical (learn about themes) |
| Projects | SESMAD |
| Question | How scarce is this resource? |
| Select Options | Not scarce -- abundant, Moderately scarce, Highly scarce |
| Unit | |
| Role | |
| Importance | The importance of scarcity and abundance most frequently is seen in the importance of having strict institutions that govern the extraction of a resource. With highly scarce resources, in frequently matters much more precisely what institutions are implemented, and how well these are enforced. With abundant resources there may be much more leeway in this regard. |
| Definition | Scarcity is the opposite of abundance. A non-scarce, or abundant, resource is one that is available in amounts associated with an almost total lack of human use, or at least at levels comparable to this. A highly scarce resource is one that is substantially below this level, and is potentially in danger of being entirely exhausted. |
| Sectors |
Theory Usages
| Theory | Value Used |
|---|---|
| Gilded traps | Low -- abundant |
Associated Studies
Case Usages
| Case | Interaction Type | Component | Value Used | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Barrier Reef Marine Park | Governance | GBR coral cover | scarce (Moderately) | Coral cover is naturally patchy |
| Great Barrier Reef Marine Park | Governance | GBR target fish | scarce -- abundant (Not) | |
| Macquarie Island Marine Park | Governance | Patagonian Toothfish | scarce (Moderately) | Toothfish resources are moderately scarce in that they can maintain small fisheries; but could be depleted fairly easily. |
| Macquarie Island Marine Park | Governance | Macquarie Island Royal Penguin | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Within the Macquarie Island Marine Park and the Island itself, Royal Penguin are abundant. |
| Wakatobi National Park | Governance | Wakatobi Green Turtle | scarce (Moderately) | 100 nests/season - given that females nest more than once per season, this indicates a population of <100 mature females - coded as moderately scarce http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/asiaandthepacific/indonesia/explore/safe-haven-for-turtles.xml |
| Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) | Governance | Galapagos Green Turtle | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Comparatively turtles are abundant in the Galapagos (>1000 nests per season) |
| Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Marine National Monument | Governance | NWHI Trophic Density | scarce -- abundant (Not) | High trophic density levels. Considered a relatively pristine ecosystem |
| Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Marine National Monument | Governance | NWHI Green Turtle | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Based on population estimates, there may be >265,600 turtles in this subpopulation with 61,000 resident in Hawaiian coastal habitats (Chaloupka and Balazs 2007). |
| Central California National Marine Sanctuaries | Governance | California Groundfish Habitat | scarce (Moderately) | The habitat itself ranges from various types, but covers a large area of the sanctuary grounds. There are locations that are not ideal for groundfish. |
| Svalbard Nature Reserves | Governance | Svalbard Polar Bear | scarce (Moderately) | Encounters with polar bears are common enough that groups are required to carry guns for protection/to scare away the bear when leaving the settlements. |
| Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve | Governance | Light Mantled Albatross | scarce (Moderately) | There are only an estimated 200-500 nesting pairs of Light Mantled Albatross in the HIMI region (Woehler 2006). |
| Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve | Governance | King Penguin | scarce -- abundant (Not) | King penguins were heavily harvested (perhaps to the point of extirpation) on HIMI during the sealing era in the 1800s but a visit to the islands in 1947 revealed three penguins and they have since recolonized the islands, growing linearly (doubling every five years) to at least 80,000 pairs (counted in 2003/04; Woehler 2006; E. Woehler pers. comm.). |
| Great Australian Bight Marine Park (GABMP) (Commonwealth Waters) | Governance | GABMP (Commonwealth Waters) Sea Lion | scarce (Highly) | The Australian Sea Lion is endemic to Australia. Populations are declining, and it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Its extant breeding range extends from The Pages Islands (just east of Kangaroo Island) in South Australia to Houtman Abrolhos on the west coast of Western Australia. |
| Svalbard Nature Reserves | Governance | Svalbard Kittiwake | scarce -- abundant (Not) | The black-legged kittiwake is the most numerous species of gull in the world. In Svalbard the kittiwake is a common breeding species in all parts of the archipelago. |
| Seaflower MPA | Governance | Seaflower groupers | scarce (Moderately) | 4kg per hectare |
| Cenderwasih National Park | Governance | Cenderwasih coral cover | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Coral reefs considered to be in relatively good health and are fairly extensive (see maps in management plan) |
| Falkland Islands squid | Governance | Patagonian squid (Loligo gahi) | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Beginning of 2015 was one of the highest biomasses (~36.000 tonnes) revealed prior the first fishing season. Over the last two decades, total annual catches of D. gahi in the Falkland Islands have ranged from 24,000 to 98,000 t (Figure 30) with a mean of 51,000 t (Arkhipkin et al., 2013). Abundance depends on environmental conditions. Weak stock recruitment relationship. |
| New Zealand squid | Governance | Arrow Squid (Nototodarus spp.) | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Depends on season. Sometimes availability is low, but pretty much no massive busts. No evidence of overfishing. |
| Caete-Teperacu Extractive Reserve (RESEX) in Braganca, Brazil | Governance | Mangrove forest in Bragança, Brazil | scarce (Moderately) | |
| Gili Trawangan Coastal Tourism | Governance | Coral reefs, coast and small-island on and surrounding Gili Trawangan, Indonesia | scarce -- abundant (Not) | |
| Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica fisheries governance | Governance | Gulf of Nicoya fisheries | scarce (Moderately) | |
| Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) | Governance | Galapagos Sea Cucumber | scarce (Highly) | Depleted fishery - IUCN Red List: Endangered http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/180373/0 The boom in the sea cucumber fishery (1993-2000). so just at the start of the time period being coded. Given that the fishery been over-exploited/depleted for the majority of the snap-shot being looked at - coded as scare. |
| Macquarie Island Marine Park | Governance | Light Mantled Albatross | scarce (Moderately) | Light mantled albatross are somewhat scarce in the area around Macquarie Island |
| Wakatobi National Park | Governance | Wakatobi fish spawning | scarce (Moderately) | Spawning numbers have been historically greatly reduced - such species are now moderately scarce. |
| Great Barrier Reef Marine Park | Governance | GBR Green Turtle | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Two genetic stocks of green turtles breed within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, a southern and a northern stock. The southern stock has nesting concentrated in the Capricorn/Bunker group of islands, with an average annual nesting population estimated at 8000 females. The northern stock has nesting concentrated around Raine Island and Moulter Cay with an average annual nesting population of 30,000 females. http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/animals/marine-turtles/green-turtle |
| Wakatobi National Park | Governance | Wakatobi coral cover | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Coral reefs considered to be in relatively good health and are fairly extensive within the WNP (McMellor and Smith 2010) |
| Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Marine National Monument | Governance | NWHI Lobster Fishery | scarce (Moderately) | This species has previously been heavily fished, with declines of >80% in catch per unit effort data recorded (mid 1970s to 1999) in the NWHI fishery. The fishery has been closed since 2000, but ancedotal reports indicate populations have showed no sign of recovery (A. Wilhelm pers comm).
Butler, M., Cockcroft, A. & MacDiarmid, A. 2013. Panulirus marginatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2. |
| Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) | Governance | Galapagos Sharks | scarce (Moderately) | Compartively sharks are abundant in the Galapagos which is why they are a dive tourism destination |
| Central California National Marine Sanctuaries | Governance | California Humpback Whale | scarce (Moderately) | While population levels have increased and the IUCN lists the humpback as "Least Concern" LC, the Endangered Species Act lists the humpback. However, NOAA Fisheries proposes to revise the ESA listing for the humpback whale to identify 14 Distinct Population Segments (DPS), list 2 as threatened and 2 as endangered, and identify 10 others as not warranted for listing (NMFS, Species, April 2015). |
| Central California National Marine Sanctuaries | Governance | California Rocky Shores Ecosystem Health | scarce (Moderately) | This habitat consists of 56% of the MBNMS coastline and 22% of the previous GFNMS coastline, thus is moderately scarce (EIS 2008, Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2010). In 2010, rocky intertidal habitat was rated as good/fair and conditions appeared to be improving (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2010). However, within the estuarine and lagoon environments, habitat was declining and fair/poor. Since then, key species have experienced substantially increased mortalities (e.g. purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), six-armed sea star (Leptasterias sp.), gumboot chiton (Cryptochiton stelleri), ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) (Jurgens et al. 2015). |
| Raja Ampat (National Act No. 32 2004) | Governance | Raja Ampat Coral Cover | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Some of the highest coral cover in the world |
| Raja Ampat (National Act No. 32 2004) | Governance | Raja Ampat Green Turtle | scarce (Moderately) | Illegal poaching of turtles and their eggs have reduced population numbers in the area |
| Raja Ampat (National Act No. 32 2004) | Governance | Raja Ampat Reef Fish | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Fish communities are generally considered to be fairly healthy - but there is evidence of overfishing with an absence of higher trophic species (Purwanto et al. 2012) |
| Great Australian Bight Marine Park (GABMP) (Commonwealth Waters) | Governance | GABMP (Commonwealth Waters) Southern Right Whale | scarce (Moderately) | This resource is still scarce relative to its historic abundance (55,000 to 70,000 whales), but there is an observed rate of increase in Australia (7% per annum) and at the Head of Bight (annual growth rate is 5.5%) (IWC 2001; Charlton et al. 2014). The Australian population was estimated ~2,100 in 2005. The southern right whale is still listed as Endangered by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, in Appendix I of CITES, but as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. The security of the species is not yet assured as numbers remain at likely less than 10% of pre-exploitation abundance (IWC 2001). |
| Svalbard Nature Reserves | Governance | Svalbard Shrimp | scarce (Moderately) | The shrimp population is fairly healthy and has been at a fairly high level since 2005 |
| Great Australian Bight Marine Park (GABMP) (Commonwealth Waters) | Governance | GABMP (Commonwealth Waters) Southern Bluefin Tuna | scarce (Highly) | This species has been intensively fished since the early 1950s and the dramatic decline in the total population of SBT to 7–15% of the 1960 parental biomass is well documented (FSC 2009). Estimated spawning stock biomass has declined by approximately 85% over the past 36 years (1973–2009) and there is no sign that the spawning stock is rebuilding. In 2009 stock assessments estimated the species was around 5% or less of unfished levels. |
| Seaflower MPA | Governance | Seaflower coral reefs | scarce (Moderately) | Its most recent estimates (from 2014) for Old Providence and Santa Catalina indicate that coral cover is at 6.4%. This information comes from the Seaflower monitoring report for Old Providence and Santa Catalina (2014). |
| Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve | Governance | Patagonian Toothfish | scarce (Moderately) | Toothfish are capable of supporting small-scale fisheries, but due to their life history (slow growth, later age at maturity, long-lived) and relatively small populations, they are vulnerable to overexploitation. |
| Cenderwasih National Park | Governance | Cenderwasih target fish | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Fish communities are generally considered to be fairly healthy, but long history of fishing and few large fish. |
| California squid | Governance | California market squid (Loligo opalescens) | scarce -- abundant (Not) | Depends on oceanic conditions, sometimes abundant sometimes scarce. |
| Pond aquaculture on Lombok, Indonesia | Governance | Lombok aquaculture irrigation canals | scarce (Moderately) | Water is seasonally available |
| Pond aquaculture on Lombok, Indonesia | Governance | Lombok aquaculture irrigation canals |