A marine energy and ecosystem service framework for coastal communities

Marine energy is a developing sector that has special importance for coastal and island communities, especially remote communities that depend on fossil fuels. Developing sustainable energy for these communities, which have strong interdependencies with coastal and marine ecosystems, requires understanding how marine energy devices interact with the environment and human activities. The close socioeconomic relationships between humans and ecosystems include cultural, regulating, and provisioning ecosystem services, all of which affect community well-being and resilience to climate change. Sustainable energy development requires considering not only potential stressors to ecosystem services, but also ecosystem benefits that can be identified and enhanced during project planning and design. A structured framework for relating marine energy to ecosystem services during project planning and evaluation is needed to facilitate community decision-making and extend beyond methodologies that focus exclusively on environmental impacts. This study addresses that need by providing a framework with three pathways—physical processes, ecosystem processes, and human activity—that mediate effects of marine energy on ecosystem services and community values, both positively and negatively. Conceptual models for each pathway provide details of hypothesized relationships with a summary of available evidence. This study identifies effects that may require mitigation as well as co-benefits and opportunities for synergistic projects that can be considered during a planning process. By adapting this framework to location-specific conditions and interests, communities, project developers, technical assistance providers and regulators can identify place-based considerations for developing marine energy while protecting and enhancing ecosystem services.