Hassan, Rashid M.Crafford, J.G. (Jacobus Gert)2016-06-092015-11Hassan, RM & Crafford, JG 2015, 'Measuring the contribution of ecological composition and functional services of ecosystems to the dynamics of KwaZulu-Natal coast fisheries', Ecological Economics, vol. 119, pp. 306-313.0921-8009 (print)1873-6106 (online)10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.09.014http://hdl.handle.net/2263/52931This study extended a bio-economic fishery model to establish an explicit link between coastal and estuarine ecosystems ecological composition (biodiversity) and functional (nutrient supply) attributes and the dynamics and productivity of KZN coastal fisheries. Results confirmed the importance and strong contribution of the tested ecological attributes. In-sample simulation indicates that current fishing efforts and harvest rates are sustainable, but are sensitive to changes in nutrient influx and rainfall. This confirms the need to modify conventional fisheriesmodels to include environmental variables as additional predictors of fish stocks in addition to historical catch records and catch effort for management and control of fishing efforts and permits. This study provided confirmation of the strong linkage between nutrient levels and productivity of coastal fisheries thus enabling investigation of runoff and rainfall related climate change effects on the KZN fisheries.en© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Ecological Economics. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Ecological Economics, vol. 119, pp. 306-313, 2015. doi : 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.09.014.Coastal fisheriesRegulating services valuationBio-economic modelingPostprint Article