Predictors of coastal stakeholders' knowledge about seawater desalination impacts on marine ecosystems

This study investigates variables that shape coastal stakeholders' knowledge about marine ecosystems and impacts of seawater desalination. The influence of trans-situational and situation-specific variables on self-assessed and factual knowledge among coastal residents and commercial marine sta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2018-10, Vol.639, p.785-792
Main Authors: Heck, Nadine, Lykkebo Petersen, Karen, Potts, Donald C., Haddad, Brent, Paytan, Adina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
California
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental Policy
Marine protected area
Ocean literacy
Salinity
Seawater - chemistry
Seawater desalination
Stakeholders
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Summary:This study investigates variables that shape coastal stakeholders' knowledge about marine ecosystems and impacts of seawater desalination. The influence of trans-situational and situation-specific variables on self-assessed and factual knowledge among coastal residents and commercial marine stakeholders. Data were collected using a questionnaire based survey administered to a random sample of coastal residents and commercial marine stakeholders in eight communities in central California. Knowledge of biological features was higher than knowledge of physical and chemical processes. Both trans-situational and situation-specific variables were significant predictors of knowledge, in particular gender, education, and ocean use patterns. TV and social media were the only information sources that correlated negatively with knowledge. Predictors for distinct types of knowledge were different and provide insights that could help target specific ocean literacy gaps. The study also finds that commercial marine stakeholders were more knowledgeable than other coastal residents. Having an economic stake in the marine environment appears to be a strong motivation to be more educated about the ocean. [Display omitted] •Assessment of ocean-related knowledge in the context of seawater desalination•Coastal stakeholders' knowledge is highest for biological features.•Socio-demographic and situation-specific variables both predict knowledge.•Predictors vary for different types of knowledge.
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.163