Managing for a resilient ocean

► Ocean policy increasingly emphasizes the need for ecosystem based management, resilient ecosystems, and marine spatial planning. ► All these initiatives will require goals, objectives, and metrics that can be measured relatively easily. ► Marine ecosystems can change from desirable states that produce many ecosystem services at high levels to less desirable states that produce fewer ecosystem services at lower levels. ► A framework is presented for identifying the thresholds between desirable and undesirable ecosystem states, and the attributes of an ecosystem that make it more or less resilient to change.