1.  The many scales encountered in assessing and managing large marine ecosystems (LMEs) presents a level of diversity and heterogeneity, or complexity, and presents a challenge to those diverse stakeholders and contributors (spanning the spectrum from the general public through decision makers and on to scientists).  In turn, the network of LMEs is necessarily complex, i.e. there is not one overall 'categorization’, or ‘typing' of LMEs.  The clear and overarching goal is to sustainable governance (broadly cast) of LMEs based on the best science; data and information.  The basis for maxmizing potential for success lies in the application of modern informatics theory and practice, including use cases, information modeling, and scalable multi-modal network design.  Forms of vertical integration are presented, as are the ways in which stakeholder identities and roles are preserved and respected.  We outline what the resulting virtual organization may look like, and conclude with some tactical steps now that the immediacy of ecosystem based management of the oceans is apparent world wide. Use Cases for Multi-Scale Knowledge Networks: Rendering of a Network comprises the type of Node and the Relation type.  Show the network of all stakeholder relations  What is the collaboration network of all regional ocean partnership planning entities?  Network of trans-boundary education organizations and participants  Network of the intersection of academic and agency people in a particular region (their relations)  Show the network of an LME as a place (all stakeholders, resources, interactions)  What are the key relations in the network intersection of science and planning considerations?  What is the network of collaborations and contributors to an ecosystem status report?  Which networks have fiscally, and socially successful ecosystem-based management of their ecosystem or region?  What are the dominant relations across all LME networks? Informatics approaches as basis for integrating science and governance across scales in large marine ecosystems. Presented at the Planet Under Pressure 2012 Conference, Poster Session 3, Wednesday 28, 2012 Peter Fox 1,2, Hal Batchelder 3, Suzanne Lawrence 4, Oran Young 5, 1 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 3 Oregon State University, 4 Suzanne Lawrence, Inc., 5 UC Santa Barbara Background and Example Networks Science and Governance Complex (Knowledge) Networks: Models Large Marine Ecosystems Contact: pfox@cs.rpi.edu, hbatchelder@coas.oregonstate.edu, suzanne@suzannelawrence.net, oran.young@gmail.compfox@cs.rpi.eduhbatchelder@coas.oregonstate.edusuzanne@suzannelawrence.netoran.young@gmail.com Use Cases Drive the Network Rendering Network Interoperability Approach Large Marine Ecosystems can serve as a unifying framework for integrated science, management, and governance http://www.lmenet.net/ Underlying conceptual model (partial) of key elements of a large marine ecosystem. The model identifies names and types of organizations, programs, people, … gathered around the concepts of structure and function of an ecosystem Instances populate the model, i.e. the graph. A use case defines a query of that graph. The result of the query is a rendering of its network. Key to developing a multi-scale network is semantically rich use case and information model development using expertise in semantic web methodologies, especially related to diverse vocabulary needs across the stakeholder areas. Informatics Design and Development Complex networks of people Complex networks of organization Complex networks of sectors Complex networks of decisions … Rendering of a research center (RPI) network based on funding amount and type (size and pie chart) and number of jointly funded personnel (grey connectors).