Ocean acidification (OA) poses a threat to coral reefs by increasing the fragility of susceptible corals to physical damage. As such, the impacts of dive tourism are likely to be exacerbated under acidified conditions. While evidence exists on the impacts of OA, research is scant on scuba divers’ knowledge of OA. The present study explored scuba divers (N = 75) awareness of threats to coral reefs, and factors which are important to the dive experience via an online survey. Responses revealed participants were least aware of OA than other threats to coral reefs. Almost half the participants had a basic understanding of OA, but a high level of concern about its impacts, highlighting an education opportunity for these already ‘concerned’ divers. Factors important to their dive experience included sites being located in a marine protected area / managed for conservation, and high diversity of coral with good quality and minimal disturbance. The findings indicated there are economic opportunities associated with good environmental management at coral reef dive sites, including through preferential site selection and willingness to pay a conservation levy. Recommendations for OA education and awareness initiatives and other regulatory and non-regulatory management strategies are discussed.
Continue reading ‘Scuba divers, coral reefs, and knowledge of ocean acidification’Posts Tagged 'policy'
Scuba divers, coral reefs, and knowledge of ocean acidification
Published 8 August 2023 Science ClosedTags: education, policy, socio-economy
Variable exposure to multiple climate stressors across the California marine protected area network and policy implications
Published 3 August 2023 Science ClosedTags: chemistry, field, North Pacific, policy, review
The efficacy of marine protected areas (MPAs) may be reduced when climate change disrupts the ecosystems and human communities around which they are designed. The effects of ocean warming on MPA functioning have received attention but less is known about how multiple climatic stressors may influence MPAs efficacy. Using a novel dataset incorporating 8.8 million oceanographic observations, we assess exposure to potentially stressful temperatures, dissolved oxygen concentrations, and pH levels across the California MPA network. This dataset covers more than two-thirds of California’s 124 MPAs and multiple biogeographic domains. However, spatial-temporal and methodological patchiness constrains the extent to which systematic evaluation of exposure is possible across the network. Across a set of nine well-monitored MPAs, the most frequently observed combination of stressful conditions was hypoxic conditions (<140 umol/kg) co-occurring with low pH (<7.75). Conversely, MPAs exposed most frequently to anomalously warm conditions were less likely to experience hypoxia and low pH, although exposure to hypoxia varied throughout the 2014–2016 marine heatwaves. Finally, we found that the spatial patterns of exposure to hypoxia and low pH across the MPA network remained stable across years. This multiple stressor analysis both confirms and challenges prior hypotheses regarding MPA efficacy under global environmental change.
Continue reading ‘Variable exposure to multiple climate stressors across the California marine protected area network and policy implications’Applications of ecosystem risk assessment in federal fisheries to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management
Published 11 May 2023 Newsletters and reports ClosedTags: fisheries, policy, socio-economy
Executive Summary
Managing U.S. federal fisheries often requires considering complex interactions among fisheries, protected species, habitats, and other ecosystem components, including humans and climate. In addition, management that focuses on individual species can experience undesirable and unexpected changes due to unaccounted for impacts of climate or other ecosystem factors. Regional fishery management councils (Councils) need ways to efficiently process these interactions and the potential impacts they may have on meeting Council management objectives. One tool that can help with this is the ecosystem-level risk assessment (ERA), also called ecological risk assessments or vulnerability assessments. ERAs are management decision tools that can assist Councils in integrating large amounts of ecosystem information in a standardized, yet flexible and transparent way to help identify issues to prioritize in science or management. The purpose of this document is to share applied results from five regional case studies of ERA. The case studies cover different geographies illustrate how Councils can systematically approach ERA to help address current challenges and advance ecosystem-based fisheries management. To demonstrate the versatility of this tool, we organized the case studies by three different applications in the adaptive fishery management process: screening, prioritization, and evaluation. We emphasized broader ERAs that analyzed a number of different ecosystem drivers in one assessment. To improve the process of incorporating ecosystem information into fishery management decisions, we summarize key takeaways from the case studies. Finally, we provide additional recommendations for optimizing ERA use at the end of this report.
Continue reading ‘Applications of ecosystem risk assessment in federal fisheries to advance ecosystem-based fisheries management’Quantitative assessment of the response of seawater environmental quality to marine protection policies under regional economic development – a case study of Xiamen Bay, China
Published 10 May 2023 Science ClosedTags: chemistry, field, North Pacific, policy, socio-economy
Xiamen is the epitome of having steady economic growth and non-negligible environmental stress over decades. Several restoration programs have been applied to address the conflicts between heavy environmental pressures and human activities, but the response of current coastal protection policies to the marine environment remains to be assessed. Therefore, to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of marine conservation policies under regional economic growth in Xiamen, quantitative techniques including elasticity analysis and dummy variable regression models were applied. Here we show the potential relationship between seawater quality (pH, COD, DIN and DRP) and economic growth including Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Ocean Product (GOP), to evaluate the ongoing related policies by using over 10 years of data (2007–2018). According to our estimates, a GDP growth rate of 8.5% represents a stable economic climate that is favorable for the overall rehabilitation of the local coastal environment. The results of the quantitative research indicate a strong relationship between economic development and seawater quality, with marine protection regulations serving as the direct cause. As GDP growth and pH are significantly positively correlated (coef. = 0.8139, p = 0.012), ocean acidification has decreased over the last decade. With an inversely proportional correlation with GDP (coef. = 0.8456, p = 0.002) and GOP (coef. = 0.8046, p = 0.005), the trend in COD concentrations effectively meets the targets of current pollution control legislation. By using a dummy variable regression model, we found that legislation is the most effective way in seawater recovery in the GOP section, and positive externalities of marine protection frameworks are also estimated. Meanwhile, it is predicted that the negative effects from the non-GOP section will gradually affect the coastal environmental quality gradually. An overall framework for controlling marine pollutant discharges, giving equal attention to maritime and non-maritime anthropogenic activities should be promoted and updated.
Continue reading ‘Quantitative assessment of the response of seawater environmental quality to marine protection policies under regional economic development – a case study of Xiamen Bay, China’Ocean acidification and the Anthropocene: an emergency response
Published 5 May 2023 Science ClosedTags: mitigation, policy
This chapter considers the threat of ocean acidification from the perspective of both harm to ocean ecological systems and positive climate feedbacks. A survey of current governance responses demonstrates an alarming failure. No international governance regime currently accounts for ocean acidification by requiring significant and additional reductions in CO2 emissions. In an oceans context, acidification is treated as a gradual background stressor along with a range of climate change impacts. Against this backdrop and employing the Anthropocene concept, together with emerging realization that we face a planetary emergency, this chapter proposes a radical change of approach. It proposes that we begin with emergency closure of a large swath of the ocean – namely areas beyond national jurisdiction. While not an end in itself, emergency closure of the Earth’s largest ecological system is a critical place to begin confronting what the Anthropocene means, the implications for all life, and how humanity must govern itself. Change here may seed a very different understanding of what is required as we confront the reality of an Earth system as a global ecological commons on the verge of abrupt, irreversible, and destructive changes. At the very least, such an emergency response may (not will) slow the rate of accumulating harm while we formulate entirely new human responses fully commensurate with the complex and urgent existential crisis of our making.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification and the Anthropocene: an emergency response’The hazard components of representative key risks: the physical climate perspective
Published 4 May 2023 Science ClosedTags: policy
The framework of Representative Key Risks (RKRs) has been adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II to categorize, assess and communicate a wide range of regional and sectoral key risks from climate change. These are risks expected to become severe due to the potentially detrimental convergence of changing climate conditions with the exposure and vulnerability of human and natural systems. Other papers in this special issue treat each of eight RKRs holistically by assessing their current status and future evolution as a result of this convergence. However, in these papers, such assessment cannot always be organized according to a systematic gradation of climatic changes. Often the big-picture evolution of risk has to be extrapolated from either qualitative effects of “low”, “medium” and “high” warming, or limited/focused analysis of the consequences of particular mitigation choices (e.g., benefits of limiting warming to 1.5 or 2C), together with consideration of the socio-economic context and possible adaptation choices that factor in the risk assessment.
In this study we offer a representation – as systematic as possible given current literature and assessments – of the future evolution of the hazard components of RKRs. We draw on the assessment of changes in climatic impact-drivers relevant to RKRs described in the 6th Assessment Report by Working Group I (WGI) supplemented when needed by more recent literature.
We identify the relevant hazards for each RKR, based upon the WGII authors’ assessment, and we report on their current state and expected future changes in magnitude, intensity and/or frequency, linking these changes to Global Warming Levels (GWLs) to the extent possible.
For some of these quantities – like regional trends in oceanic and atmospheric temperature and precipitation, some heat and precipitation extremes, permafrost thaw and Northern Hemisphere snow cover – a strong and quantitative relationship with increasing GWLs has been identified. For others – like frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones and extra-tropical storms, and fire weather – that link can only be described qualitatively. For some processes – like the behavior of ice sheets, or changes in circulation dynamics – large uncertainties about the effects of different GWLs remain, and for a few others – like ocean pH and air pollution – the composition of the scenario of anthropogenic emissions is most relevant, rather than the warming reached. In almost all cases, however, the basic message remains that every small increment in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and associated warming will bring changes in climate phenomena that will contribute to increasing risk of impacts on human and natural systems in the absence of compensating changes in these systems’ exposure and vulnerability, and in the absence of effective adaptation. Our picture of the evolution of RKR-relevant climatic impact-drivers complements and enriches the treatment of RKRs in the other papers in at least two ways: by filling in an often only cursory or limited representation of the physical climate aspects driving impacts, and by providing a fuller representation of their future potential evolution, an important component – if never the only one – of the potential future evolution of risk severity.
Continue reading ‘The hazard components of representative key risks: the physical climate perspective’Adaptive governance of coral reefs: cases of Florida and the Caribbean
Published 25 April 2023 Science ClosedTags: biological response, BRcommunity, corals, mitigation, policy
Coral reefs are one of the most imperiled yet one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet, providing food, medicine, and property protection to hundreds of millions of coastal people all over the world. Coral reefs are being lost at an unprecedented rate throughout their range. In the Florida Reef Tract alone, 98% of hard coral has died due to heat waves, disease, and poor water quality, making modern reefs almost unrecognizable. Given the stress that coral reefs are facing due to human and natural causes, there are two key knowledge gaps that are essential to address: the significance of the losses of culturally important benefits that coral reefs provide to people, and the ways that people are adapting to the rapid loss of coral reefs. This dissertation aims to address both gaps.
Continue reading ‘Adaptive governance of coral reefs: cases of Florida and the Caribbean’Ocean acidification as a governance challenge in the Mediterranean Sea: impacts from aquaculture and fisheries
Published 25 April 2023 Science ClosedTags: chemistry, field, fisheries, Mediterranean, mitigation, modeling, policy, regionalmodeling, review
Despite the progress in the international and regional governance efforts at the level of climate change, ocean acidification (OA) remains a global problem with profoundly negative environmental, social, and economical consequences. This requires extensive mitigation and adaptation effective strategies that are hindered by current shortcomings of governance. This multidisciplinary chapter investigates the risks of ocean acidification (OA) for aquaculture and fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea and its sub-basins and the role of regional adaptive governance to tackle the problem. The identified risks are based on the biological sensitivities of the most important aquaculture species and biogenic habitats and their exposure to the current and future predicted (2100) RCP 8.5 conditions. To link OA exposure and biological sensitivity, we produced spatially resolved and depth-related pH and aragonite saturation state exposure maps and overlaid these with the existing aquaculture industry in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean basin to demonstrate potential risk for the aquaculture in the future. We also identified fisheries’ vulnerability through the indirect effects of OA on highly sensitive biogenic habitats that serve as nursery and spawning areas, showing that some of the biogenic habitats are already affected locally under existing OA conditions and will be more severely impacted across the entire Mediterranean basin under 2100 scenarios. This provided a regional vulnerability assessment of OA hotspots, risks and gaps that created the baseline for discussing the importance of adaptive governance and recommendations for future OA mitigation/adaptation strategies. By understanding the risks under future OA scenarios and reinforcing the adaptability of the governance system at the science-policy interface, best informed, “situated” management response capability can be optimised to sustain ecosystem services.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification as a governance challenge in the Mediterranean Sea: impacts from aquaculture and fisheries’Aquaculture mapping in the context of climate change
Published 24 April 2023 Science ClosedTags: fisheries, mitigation, North Pacific, policy, socio-economy
The development of aquaculture is facing unprecedented pressures from climate change, resource constraints, environmental pollution, energy consumption, and other factors. For coping with these challenges and for ensuring sustainable development of aquaculture, spatial planning in aquaculture activities become more and more important. An ecosystem-based approach for aquaculture mapping is needed to strategically and comprehensively balance the location, aquaculture type, and stakeholders’ interests. In this chapter, we aim to describe the definition, key steps, and methods of aquaculture zoning, especially in the context of climate change (e.g., global warming, ocean acidification, hypoxia/anoxia, sea level rising, and extreme events). We also provide two case studies of aquaculture mapping in China.
Continue reading ‘Aquaculture mapping in the context of climate change’Resilience of a giant clam subsistence fishery in Kiribati to climate change
Published 20 April 2023 Science ClosedTags: fisheries, mitigation, North Pacific, policy, socio-economy
Changes in sea surface temperature have historically impacted the habitat of giant clams in Kiribati. In many islands of Kiribati, the four species of giant clam have largely withstood these environmental changes, through adaptive responses to anthropogenic pressures. The Kiribati giant clam fishery is a data-limited multi-species fishery, so in adopting and applying a comprehensive resilience framework to highlight attributes conferring and limiting resilience across the ecological, governance, and socio-economic aspects of the fishery we used knowledge co-production and the precautionary principle approach to better inform place-based attempts to operationalise resilience measures. We found that the resilience of the fishery to marine heatwaves and ocean acidification, as highlighted by local stakeholders, will depend on the ability of fisheries stakeholders to act collectively, with flexibility, to implement adaptive governance. Climate change, coupled with human impacts, have reduced ecological resilience in the urbanised island of South Tarawa, in contrast to the more remote or sparsely populated islands. In South Tarawa, governance and social processes are less flexible, leading to declines in the local subsistence clam fishery. Conversely, on several remote outer islands, where the social-ecological system has shown promise in combating these anthropogenic influences (e.g., through adaptive community-based fisheries management), the ecological resilience has improved, and the subsistence clam fishery has persisted. Our case study demonstrates the importance of a participatory approach and local knowledge when assessing climate resilience and identifies pathways of resilience in other small-scale fisheries, especially when data are limited.
Continue reading ‘Resilience of a giant clam subsistence fishery in Kiribati to climate change’La superposición de regímenes jurídicos en el Derecho Internacional para abordar la acidificación de los océanos (in Spanish)
Published 13 April 2023 Science ClosedTags: policy
Overlapping legal regimes in International Law to address ocean acidification
Resumen
Los océanos absorben aproximadamente el 30% de las emisiones globales de dióxido de carbono (CO2), ya que actúan como sumideros de carbono junto a los bosques. Ahora bien, el actuar como sumideros de carbono tiene sus consecuencias, ya que los océanos se están volviendo más ácidos debido a una interacción química entre las moléculas de agua (H2O) y el CO2, que produce ácido carbónico (H2CO3). El ácido carbónico reduce la cantidad de iones carbonato en el agua, lo que genera una serie de efectos negativos en la cadena trófica marina que afectan a muchos organismos marinos y por ende también a los recursos del mar de los que obtenemos alimentos. En la actualidad no hay ningún instrumento jurídico internacional que aborde específicamente la acidificación de los océanos o sus efectos sobre el medio marino. Este tema de la acidificación tiene implicaciones en distintos sectores jurídicos del derecho internacional, lo que hace compleja su articulación jurídica y por ello son escasos los trabajos que se han ocupado del impacto jurídico de la acidificación. El objetivo general de este trabajo es analizar, a nivel universal, aquellos instrumentos jurídicos que pueden ser empleados en la lucha contra la acidificación de los océanos, teniendo en cuenta que hay dos regímenes normativos con implicación directa a este respecto: el régimen internacional del cambio climático y el derecho del mar.
Abstract
The oceans absorb approximately 30% of global CO2 emissions, as they act as carbon sinks along with forests. However, acting as carbon sinks has its consequences, since the oceans are becoming more acidic due to a chemical interaction between water molecules (H2O) and CO2, which produces carbonic acid (H2CO3). Carbonic acid reduces the amount of carbonate ions in the water, which generates a series of negative effects in the marine food chain that affect many marine organisms and therefore also the sea resources from which we obtain food. There is currently no international legal instrument that specifically addresses ocean acidification or its effects on the marine environment. This issue of acidification has implications in many legal sectors of international law, which makes its legal articulation complex, and for this reason there are few works that have dealt with the legal impact of acidification. The general objective of this paper is to analyze, at the universal level, those legal instruments that can be used in the fight against ocean acidification, taking into account that there are two normative regimes with direct implications in this regard: the International Climate Change Regime and the Law of the Sea.
Continue reading ‘La superposición de regímenes jurídicos en el Derecho Internacional para abordar la acidificación de los océanos (in Spanish)’Are we ready for ocean acidification? A framework for assessing and advancing policy readiness
Published 29 March 2023 Science ClosedTags: education, mitigation, policy
Effective climate policy that addresses carbon dioxide emissions is essential to minimizing and addressing the impacts of ocean acidification (OA). Here we present a framework to assess the readiness of OA policy, using coral reefs as a focal system. Six dimensions encompass comprehensive preparation by ecosystems and societies for the impacts of OA and other anthropogenic hazards: (1) climate protection measures, (2) OA literacy, (3) area-based management, (4) research and development, (5) adaptive capacity of dependent sectors, and (6) policy coherence. We define standardized indicators, identify leading countries, and evaluate the case study of Australia, the country with the largest coral reef system. The framework provides a rubric for a government unit to self- assess strengths and weaknesses in policy preparedness and to prioritize future endeavors.
Continue reading ‘Are we ready for ocean acidification? A framework for assessing and advancing policy readiness’Assessing synergies and trade-offs of diverging Paris-compliant mitigation strategies with long-term SDG objectives
Published 24 March 2023 Science ClosedTags: mitigation, policy
Highlights
- The Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are interlinked.
- Mitigation strategies chosen will affect how SDGs interact.
- Technological and nature-based mitigation pathways increase resource consumption.
- Mitigation strategies relying on behavioural changes limit potential SDG trade-offs.
- Anticipating interdependences supports the design of SDG and Paris-compatible policies.
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement are the two transformative agendas, which set the benchmarks for nations to address urgent social, economic and environmental challenges. Aside from setting long-term goals, the pathways followed by nations will involve a series of synergies and trade-offs both between and within these agendas. Since it will not be possible to optimise across the 17 SDGs while simultaneously transitioning to low-carbon societies, it will be necessary to implement policies to address the most critical aspects of the agendas and understand the implications for the other dimensions. Here, we rely on a modelling exercise to analyse the long-term implications of a variety of Paris-compliant mitigation strategies suggested in the recent scientific literature on multiple dimensions of the SDG Agenda. The strategies included rely on technological solutions such as renewable energy deployment or carbon capture and storage, nature-based solutions such as afforestation and behavioural changes in the demand side. Results for a selection of energy-environment SDGs suggest that some mitigation pathways could have negative implications on food and water prices, forest cover and increase pressure on water resources depending on the strategy followed, while renewable energy shares, household energy costs, ambient air pollution and yield impacts could be improved simultaneously while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, results indicate that promoting changes in the demand side could be beneficial to limit potential trade-offs.
Continue reading ‘Assessing synergies and trade-offs of diverging Paris-compliant mitigation strategies with long-term SDG objectives’Ocean acidification as a governance challenge in the Mediterranean Sea: impacts from aquaculture and fisheries
Published 21 March 2023 Science ClosedTags: fisheries, mitigation, policy, review
Despite the progress in the international and regional governance efforts at the level of climate change, ocean acidification (OA) remains a global problem with profoundly negative environmental, social, and economical consequences. This requires extensive mitigation and adaptation effective strategies that are hindered by current shortcomings of governance. This multidisciplinary chapter investigates the risks of ocean acidification (OA) for aquaculture and fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea and its sub-basins and the role of regional adaptive governance to tackle the problem. The identified risks are based on the biological sensitivities of the most important aquaculture species and biogenic habitats and their exposure to the current and future predicted (2100) RCP 8.5 conditions. To link OA exposure and biological sensitivity, we produced spatially resolved and depth-related pH and aragonite saturation state exposure maps and overlaid these with the existing aquaculture industry in the coastal waters of the Mediterranean basin to demonstrate potential risk for the aquaculture in the future. We also identified fisheries’ vulnerability through the indirect effects of OA on highly sensitive biogenic habitats that serve as nursery and spawning areas, showing that some of the biogenic habitats are already affected locally under existing OA conditions and will be more severely impacted across the entire Mediterranean basin under 2100 scenarios. This provided a regional vulnerability assessment of OA hotspots, risks and gaps that created the baseline for discussing the importance of adaptive governance and recommendations for future OA mitigation/adaptation strategies. By understanding the risks under future OA scenarios and reinforcing the adaptability of the governance system at the science-policy interface, best informed, “situated” management response capability can be optimised to sustain ecosystem services.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification as a governance challenge in the Mediterranean Sea: impacts from aquaculture and fisheries’Oregon shellfish farmers: perceptions of stressors, adaptive strategies, and policy linkages
Published 3 February 2023 Science ClosedTags: fisheries, mitigation, policy, socio-economy
Highlights
- Interviews were conducted with fifteen (79%) of oyster farmers in Oregon.
- Farmers are most impacted by environmental, economic, and regulatory stressors.
- Shellfish farmers had matching adaptive strategies to address these stressors.
- Flexible aquaculture policies can help support these strategies.
Abstract
In the United States, domestic oyster aquaculture production is insufficient to meet national demand, thus creating a reliance on international oyster imports for consumption. West coast shellfish farmers are threatened by climate change, including ocean acidification as well as socioeconomic challenges such as labor availability. To expand and enhance United States oyster production, and support domestic food security and livelihoods, a better understanding of the limitations that oyster farmers’ experience, and corresponding pathways forward for adaptation is needed. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with commercial Oregon shellfish farmers, we assess the environmental, economic, social and regulatory stressors impacting oyster growing operations, and the corresponding adaptive strategies employed or envisioned by aquaculture farmers. We find farmers are most impacted by environmental stressors (nuisance species that interact with oysters or oyster habitat negatively), followed by regulatory and economic stressors (permitting and regulations and labor availability). Farmers perceived ocean acidification as a risk, but primarily at the oyster larva stage rather than the juvenile or adult grow-out stage. Examples of farmer-identified adaptive strategies included streamlining permitting and regulations, incentivizing employee retention, and having flexibility in culture type to avoid nuisance species and other environmental stressors. An increase in targeted outreach related to aquaculture policies and engagement with industry, scientists, managers, and policy-makers could facilitate policies that support these and other adaptive strategies.
Continue reading ‘Oregon shellfish farmers: perceptions of stressors, adaptive strategies, and policy linkages’Global ocean governance in the Anthropocene: from extractive imaginaries to planetary boundaries?
Published 23 December 2022 Science ClosedTags: policy, socio-economy
Abstract
As with other fields of international law addressing human-nature relations, the Anthropocene invites the reappraisal and reimagining of the law of the sea, the primary normative framework through which states regulate access to, and the use of, the global ocean. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) effected a major shift in global ocean governance towards a public order of the seas. However, the law of the sea remains substantially tethered to a Holocene conception of the ocean as a stable environmental domain of extractive exploitation and jurisdictional demarcation. This is illustrated by the confined scope of negotiations on a new implementing agreement under UNCLOS on the conservation and use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. Additionally, there has been limited acknowledgment of the multiple sites at which ocean governance in the Anthropocene takes place, in particular the central role of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. It is contended that one way forward for addressing both these conceptual constraints and the UNCLOS and UNFCCC regime coordination challenges is the adoption of global ocean governance goals informed by the ‘Planetary Boundaries’ framework.
Policy Implications
- There is limited acknowledgment within global governance regimes that the global ocean is undergoing rapid transformation in the Anthropocene as a result of climate change and ocean acidification.
- The contemporary framework for global ocean governance remains strongly influenced by a conception of the ocean as a domain primarily for resource extraction.
- Planetary-scale change to the global ocean calls into question the role and efficacy of existing ocean governance norms and institutions.
- Governments and civil society actors seeking to advance effective ocean management approaches in the Anthropocene need to utilise the multiple forums in which global ocean governance takes place, including the climate treaty regime.
- The Planetary Boundaries approach offers a potential way forward for improving the coordination between ocean-relevant governance regimes, and for providing global policy goals for ocean protection.
Assessing the future carbon budget through the lens of policy-driven acidification and temperature targets
Published 21 November 2022 Science ClosedTags: globalmodeling, mitigation, modeling, policy, review
Basing a future carbon budget on warming targets is subject to uncertainty due to uncertainty in the relationship between carbon emissions and warming, and may not prevent dangerous change throughout the entire climate system. Here, we use a climate emulator to constrain a future carbon budget that is more representative by using a combination of both warming and ocean acidification targets. The warming targets considered are the Paris Agreement targets of 1.5 and 2°C; the acidification targets are -0.17 and -0.21 pH units informed by aragonite saturation states. Considering acidification targets in conjunction with warming targets is found to narrow the uncertainty in the future carbon budget, especially in situations where the acidification target is more stringent than, or of similar stringency to, the warming target. Considering a strict combination of the two more stringent targets (both targets of 1.5°C warming and -0.17 acidification must be met), the carbon budget ranges from -74.0 to 129.8PgC. This reduces uncertainty in the carbon budget from 286.2PgC to 203.8PgC (29%). Assuming an emissions rate held constant since 2021 (which is a conservative assumption), the budget towards both targets was either spent by 2019, or will be spent by 2026.
Continue reading ‘Assessing the future carbon budget through the lens of policy-driven acidification and temperature targets’Ocean acidification research for sustainability: co-designing global action on local scales
Published 19 September 2022 Science ClosedTags: policy, socio-economy
The global threat that ocean acidification poses to marine ecosystems has been recognized by the UN 2030 Agenda under Sustainable Development Goal, Target 14.3: to reduce ocean acidification. The Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON) is a collaborative international network to detect and understand the drivers of ocean acidification in estuarine-coastal-open ocean environments, the resulting impacts on marine ecosystems, and to make the information available to optimize modelling studies. The Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability (OARS) programme, endorsed by the 2021–2030 UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, will build on the work of GOA-ON through its seven Decade Action Outcomes. By employing a Theory of Change framework, and with the co-design of science in mind, OARS will develop an implementation plan for each Decade Action Outcome, which will identify the stakeholders and rights-holders, as well as the tools, means, and positive consequences required for their successful delivery. The organizational structure of GOA-ON, with nine regional hubs, will benefit OARS by providing a vital connection between local and global scales. GOA-ON regional hub case-studies illustrate how activities in the past and future, informed by global and regional priorities, support capacity building and the co-design of ocean acidification science.
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidification research for sustainability: co-designing global action on local scales‘Vulnerability of exploited deep-sea demersal species to ocean warming, deoxygenation, and acidification
Published 19 September 2022 Science ClosedTags: chemistry, fish, fisheries, globalmodeling, mitigation, modeling, policy, socio-economy
Vulnerability of marine species to climate change (including ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and associated changes in food supply) depends on species’ ecological and biological characteristics. Most existing assessments focus on coastal species but systematic analysis of climate vulnerability for the deep sea is lacking. Here, we combine a fuzzy logic expert system with species biogeographical data to assess the risks of climate impacts to the population viability of 32 species of exploited demersal deep-sea species across the global ocean. Climatic hazards are projected to emerge from historical variabilities in all the recorded habitats of the studied species by the mid-twenty-first century. Species that are both at very high risk of climate impacts and highly vulnerable to fishing include Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni), rose fish (Sebastes norvegicus), roughhead grenadier (Macrourus berglax), Baird’s slickhead (Alepocephalus bairdii), cusk (Brosme brosme), and Portuguese dogfish (Centroscymnus coelepis). Most exploited deep-sea fishes are likely to be at higher risk of local, or even global, extinction than previously assessed because of their high vulnerability to both climate change and fishing. Spatially, a high concentration of deep-sea species that are climate vulnerable is predicted in the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Indo-Pacific region. Aligning carbon mitigation with improved fisheries management offers opportunities for overall risk reduction in the coming decades. Regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) have an obligation to incorporate climate change in their deliberations. In addition, deep-sea areas that are not currently managed by RFMOs should be included in existing or new international governance institutions or arrangements.
Continue reading ‘Vulnerability of exploited deep-sea demersal species to ocean warming, deoxygenation, and acidification’Stability of coral reef islands and associated legal maritime zones in a changing ocean
Published 31 August 2022 Science ClosedTags: corals, mitigation, policy, review
Coral reef islands can support large legal maritime zones (i.e., ocean spaces where States have rights and responsibilities) and are of international and geopolitical importance. This review focuses on low-lying coral reef islands supplied with sediments derived from skeletons and shells of calcifying organisms. For coral islands, the outer ‘low-water line’ of the reef can be used as the legal ‘baseline’ to establish maritime zones. Coral islands and the reefs that support them are experiencing the effects of rising and warming seas, increased storminess and ocean acidification. Coral reefs, their islands and associated maritime zones support millions of people, including those in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). SIDS communities are arguably the least responsible for climate change but are at the forefront of its impacts so ensuring their continued wellbeing is a global responsibility. Securing the future of coral reefs and islands is dependent on reducing global climate threats and emissions, improving local management, and investing in restoration and adaption research. It is uncertain if coral islands will persist into the future, and on what timelines. This raises questions such as, where coral islands support maritime zones, what are the legal implications of island instability or loss? This review focuses on the bio-physical interactions of coral islands and associated reefs in the face of changing climates, and implications for legal maritime zones and SIDS.
Continue reading ‘Stability of coral reef islands and associated legal maritime zones in a changing ocean’
