scholarly journals The first Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation 2014: key messages and outcomes

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Deprez ◽  
Magda Vincx ◽  
Adelino V.M. Canario ◽  
Karim Erzini ◽  
Katherine Brownlie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Ocean Noise

The first Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation was a successful event organized by the MARES doctoral programme bringing together over 150 researchers in Olhão, Portugal from November 17th to 21st 2014. The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Pörtner, whose keynote address focused on a sectoral analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5) on the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans. The first session on “Future oceans” was opened with a talk by Dr. Frank Melzner highlighting the problems calcifying invertebrates face in the warmer, more acidic and hypoxic waters. Other presenters dealt with changing global diversity patterns, ocean acidification, and the loss the genetic diversity. The second session on “Natural resources” was opened by Dr. Rainer Froese, who focused on whether or not the oceans can feed humanity. This talk introduced other contributions in the session, dealing with fisheries issues and Marine Protected Areas, as well as problems with proper identifications of species used for economic purposes. “Biodiversity effects” was the scope of the third session opened by a talk on oxygenation and marine biodiversity challenges in the 21st Century by Prof. Lisa Levin. Rapid ocean deoxygenation is a process which is currently less investigated but which has considerable effects on body size, taxonomic composition, habitat heterogeneity, and nutrient cycling. The following presentations focused on other factors having a strong effect on marine biodiversity, ranging from the harvesting of algae to the fragmentation of ecosystems. The fourth session addressed “Biological invasions”. Dr. Gregory Ruiz discussed biological invasions in North American marine ecosystems and the need for constant monitoring, and the use of a dynamic and multi-vector approach. Problems with invasive species in European waters were addressed with examples from the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The fifth session on “Ocean Noise” was opened by Prof. Peter Tyack with a talk on the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals. Although ocean noise issues are often linked to marine mammals, the effects of sound related to marine constructions on fish behaviour, nicely illustrated that ocean noise is a factor with a much broader impact than expected. The last session of the first Mares Conference dealt with “Habitat loss”. Dr. Michael Beck focused on this topic with his talk on ‘Building Coastal Resilience for Climate Adaptation and Risk Reduction’. Talks in the session ranged from the use of telemetry as a tool to monitor species in changed habitats, to cases dealing with sea level rise related problems in for example salt-marshes. The first Mares Conference offered a broad range of oral and poster presentations, as well as digital presentations. The poster and digital object presentations included over 100 contributions.

scholarly journals The first Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation 2014: key messages and outcomes

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Deprez ◽  
Magda Vincx ◽  
Adelino V.M. Canario ◽  
Karim Erzini ◽  
Katherine Brownlie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Taxonomic Composition ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Ocean Noise

The first Mares Conference on Marine Ecosystems Health and Conservation was a successful event organized by the MARES doctoral programme bringing together over 150 researchers in Olhão, Portugal from November 17th to 21st 2014. The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Pörtner, whose keynote address focused on a sectoral analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5) on the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans. The first session on “Future oceans” was opened with a talk by Dr. Frank Melzner highlighting the problems calcifying invertebrates face in the warmer, more acidic and hypoxic waters. Other presenters dealt with changing global diversity patterns, ocean acidification, and the loss the genetic diversity. The second session on “Natural resources” was opened by Dr. Rainer Froese, who focused on whether or not the oceans can feed humanity. This talk introduced other contributions in the session, dealing with fisheries issues and Marine Protected Areas, as well as problems with proper identifications of species used for economic purposes. “Biodiversity effects” was the scope of the third session opened by a talk on oxygenation and marine biodiversity challenges in the 21st Century by Prof. Lisa Levin. Rapid ocean deoxygenation is a process which is currently less investigated but which has considerable effects on body size, taxonomic composition, habitat heterogeneity, and nutrient cycling. The following presentations focused on other factors having a strong effect on marine biodiversity, ranging from the harvesting of algae to the fragmentation of ecosystems. The fourth session addressed “Biological invasions”. Dr. Gregory Ruiz discussed biological invasions in North American marine ecosystems and the need for constant monitoring, and the use of a dynamic and multi-vector approach. Problems with invasive species in European waters were addressed with examples from the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. The fifth session on “Ocean Noise” was opened by Prof. Peter Tyack with a talk on the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals. Although ocean noise issues are often linked to marine mammals, the effects of sound related to marine constructions on fish behaviour, nicely illustrated that ocean noise is a factor with a much broader impact than expected. The last session of the first Mares Conference dealt with “Habitat loss”. Dr. Michael Beck focused on this topic with his talk on ‘Building Coastal Resilience for Climate Adaptation and Risk Reduction’. Talks in the session ranged from the use of telemetry as a tool to monitor species in changed habitats, to cases dealing with sea level rise related problems in for example salt-marshes. The first Mares Conference offered a broad range of oral and poster presentations, as well as digital presentations. The poster and digital object presentations included over 100 contributions.

scholarly journals An update of IPCC climate reference regions for subcontinental analysis of climate model data: definition and aggregated datasets

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 2959-2970
Author(s):  
Maialen Iturbide ◽  
José M. Gutiérrez ◽  
Lincoln M. Alves ◽  
Joaquín Bedia ◽  
Ruth Cerezo-Mota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Atmospheric Model ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Scatter Plots ◽  
Projected Changes

Abstract. Several sets of reference regions have been used in the literature for the regional synthesis of observed and modelled climate and climate change information. A popular example is the series of reference regions used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Adaptation (SREX). The SREX regions were slightly modified for the Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC and used for reporting subcontinental observed and projected changes over a reduced number (33) of climatologically consistent regions encompassing a representative number of grid boxes. These regions are intended to allow analysis of atmospheric data over broad land or ocean regions and have been used as the basis for several popular spatially aggregated datasets, such as the Seasonal Mean Temperature and Precipitation in IPCC Regions for CMIP5 dataset. We present an updated version of the reference regions for the analysis of new observed and simulated datasets (including CMIP6) which offer an opportunity for refinement due to the higher atmospheric model resolution. As a result, the number of land and ocean regions is increased to 46 and 15, respectively, better representing consistent regional climate features. The paper describes the rationale for the definition of the new regions and analyses their homogeneity. The regions are defined as polygons and are provided as coordinates and a shapefile together with companion R and Python notebooks to illustrate their use in practical problems (e.g. calculating regional averages). We also describe the generation of a new dataset with monthly temperature and precipitation, spatially aggregated in the new regions, currently for CMIP5 and CMIP6, to be extended to other datasets in the future (including observations). The use of these reference regions, dataset and code is illustrated through a worked example using scatter plots to offer guidance on the likely range of future climate change at the scale of the reference regions. The regions, datasets and code (R and Python notebooks) are freely available at the ATLAS GitHub repository: https://github.com/SantanderMetGroup/ATLAS (last access: 24 August 2020), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3998463 (Iturbide et al., 2020).

scholarly journals Integrating climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation in the global ocean

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. eaay9969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek P. Tittensor ◽  
Maria Beger ◽  
Kristina Boerder ◽  
Daniel G. Boyce ◽  
Rachel D. Cavanagh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Responsive Design

The impacts of climate change and the socioecological challenges they present are ubiquitous and increasingly severe. Practical efforts to operationalize climate-responsive design and management in the global network of marine protected areas (MPAs) are required to ensure long-term effectiveness for safeguarding marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. Here, we review progress in integrating climate change adaptation into MPA design and management and provide eight recommendations to expedite this process. Climate-smart management objectives should become the default for all protected areas, and made into an explicit international policy target. Furthermore, incentives to use more dynamic management tools would increase the climate change responsiveness of the MPA network as a whole. Given ongoing negotiations on international conservation targets, now is the ideal time to proactively reform management of the global seascape for the dynamic climate-biodiversity reality.

scholarly journals Climate Change Impacts on Polar Marine Ecosystems: Toward Robust Approaches for Managing Risks and Uncertainties

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geir Ottersen ◽  
Andrew J. Constable ◽  
Anne B. Hollowed ◽  
Kirstin K. Holsman ◽  
Jess Melbourne-Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Weight Of Evidence ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Changing Climate

The Polar Regions chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change impacts on polar marine ecosystems and associated consequences for humans. It also includes identification of confidence for major findings based on agreement across studies and weight of evidence. Sources of uncertainty, from the extent of available datasets, to resolution of projection models, to the complexity and understanding of underlying social-ecological linkages and dynamics, can influence confidence. Here we, marine ecosystem scientists all having experience as lead authors of IPCC reports, examine the evolution of confidence in observed and projected climate-linked changes in polar ecosystems since SROCC. Further synthesis of literature on polar marine ecosystems has been undertaken, especially within IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group II; for the Southern Ocean also the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean (MEASO). These publications incorporate new scientific findings that address some of the knowledge gaps identified in SROCC. While knowledge gaps have been narrowed, we still find that polar region assessments reflect pronounced geographical skewness in knowledge regarding the responses of marine life to changing climate and associated literature. There is also an imbalance in scientific focus; especially research in Antarctica is dominated by physical oceanography and cryosphere science with highly fragmented approaches and only short-term funding to ecology. There are clear indications that the scientific community has made substantial progress in its ability to project ecosystem responses to future climate change through the development of coupled biophysical models of the region facilitated by increased computer power allowing for improved resolution in space and time. Lastly, we point forward—providing recommendations for future advances for IPCC assessments.

National research planning accelerates relevance and immediacy of climate-adaptation science

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D. Ling ◽  
Alistair J. Hobday
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Research Planning ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fisheries Conservation ◽  
General Scientific

Adapting to climate change is contingent on an ability to adjust before opportunity is lost. Given that research funding to understand adaptation is limited, rapid return on investment is critical. For Australian marine environments, climate-change impacts are well documented and adaptation opportunities have been identified across aquaculture, fisheries, conservation and tourism sectors. Here, we have evaluated the recent Australian scientific literature to determine (1) the degree to which climate-change impacts and adaptation have been addressed across sectors, and, specifically, (2) the role of a major research program instituted in 2009 to address priority climate-change questions for these sectors, namely, Australia’s ‘National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan for Marine Biodiversity and Resources’ (MNARP). Although the number of priority questions addressed by the general scientific literature increased in the 2009–2015 period, there was a 92% increase in the number of priority questions addressed during the peak of MNARP (2013–2014). MNARP research also addressed a greater range of priority questions than did the general scientific literature, which showed consistency in the questions and study systems examined. Overall, structured research planning focussed attention on key climate-change questions, which is a critical consideration for enacting adaptation in the face of rapid climate change.

scholarly journals Vulnerability of ecosystems with Guadua angustifolia in Ecuador in light of climate changes1

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario José Añazco Romero
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Population ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Bamboo Species ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Analysis Methodology

ABSTRACT Guadua angustifolia bamboo is historically used by an important percentage of the rural and peri-urban population of Ecuador, especially in the construction of bridges, when events like El Niño and its consequential flooding occur. This study aimed to determine, in light of some climate change scenarios, the vulnerability rate of ecosystems where the G. angustifolia bamboo species occurs, in the coastal region of continental Ecuador. The analysis methodology, with focus on the sampled units, was based on vulnerability assessment tools for climate adaptation recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Temperature presented the highest correlation coefficient with the vulnerability rate of the ecosystems, followed by the increase in the sea level, winds and landslides. It was concluded that as the exposure and sensitivity variables increase, the adaptive capacity of ecosystems with occurence of this species decreases, and isolated plants and monoculture plantations are the most vulnerable to climate changes.

Potential impacts of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions on Mediterranean marine ecosystems and cetaceans

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.D. Gambaiani ◽  
P. Mayol ◽  
S.J. Isaac ◽  
M.P. Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Seawater Temperature ◽  
Marine Ecosystems ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Toxic Algal Bloom

The combustion of fossil fuels and the resultant impacts on climate may now represent one of the largest environmental threats. In the Mediterranean Sea, changes in bio-chemical and physical seawater properties resulting from global warming are likely to alter marine biodiversity and productivity, trigger trophic web mismatches and encourage diseases, toxic algal bloom and propagation of thermophilic species. This review highlights the current and potential threats of climate change to the Mediterranean marine ecosystems, including cetaceans, and stresses the emergent necessity for more integrated regulations and policies for the protection of marine biodiversity. For instance, in the Mediterranean Sea, the distribution and abundance of the small euphausid species Meganyctiphanes norvegica is correlated with specific hydrobiological parameters including seawater temperature, salinity and current patterns. Situated at the northern limit of its ecological tolerance, this species, which constitutes the only known food supply of the fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in this region, might be affected by climate change-induced alteration of ocean circulation.

scholarly journals Understanding institutional barriers in the climate change adaptation planning process of the city of Beirut: vicious cycles and opportunities

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Zea-Reyes ◽  
Veronica Olivotto ◽  
Sylvia I. Bergh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
Institutional Barriers ◽  
Political Interference ◽  
Poor Individual ◽  
Competing Priorities

AbstractCities around the world are confronted with the need to put in place climate adaptation policies to protect citizens and properties from climate change impacts. This article applies components of the framework developed by Moser and Ekström (2010) onto empirical qualitative data to diagnose institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in the Municipality of Beirut, Lebanon. Our approach reveals the presence of two vicious cycles influencing each other. In the first cycle, the root cause barrier is major political interference generating competing priorities and poor individual interest in climate change. A second vicious cycle is derived from feedbacks caused by the first and leading to the absence of a dedicated department where sector specific climate risk information is gathered and shared with other departments, limited knowledge and scientific understanding, as well as a distorted framing or vision, where climate change is considered unrelated to other issues and is to be dealt with at higher levels of government. The article also highlights the need to analyze interlinkages between barriers in order to suggest how to overcome them. The most common way to overcome barriers according to interviewees is through national and international support followed by the creation of a data bank. These opportunities could be explored by national and international policy-makers to break the deadlock in Beirut.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document