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climate change

IUCN Explaining Ocean Warming report

Explaining Ocean Warming is a comprehensive report produced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) looking at the impacts of warming on ocean life, ecosystems, and goods and services. The report is the work of 80 scientists from 12 countries, launched during the IUCN World Conservation Congress, September 1-10 in Hawaii. Nereus Program research was contributed to two chapters within the report.

Sustainable management of the high seas could recoup fish stock losses due to climate change

Closing the high seas to fishing could increase fish catches in coastal waters by 10%, compensating for expected losses due to climate change, finds a new Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published in Fish and Fisheries.

The high seas are those areas of the ocean outside the jurisdiction of countries; the high seas cover nearly two thirds of the ocean’s surface. These results could be seen by 2050 relative to 2000 and cooperatively managing the high seas fisheries would have similar effects.

Nereus Scientific & Technical Briefs on ABNJ series

The Nereus Scientific & Technical Briefs on ABNJ series was developed out of a workshop held prior to this year’s 4th International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John’s, Newfoundland (July-August 2016). They were prepared for the second meeting of the BBNJ Preparatory Committee meeting, held from August 26 – September 9, at the UN. The PrepComm is developing an international legally binding instrument under the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. These policy briefs are meant to inform this process and different aspects of high seas conservation and use.

POLICY BRIEF: Space for conservation and sustainable use: area-based management in areas beyond national jurisdiction

Marine areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction contain ecosystems with marine resources and biodiversity of significant ecological, socioeconomic, and cultural importance. These areas and their resources are subject to increasing impacts from ongoing human activities and global climate change and their associated cumulative and combined effects.

POLICY BRIEF: Climate Change in Oceans Beyond National Jurisdictions

Despite their remoteness, the high seas and deep ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) are at the forefront of CO2-induced climate stress, both in their mitigation capacity, and their vulnerabilities. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission alters ocean conditions, leading to ocean warming, deoxygenation and acidification. These ocean changes affect marine life throughout the ABNJ, from the surface to the deep sea, by changing species’ distributions, migration routes, ecosystem structure and functions.

Biomass modeling and transfer efficiency: Mathieu Colléter completes fellowship

Biomass is the mass of organisms in an ecosystem or community; it is thought of in terms of energy for the next trophic level – the higher chain in the food web. For example, the biomass of plankton, which may be eaten by herring, which may be eaten by tuna. Mathieu Colléter recently completed his Nereus Program fellowship at UBC. The focus of his study was on ecosystem modeling and, more particularly, work on biomass estimates for the world ocean using ecosystem models.

Sources of uncertainties in 21st century projections of potential ocean ecosystem stressors

The ocean has provided incredible services for us — taking up 28% of carbon emissions since preindustrial levels and absorbing 93% of the Earth’s excess heat since the 1970s — but because of this, it is undergoing changes. In order to manage ocean ecosystems and resources in the future, we must begin to understand what those changes may look like using climate change impact projections.

The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Summer Workshop at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

By Rebecca Asch, Senior Nereus Fellow, Princeton University

The Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Summer Workshop is an annual event where scientists leading research on the carbon cycle and circulation of nutrients in the ocean meet to discuss advances in their field and jointly plan new research initiatives. This year it was held from July 25 to 28 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, USA.