The evolving and increasing need for climate change research on the oceans

ICES Journal of Marine Science ICES Journal of Marine Science (2016), 73(5), 1267– 1271. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsw052 Introduction to the Symposium: ‘Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans’ Introduction The evolving and increasing need for climate change research on the oceans Manuel Barange1*, Jacquelynne King 2, Luis Valdés3, and Alexander Turra4 Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC, Canada V9T 6N7 3 Instituto Español de Oceanografı́a, C.O. Santander, Spain 4 Instituto Oceanografico, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil 2 *Corresponding author: e-mail: Barange, M., King, J., Valdés, L., and Turra, A. The evolving and increasing need for climate change research on the oceans. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 73: 1267– 1271. Received 9 March 2016; revised 10 March 2016; accepted 11 March 2016; advance access publication 7 April 2016. The 3rd International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans was held in Santos, Brazil, in March 2015, convened by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC), and organized locally by the Oceanographic Institute, University of Sao Paulo (IO-USP). The symposium was designed to do two things. First, to get updates on new scientific developments that would address recognized uncertainties that remained from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report and to contribute to building bridges between research in the natural and social sciences in respect to the human dimensions of climate change, with a focus on coastal communities, management objectives, governance and adaptation measures. The choice of the venue in Santos, Brazil, was aimed to stimulate and widen this thematic discussion in Latin America and southern Atlantic regions, where there still are important knowledge gaps and scientific, politic and societal challenges to be overcome. The meeting was attended by 280 participants from 38 countries, contributing 336 oral and poster presentations. This paper summarizes the main outcomes of the symposium and introduces a number of papers submitted to this special issue. Keywords: climate change, Global Oceans, marine ecosystems, international symposium. In 2007, the IPCC produced its 4th Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007). A mammoth task demonstrating that climate change was occurring, caused largely by human activities, and that it posed significant risks for—and often was already affecting—a broad range of human and natural systems. Ocean scientists, particularly biologists, noted that the report included 25 586 examples of significant biological changes in terrestrial ecosystems but for only 85 examples from marine or freshwater systems (Richardson and Poloczanska, 2008). The authors argue that this imbalance was an artefact of the distribution of global science funding, the difficulty of disentangling multiple stressors from relatively poorly sampled systems, the disconnect between marine and terrestrial ecology, and the way marine ecologists report research findings. It is in this context that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) organized the first International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans in Gijon, Spain (Valdés et al., 2009), to capture some of the latest evidence on the degree that the oceans were changing, in terms of warming, sea level rise, acidification, biodiversity loss and ecosystem function. The symposium concluded that humanity was interfering with pivotal mechanisms of the Earth System. The preparation and ground work for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC AR5) took note of this emerging evidence and, in a sign of departure from AR4, included dedicated chapters on ocean systems (Chapters 6 and 30). The 2nd ICES/PICES/IOC International Symposium in this series was hosted in Yeosu, Korea in 2012, in the midst of intense IPCC AR5 drafting. Much of the work presented in Yeosu was included in the IPCC AR5 WGII report (IPCC, 2014). Gattuso et al. (2015) summarized the IPCC AR5 conclusions with respect to the ocean in four # International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 2016. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: 1 1268 † The extent of warming in deep water masses (,700 m). † The likelihood of climate-induced changes to major upwelling systems. † The ways in which climate-induced changes in the physiology and biogeography of an individual species may alter ecosystem structure, species interactions, and foodwebs. † The sensitivity of ecosystems impacted by multiple drivers (e.g. ocean warming, acidification, and hypoxia), multiple stressors, and synergistic impacts. † The capacity for phenotypic and evolutionary adaptation over generations in response to long-term climate change. † The emerging climate-impacts to coastal sectors, such as tourism and aquaculture, and the consequences of change in terms human well-being and regional economic development, and finally. † Our ability to forecast impacts and changes at national and ecosystem scales and to scale these to fisheries food production and security, including potential adaptation responses. Our second objective was to contribute to the building of bridges between research in the natural and social sciences in respect to the human dimensions of climate change, with a focus on coastal communities, management objectives, governance, and adaptation options. A Keynote address from Prof. Chris Field, Co-chair of IPCC 5AR WGII set the scope for the symposium, mapping the potential impacts of climate change to socio-economic processes (adaptation, mitigation, and governance) through assessments of risks and uncertainty. This was followed by 12 sessions covering different but interconnected themes, from physical processes and their interaction with ecosystem dynamics, to resource provision and ocean governance (see Supplementary material). The latest developments in predicting changes in biodiversity, phenology, fisheries, and ecosystems, as well as in the physical systems that sustains these, were presented with a view to inform discussions on the risks and opportunities that climate change will bring to coastal communities and to society at large. The outcomes of the symposium have been used widely, and in particular were presented at the July 2015 international conference Our Common Future Under Climate Change (http://www .commonfuture-paris2015.org/): - Ocean warming is evident from the recent observational record, and is projected to continue in coming decades, although the degree of warming is not geographically cons (...truncated)