Deep Dives
Thought-provoking research providing extensive learning opportunities

The Expected Impacts of Climate Change on the Ocean Economy

High Level Panel for a Sustainable Economy

Climate change is altering ocean climate, chemistry, circulation, sea level and ice distribution. Collectively, these system changes have critical impacts on the habitats, biological productivities and species assemblages that underpin many of the economic benefits of the sea.

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The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

The HLP report offers the first comprehensive, integrated assessment of the mitigation potential of a suite of ocean-based activities: renewable energy, transport, food production, and ecosystems, and the potential future contribution from carbon storage if current concerns can be resolved.

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Ocean deoxygenation : everyone’s problem

IUCN, Global Marine and Polar Programme

Since 2000 significant and dedicated effort has been directed at raising awareness and understanding of the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions on the ocean. Carbon dioxide emitted by human activities is driving the ocean towards more acidic conditions.

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Addressing Marine Plastics: A Systemic Approach – Recommendations for Actions

UN Environmental Program Plastics & Pollution

Addressing marine plastic pollution is an urgent action, considering the rising levels of plastics in the environment and the impacts to coastal and marine ecosystems.

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The Future of Food from the Sea

Christopher Costello, Ling Cao and Stefan Gelcich, High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy Fisheries & Aquaculture

This paper considers the status and future trends of food production through fisheries and aquaculture at regional and global scales; the opportunities of ocean-based food in achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger); and recommendations for how current barriers might be overcome to transition to more sustainable and abundant food production from the ocean.

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Prey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries

Gove, J.M., et al., PNAS Plastics & Pollution

Many of the world’s marine fish spend the first days to weeks feeding and developing at the ocean surface. However, very little is known about the ocean processes that govern larval fish survivorship and hence adult fish populations that supply essential nutrients and protein to human societies.

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Maine's Shrimp Crisis Reveals A Big Climate Change Problem We're Not Talking About

Alexander C. Kaufman Fisheries & Aquaculture

When winter fell on this quiet, wooded island, instinct took over. Birds flew south. Trees shed leaves. Dain Bichrest set his alarm for 3 a.m. Reaching a calloused hand through the frigid darkness, he silenced the device, stretched and started a routine that finished with the sea captain boarding his 42-foot boat and voyaging two hours into the Gulf of Maine to fishing grounds teeming with Northern shrimp. It became so routine he’d start to wake automatically. 

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Looking Back on a Legacy of Seafood Sustainability

NOAA Fisheries & Aquaculture

An interview with Laurel Bryant, Chief of External Affairs for NOAA Fisheries.

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How do lithium-ion batteries work?

Robert Masse Energy Solutions

Lithium-ion batteries are at the center of two other technological revolutions with the power to transform society: the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles, and the shift from an electric grid powered by fossil fuels to renewable energy generators that store surplus electricity in batteries for future use. But how do they work?

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A global spatial analysis reveals where marine aquaculture can benefit nature and people

Theuerkauf S.J. et al., PLoS ONE Fisheries & Aquaculture

Aquaculture of bivalve shellfish and seaweed represents a global opportunity to simultaneously advance coastal ecosystem recovery and provide substantive benefits to humanity.

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Summary for Policymakers of IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C approved by governments

IPCC

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, the IPCC said in a new assessment. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said on Monday.

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Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution

Lili Jia, Steve Evans & Sander van der Linden, Nature Communcations Plastics & Pollution

Designing effective policy interventions to motivate mitigation actions requires more realistic assumptions about human decision-making based on empirical evidence from the behavioural sciences. We therefore need to consider behavioural rather than only economic costs and benefits in policy intervention designs.

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Leverage points in the financial sector for seafood sustainability

Jouffray, JP., et al., Science Advances Fisheries & Aquaculture

Can finance contribute to seafood sustainability? This is an increasingly relevant question given the projected growth of seafood markets and the magnitude of social and environmental challenges associated with seafood production. As more capital enters the seafood industry, it becomes crucial that investments steer the sector toward improved sustainability, as opposed to fueling unsustainable working conditions and overexploitation of resources.

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IPCC: Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

IPCC

This Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) was prepared following an IPCC Panel decision in 2016 to prepare three Special Reports during the Sixth Assessment Cycle.

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The Ocean's Role in Sustainable Food Production

UCDavis, Coastal and Marine Institute Fisheries & Aquaculture

Our symposium will present the current scientific, economic, social, and governance issues surrounding the ocean’s role in global food production and explore potential impacts of climate change on these functions and processes.

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Blue Growth Potential to Mitigate Climate Change through Seaweed Offsetting

Froehlich, H.E. et al., Current Biology Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture

Froehlich et al. find large-scale global mitigation through CO2eq sequestration unlikely but local to regional applications more feasible.

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Pathways to Sustainable Investing

Matross, D, et al., CREO Syndicate

Based on observations over the years, we have developed a framework to help investors understand where they are in the process.

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Blue Economy, Community Solutions

Sulan Chen et al., UNDP

The blue economy is an approach put forward by the international community to take into account the health of the oceans and seas as we strive to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.

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Fourth National Climate Assessment

Reidmiller, D.R. et al., U.S. Global Change Research Program Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture Plastics & Pollution Shipping & Ports Tourism

Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States.

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century.

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Cell-Based Fish: A Novel Approach to Seafood Production and an Opportunity for Cellular Agriculture

Rubio, N., et al., Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems Fisheries & Aquaculture

Cellular agriculture is defined as the production of agricultural products from cell cultures rather than from whole plants or animals. With growing interest in cellular agriculture as a means to address public health, environmental, and animal welfare challenges of animal agriculture, the concept of producing seafood from fish cell- and tissue-cultures is emerging as an approach to address similar challenges with industrial aquaculture systems and marine capture.

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