Marine socio-ecological systems describe the interface between human livelihoods and well-being, and marine and coastal natural resources. Both direct and indirect uses are involved, going from economic activities (e.g., fisheries, aquaculture and tourism) to cultural dimensions. In regions experiencing rapid social and environmental change, adaptation of the human and biological components are needed in order to prevent socio-ecological system failure. This session will address the ways to avoid such a failure by enhancing dynamic, long-term adaptation strategies driven by human societies. Common questions that we ask presenters to address include:

To what extent do changes in environmental features affect human societies?
What are the cascading effects explaining why environmental changes (loss of biodiversity, climate change impacts, etc.) threaten human societies’ stability and long-term well-being? What are the implications in terms of adaptation needs and options?
What complementarity exists between incremental and transformational adaptation? What does it mean in terms of rethinking the human/ecosystems interface? To what extent does it force societies to think in terms of adaptation pathways?
Which lessons can be learnt from both adaptation and maladaptation real-world case studies?
What are common principles for enhancing worldwide marine and coastal adaptation pathways?

Arctic marine ecosystems in a changing climate

Conveners: Ken Drinkwater, Naomi Harada, George Hunt, Hein Rune Skjoldal, and Franz Mueter

The Arctic is undergoing unprecedented changes due to the rapid loss of sea ice, rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and changing freshwater budgets. This session seeks to document major changes occurring in Arctic marine ecosystems and to understand the mechanisms responsible for these changes. How are the biogeochemistry and biological components of these systems changing and why? What are the consequences of these changes for human populations in the Arctic and beyond? How have these systems changed in the past? We especially seek new insights into the forces responsible for the fluxes of water through the Arctic gateways and the fate of these waters, their associated properties, and the organisms they carry. How do these fluxes affect the Arctic? What are the effects of outflows from the Arctic on the Subarctic? How are these fluxes expected to change in the future under climate change? Will the productivity in the Arctic increase or decrease? How will fish populations respond to these changes? How will existing fisheries change, and what are the prospects for new, emerging fisheries? What governance structures are needed to effectively manage Arctic marine resources?

Biogeochemical and biological processes promoted by ocean mixing

Conveners: Jun Nishioka, Yutaka Yoshikawa and Naomi Harada

Marine biogeochemical and biological processes are strongly affected by ocean mixing (e.g., isopycnal and diapycnal mixings etc.) through their hydrography and nutrients’ supply. In the Arctic Ocean, recent catastrophic sea-ice reduction has enhanced the air-sea interaction and has also increased meso-submeso scale eddies appearances with eddy induced productivities. Moreover, at the rim of the eddy, nutrient supplies caused by diffusive mixing may preferentially increase the pico-phytoplankton biomass in the Arctic Ocean. At the Kuroshio extension area in the western North Pacific, near-inertial internal waves occur in subsurface depths after tropical cyclone passage. Such near-inertial internal waves upwell nutrients from the deep layer to the euphotic zone and enhance primary production associated with increasing turbulent kinetic energy in the subsurface. This session invites papers which discuss how biogeochemical and biological systems relate with physical mixing. What is the key mechanism for the mixing processes? How much nutrients are introduced into the euphotic zone by the mixing? How much is biological production enhanced? Is there any impact on biological functions and ecosystems? We welcome interdisciplinary presentations and active discussions on physical, chemical, and biological aspects of this topic.

Blue management and governance of marine resources

Conveners: Marie Bonnin, Sophie Bertrand, Barnaby Andrews, Silvia Ferrini, Irene Lorenzoni, Tiziana Luisetti, Ruth Parker

Marine environments are subject to growing and simultaneous pressures from the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors directly shaping the spatial distribution of human activities at sea and the burden inflicted to marine ecosystems. Increased traffic density, changing land-use of coastal areas and expansion of industrial usages of marine environments (e.g. dredging, mining, renewable energies) are some example of those pressures. Meanwhile, the role of the coast, shelf seas and ocean in climate regulation and especially their role in ‘blue’ carbon are still poorly understood and there are no international agreements safeguarding ‘blue’ carbon despite its relevance to climate change mitigation and natural capital management. As a consequence, new regulatory frameworks will be increasingly needed to monitor and optimize the range of feasible and sensible uses of marine areas and resources.

A first aim of this session is then to review and discuss the current state of the art on ocean governance and management related to marine common pool resources, in particular considering blue carbon and the biophysical and geo-political conditions of uncertainty surrounding it.

A second aim of this session is to assess the opportunities offered by Marine Spatial Planning, which is spreading throughout the world, for integrating environment into public policies and the ecosystem-based approach. Marine spatial planning offers indeed an attractive setting to combine different uses of marine resources within a single area through its aim to reconcile human uses and nature conservation. A specific focus of the session will be on the tropical regions where policies regulating marine and coastal environments are predominantly sector-based, thus hindering comprehensive understanding and relevant response design to challenges posed by the management of marine and coastal environments.

This session will open the floor to present and discuss the challenges we need to overcome in the inter-sectorial collaboration efforts to transcend traditional regulatory limits, via a set of themes and case studies. Moreover, investigating the link between policy relevant knowledge and decision support tools will allow to weigh alternatives and balance marine spatial planning and governance options, keeping in mind their impact to the environment, including blue carbon, and on human communities throughout the decision-making process.

“But why won’t they use my science?” Improving the impact of marine science on policy; advances in theory and practice

Conveners: Chris Cvitanovic, Mark Dickey-Collas and Ingrid van Putten

Successfully navigating the complex and uncertain challenges facing the world’s marine and coastal ecosystems requires the integration of new and evolving knowledge into decision-making processes. Further, many international treaties demand that ‘best available knowledge’ underpins decision-making processes. Science is one form of knowledge that is critical in this regard, however, the uptake and integration of scientific research into decision-making processes remains a significant challenge. This has led to an increased academic focus on how to improve the impact of marine science on policy and practice. Simultaneously many new local, regional and global initiatives have been established to improve the extent to which marine science informs policy and practice. In this session we invite contributions from both researchers and practitioners working at the interface of science and policy so as to improve our understanding of progress in the field. In particular, contributions are invited from people working across different contexts and scales, so as to share our diverse learnings and experiences and identify strategies to enable a more effective relationship between marine science, policy and practice.

Designing the quilt of sustainable ocean governance

Conveners: Robert Stephenson, Chris Cvitanovic, Alistair Hobday and Ingrid Van Putten

Ocean governance is a complex topic. In recent decades there has been considerable research and attempted implementation of a number of concepts including a Social-Ecological Systems Approach, Ecosystem Approach to (or Ecosystem-based) Management, Precautionary Approach, Integrated Management, Marine Spatial Planning, and Participatory or Co-management. At the moment, these concepts appear very much as separate entities. They have parallel literature streams, and where they have been applied in practice they have appeared most often as individual concepts in partial attempts to improve governance and management outcomes. Yet at face value there would seem to be many similarities and overlaps, and possibility for synergies, among these concepts. At present these concepts may in many ways seem to be competing for attention, when in fact they should work together to form the quilt of sustainable ocean governance. This session will bring together experts in the diverse concepts with an objective of producing a conceptual synthesis of overlaps and differences among the concepts in order to improve implementation. The session will explore both theoretical and practical aspects including their development and history of use, and consider if and how the concepts might work better together. A few key working papers by teams of subject experts will attempt to cross-walk concepts, identifying areas of similarity and difference. Accepted contributed papers will be presented at one open session where the discussion will focus on identifying approaches for practical unification and synergies in implementation. The assembled key subject experts will then meet in a later facilitated workshop to discuss the concepts in more detail and to map out a synthesis (paper) on the integration of concepts in achieving ‘the quilt of sustainable ocean governance’.

Ecological feedbacks in the Earth System

Conveners: Lester Kwiatkowski, Charlotte Laufkötter, Andrew Yool, Laurent Bopp and Eugene Murphy

The biosphere is a crucial component of the Earth System, influencing climate in two-way interactions that can generate feedback effects, dampening or amplifying the impacts of change. Our knowledge of those interactions is limited and our understanding of the processes and their importance is extremely poor. Despite the fact that some of these processes may feedback on the physical climate system the large majority of those processes are not included in the current generation of Earth System models. Ecological interactions in global and regional models can significantly alter the results of physical and biogeochemical projections and predictions, and hence subsequent biological and biogeographical responses. Knowledge of feedback processes, their amplitude, and potential evolution is needed to appropriately parameterize coupled physical-biogeochemical-ecological models of the ocean. In the ocean the focus until now has been on the role of biological processes in biogeochemical cycles, which influence the storage and flux of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, thereby affecting future climate. A broader understanding of ecological feedbacks at seasonal, interannual and decadal scales is critical to interpreting and predicting, or projecting, marine ecological responses to global and local changes. This session is aimed at advancing understanding of ecological feedbacks in the Earth System. We welcome reports of field, laboratory, data syntheses and modelling studies that address key research questions of this challenge:

How do ocean ecosystem interactions with other components of the Earth System significantly affect climate processes and how are these interactions affected by change?
What level of complexity is needed to represent these interactions and feedbacks?
What approaches are needed for these interactions and feedbacks to be modelled and projected?
How can ocean-human system interactions be incorporated into Earth System models?

Ecosystem-social interactions in marginal seas

Conveners: Richard Bellerby and Su Mei Liu

Continental marginal systems, where societal dependence for food, livelihoods and recreation is growing, are undergoing rapid change following human activity and climate change. Integrating environmental, ecological and economic knowledge of continental margin systems, and how these systems may change under different perturbation scenarios, is imperative to understand the interplays between human use of the oceans and present management strategies of marginal systems; optimising the services they provide. Lessons learned from multidisciplinary syntheses and inter-regional comparative studies of coastal socio-ecological systems will help rationalize and optimize marginal seas management approaches. This session is aimed at improving our understanding of marginal social-ecological systems, guiding sustainable development of resources and advising governance regimes to facilitate sustainable governance, facilitating equitable sharing of margin resources, and evaluating alternative research approaches and partnerships that address major margin challenges.

Food Web Dynamics and Contaminants: Interactions with Global Environmental Change and Implications for Food Security

Conveners: Michael Bank, Heidi Pethybridge, Anne Lorrain and David Point

Contaminant exposure in marine predators is often interconnected with global environmental change factors, including climate variability, increases in terrestrial runoff and shifts in ocean biogeochemistry and circulation patterns. Food web dynamics are also related to changes in the environment and exert important controls over contaminant bioaccumulation and biomagnification regimes. This session will address questions and promote ideas to further understand the complex relationship between contaminants such as, but not limited to, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and microscale and nanoscale plastic particles and global environmental change and human dimensions across a wide array of spatial and temporal scales. Papers on a broad range of topics will be considered, including contaminant exposure assessments, food web analyses and isotopic niches, effects of climate and/or habitat change on marine predator population dynamics, socio-economic dimensions of marine fisheries as well as human health risk assessments and implications for food security. Additional empirical, theoretical and modelling contributions relevant to this theme will also be considered.

From genes to marine ecosystem functioning: New methods and models for integrating big data and small bugs in trait-based approaches

Conveners: Sakina-Dorothée Ayata, Ya-Wei Luo, Frederic Maps, Meike Vogt, Meng Xia, Yongsheng Wu

Marine ecosystems have been undergoing abrupt changes forced by anthropogenic and natural impacts in recent years. Numerical models have been widely used to study the functions of marine ecosystems and to predict their changes caused by anthropogenic and natural impacts. The models usually couple physical processes with ecosystems at food web (and/or microbial loop) levels, largely assembling marine biomes into tens of variables. Nevertheless, marine biomes are much more diverse, so that their functioning and sustainability are more complex. Their flexibility under a changing environment, i.e., their acclimating capability, is also a key to predict their response to global change. Omics and physiological trait data are key to have a better understanding of these questions, but have only been adopted in a limited number of studies. Indeed, functional traits such as size, trophic regime or life-cycle strategies, are phenotypic characteristics of organisms influencing individual fitness and thus the ecological success of marine species. Trait-based approaches hence provide new tools for a better understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and are vital to assess the response of marine ecosystems to climate and environmental changes that will lead to unforeseen states.

The aim of this session is to bring together marine ecologists working at the interface between traditional and novel marine ecosystem and/or trait-based data, as well as mechanistic and statistical marine ecosystem modelling. It will foster the development of these different but complementary trait-based approaches in order to study the links between marine species composition, ecosystem dynamics and functioning at multiple spatio-temporal scales (local to global; diurnal to seasonal to decadal) for the past, present or future ocean. Studies based on recent methodological developments such as high throughput sequencing or imaging to investigate ecological patterns in marine ecosystem structure and function, studies integrating different streams of novel observational data into trait-based or statistical models, or those combining mechanistic models and trait data to test and verify classical macro-ecological theories in the marine realm are particularly welcome. In addition to inviting submission of presentations that already incorporate omics and physiological processes into ecosystem models, we particularly encourage submissions from those scientists seeking to upscale their biological findings to larger spatial and longer-temporal scales through models, and those scientists seeking to improve their modelling results by incorporating biological knowledge.

Investigating and modelling linkages between biology and fleet behaviour in multi-species fisheries and ecosystems

Conveners: Carey McGilliard, Alan Haynie, Gavin Fay, Jörn Schmidt, Sigrid Lehuta and Katell Hamon

Fleet behaviour in multi-species fisheries can be driven by a variety of factors, including spatial dynamics, catch limits, markets for individual species, regulations such as spatial closures and bycatch limits, and shifts in population and food web dynamics, changes in climate, and other conditions. Typical single-species modelling approaches often assume that the fleet will catch its quota of each species, but this is unlikely to occur given the complexity of multi-species fishery systems. Exploring drivers of fleet behaviour, considering approaches to modelling that behaviour, and linking biological and fleet behaviour models are important steps for furthering our understanding of ecosystems and improving our ability to conduct predictive modelling under plausible future conditions. The goal of this session is to (1) gather together researchers who are investigating and/or modelling linkages between biology and fleet behaviour in multi-species fisheries, and (2) to discuss innovations in modelling approaches and emerging themes from the collective body of recent research.

In particular, the session will address topics including different approaches to fleet behaviour modelling and how fleet behaviour models should be included in management strategy evaluation and ecosystem and stock assessment models. Talks will be geographically diverse and will draw on the experiences of the co-conveners in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and elsewhere and in the context of ICES and PICES efforts to better integrate human activities into ecosystem-based management. We welcome presentations on empirical studies of fleet behaviour, as well as approaches to modelling fleet behaviour and including fleet dynamics in all types of population dynamics and ecosystem models.

Lessons from the extreme events of the early 21st century for the future oceans

Conveners: Hiroaki Saito and Steven Bograd

Impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems are becoming more apparent and persistent. In particular, we have seen an apparent rise in the frequency of extreme events in the global oceans. Examples include the sustained 2014-16 North Pacific marine heat wave (the “warm blob”) and the 2015-16 marine heat wave in the tropical waters off Australia, which were followed by the strong 2016-17 El Niño. The ecosystem impacts of these climate events can be unexpected, such as the giant jellyfish blooms in the marginal seas of the western North Pacific, which was a result of multiple stressors including coastal human activities (eutrophication, overfishing, coastal development) combined with increases in winter sea water temperature which enhanced production. Such extreme events can be viewed as climate change "stress-tests”, giving us insight into possible shifts in ecosystem structure, species’ abundance and distribution, and the frequency and strength of ecosystem disruptions. In order to maintain resilient and sustainable marine ecosystems, it is imperative that management and conservation strategies are developed to mitigate and/or adapt to these impacts. We encourage contributed papers examining the processes and mechanisms of extreme events, and their impacts on the future state of our changing oceans, their marine ecosystems, and the human communities that depend on them.

Linking microbial activity and the cycling of dissolved organic matter using –omics approaches

Conveners: Gerhard J. Herndl and Federico Baltar

Our understanding of the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean is still rather rudimentary. Recent advances in analytical methods opened new avenues to shed light onto the diversity of organic molecules in the oceanic environment. Similarly, the application of metagenomics, -transcriptomics and –proteomics allow obtaining insights into the metabolic diversity within heterotrophic microbial communities from the sunlit surface waters to the deep ocean realm. Chemical analyses of the DOM pool and the –omics approaches are frequently not directly performed on the same samples. In contrast to the now widely used –nucleic acid-based approaches, metaproteomics is the most direct approach to link metabolic function to substrate utilization. Gene or protein abundance do not provide information, however, on turnover rates of specific DOM compounds. Hence, a combination of approaches is required to fully understand the transformation of DOM by microbial communities combining recently developed approaches to characterize DOM with methods targeting the functional diversity of microbial communities and linking this to bulk measurements of microbial activity such as microbial biomass production and respiration to mechanistically understand the role of microbial communities in the carbon cycling of the current and future ocean. This session should bring together scientists from the fields of marine biogeochemistry and microbial oceanography. The focus ranges from the transformation of individual organic molecules to analyses of the bulk DOM and from metabolic characterization of single microbial cells to basin-scale variation in microbial communities.

Long-term time series of ocean data to describe and better understand dynamics of coastal marine systems and drivers of change: integrated tools, methods, in situ observation systems, models and results

Conveners:Valerie Cariou, Guillaume Charria, Victor Quilfen, Nicolas Savoye and Marie Cachera

A good understanding of the dynamics of coastal marine systems subject to large-scale climate variability and to multiple and increasing anthropogenic pressures is crucial for sustainability of marine resources. Management of marine waters implies environmental assessment, high quality and relevant monitoring, as well as relevant predictions. Development of integrated high quality coastal observing systems, combining remote sensing, in situ observations, and numerical modelling on various time and space scales, from long-term to near real time observations, is a key challenge to improve our knowledge of the marine environment and ensure suitability of coastal waters.

On the one hand, it is now possible to combine ancient data (digitalization, data rescue) with historic numerical data in order to generate relevant datasets. However, the exploration of such long-term data series needs (i) wise data collecting, high storage capacities, easy accessibility and; (ii) different methodologies to be able to detect long-term fluctuations by considering the wide range of time scales from extreme events and shifts to pluri-decadal fluctuations.

On the other hand, numerical modelling is under development to integrate multi-scale processes and several ecosystem compartments, but needs high-quality and near-real time in-situ observations to describe and predict ecosystem dynamics. These two approaches for ocean sciences interact with each other and aim for integrative, comprehensive, cross-disciplinary and adaptable coastal observing systems.

This session is dedicated to integrated long-term and real-time ocean information and more specifically to high-quality data, innovations for in-situ and remote monitoring, data sharing platforms, data-mining and modelling in ocean science. This session fosters the multidisciplinary approaches including, for example, atmospheric dynamics, ocean dynamics, advanced statistical methodologies, biogeochemistry, and ecology, to better understand the role of large-scale (e.g. basin-scale atmospheric conditions) and local (e.g. river-induced, environmental disaster) forcings on the long-term dynamics of coastal ocean.

Managing the effects of change on Southern Ocean ecosystems: Understanding, challenges, and solutions

Conveners: Rachel Cavanagh, Andrew Constable, Stuart Corney, Eileen Hofmann, Nadine Johnston, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Eugene Murphy, Andrea Piñones and Rowan Trebilco

The IMBeR regional programme, Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean (ICED), is focused on generating a coordinated circumpolar approach to better understand climate interactions in the Southern Ocean, the implications for ecosystem dynamics, the impacts on biogeochemical cycles, and the development of conservation and sustainable management procedures. Climate change is expected to modify Southern Ocean ecosystem dynamics and associated ecosystem services, necessitating modifications to conservation and resource management that anticipate and adapt to potential changes. A recent focus of ICED has been to facilitate the development of ecosystem models that can project the future states of Southern Ocean ecosystems in support of sustainable governance. A crucial aspect of this is to incorporate our understanding of the responses of these ecosystems to past and current change across trophic levels, and at different spatial and temporal scales.

This session will be coordinated by ICED and will include a workshop: Southern Ocean ecosystems: a workshop on the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the region (MEASO) and its general application. The aim of the morning session is to reflect on the past decade of ICED science and apply insights to improve research on understanding and projecting changes in Southern Ocean ecosystems so that it is relevant to conservation and management decisions. The session will focus on: (i) Southern Ocean species and ecosystems; (ii) Modelling and projections of ecological change; (iii) Policy implications and decision-making (with a focus on integrated understanding of natural and human systems interactions).

This session will consist of 3 invited seminar-style presentations (speakers TBC) on each of the session focus areas. Each presentation will be followed by a set of short "lightning presentations" that introduce the session posters. Points raised by the seminar and lightning presentations will then be the subject of a mediated discussion. We therefore encourage abstracts for posters (please indicate whether you would also like to deliver a lightning presentation to summarise your poster) and participation from a range of stakeholders including scientists, conservation and fisheries organisations, and policy-makers.

Marine governance, challenges for sustainability

Conveners: Marion Glaser, Anna Zivian, Leopoldo Gerhardinger, and Alice Newton

The challenges of marine governance are complex and require linked, transdisciplinary knowledge and action to be overcome, particularly in this time of rapid global change. Functional, healthy marine ecosystems and vibrant ocean communities depend on governance frameworks that are fit for purpose and consider human needs, ecosystem health, and ecosystem function.

The oral presentations will focus on best practices, synergies, and dysfunctionalities of marine governance at multiple scales and in different sectors. Abstracts should specify the scale (local to global, coastal-regional sea-ocean). They can include a consideration of the relationship among different sectors, with a focus on cross-cutting solutions and avoiding silos, and an evaluation of which decision making tools are most appropriate for ocean management in the face of global change, with consideration of where elements of inequity and lack of access may affect risk responses.

Presentations should focus on positive aspects as well as problems. The approach is to seek solutions rather than describe problems so examples of positive synergies and good practices that may be adapted to different contexts are particularly encouraged.

The World Café will focus on knowledge sharing and exchange on marine governance, seeking solutions to common, global problems that can be implemented at a range of scales. Each table in the World Café will consider different aspects to the problems and challenges, and participants will have the opportunity to cover several topics over the course of the session.

This is a joint session from IMBeR, Earth System Governance, Future Earth Coasts, and the Future Earth Ocean Knowledge Action Network.

Modelling social-ecological systems: methods and tools for scenario development and prediction

Conveners: Jan-Jaap Poos, Jörn Schmidt, Olivier Thébaud and Ingrid van Putten

Coupled process understanding of marine socio-ecological systems is attracting growing attention and debate, demonstrating that this is an important research area. Formal methods and tools for scenario analysis are increasingly being used in support of ecosystem-based management of natural resources, including marine fisheries. In addition, there is a growing requirement for these methods and tools to enable the evaluation of alternative decision rules that fully encompass (i) the dynamics of marine social-ecological systems and transition phases associated with management implementation, and (ii) multiple economic, social and ecological objectives of management. While many studies focus on the exploration of possible futures, there is also a need to develop so-called normative scenarios, which consider objectives for the management of ocean uses, and possible pathways for these objectives to be met in the future.

This session will focus on the presentation and discussion of recent advances and key scientific challenges in the formal modelling of marine socioecological systems, and alternative management scenarios. Presentations are invited that focus on the methodological dimensions or on practical case studies in a range of settings. These settings may include ecosystem-based management and fisheries restoration strategies. They can also include integrated ecosystem assessments or biodiversity scenarios, such as those which are being developed under the work of IPBES.

The session will address the IMBeR grand challenge II, by examining scenarios of how social and governance systems operate and interact over different scales to determine human response to change, and feedback effects on ecosystem structure and functioning. It will also address grand challenge III by considering the ways in which such scenarios can effectively be developed at the interface of science, society and policy.

The session will combine oral presentations and open discussion with participants. A synthesis manuscript co-authored by the conveners and developed in collaboration with the speakers will be produced based on the session.

Multiple drivers and their role in Ocean Global Change Biology

Conveners: Philip Boyd, Sinead Collins, Marion Gehlen, Jon Havenhand and David Hutchins

There is growing awareness that a wide range of drivers, in addition to warming or ocean acidification, are influencing the physiological, ecological and evolutionary responses to ocean global change. These drivers include hypoxia, altered salinity, stratification, nutrient and trace metal supply, and changes to underwater light climate. The suite of drivers that influence nearshore, shelf and offshore waters will vary with locale and often with season, making their study particularly challenging. In addition, there are often interactive effects between drivers that can either offset or enhance their influence on marine life. This wide range of permutations for the modes of environmental control means that we must better integrate the efforts of experimentalists, observationalists and modellers, and ideally that these groups should work together within both national and international frameworks.

In this session, we seek to invite researchers across these disciplines to illustrate the challenges of conducting holistic research in the face of so many permutations, and to present examples of how we can begin to resolve these pressing issues.

Ocean governance in the face of change: confronting the challenge of rebuilding fish stocks, fisheries and viable coastal communities and preparing for future change

Conveners: Ratana Chuenpagdee and Barbara Neis

Achieving the combined objectives of rebuilding fisheries resources, fisheries and coastal communities in ways that can accommodate future change is a critical challenge for our time. A vivid example of this is the situation associated with the groundfish fisheries moratoria in Atlantic Canada, which began with the announcement of the closure of the northern cod fishery in 1992. Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries have changed a lot since then and are in yet another period of transition marked by declining crab and shrimp quotas, expanding lobster harvests, limited signs of cod stock recovery, changed and changing resource access, trade agreements and markets, an aging workforce, and some ongoing conflict around stock assessment science, resource access and management, and union representation for fishery workers. This transition is taking place in the context of poorly understood climate change impacts.

In the face of global change, rebuilding collapsed stocks and revitalizing fisheries-dependent coastal communities is a complex governance challenge. This session will provide an opportunity to share lessons and experiences from different parts of the world related to efforts to develop governance approaches with the capacity to support sustainable fisheries and viable communities while taking into account changing natural and social environments. Based on the presentations and the general discussion, the session will produce a report summarizing best practices, as well as priorities and strategies for moving forward towards improving and achieving sustainable ocean governance.

The session will begin with a presentation by the convenors to help set the stage for the larger discussion. The presentation will draw on insights from a Taking Stock Dialogue exercise currently underway within ‘Informing Governance Responses in a Changing Ocean’, a module within the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI; oceanfrontierinstitute.com). In this exercise, we are bringing together social and natural science researchers from multiple institutions and community, industry and government organizations to synthesize existing local and international research relevant to understanding past and present governance processes in Newfoundland and Labrador in the periods leading up to and since the groundfish moratoria of the 1990s. The purpose of this exercise is to take stock of what is known and not known about the ecological, economic and social dynamics of collapse and rebuilding in this context and to place it in the context of experience and insights from elsewhere. We invite submissions from researchers and research groups that face similar challenges to share lessons and best practices from their initiatives, and to be part of the discussion about moving forward locally as well as globally.

Ocean Recovery – Strategies to mitigate anthropogenic pressures and support marine ecosystem recovery for a sustainable future ocean

Conveners: Anja Engel, Enno Prigge, Carlos Duarte and Thorsten Blenckner

Decades of marine research showed that human activities have strongly altered marine systems. As a consequence marine life, ecosystem functioning and the linked benefits for human societies are at risk. It is currently unknown whether and to which extent the reduction of individual stressors can stop ecosystem degeneration. With the current and expected future level of human impact on marine ecosystems it is thus uncertain if protection and preservation measures are sufficient to sustain ecosystem functioning and services. Future strategies to counteract the on-going degradation of marine ecosystems and to support their recovery might go well beyond ‘classical’ conservation measures and include active intervention. Such strategies will give rise to novel, scientific, conceptual, legal, and ethical questions. The interrelation of marine and human systems requires comprehensive and transdisciplinary approaches to transform current trajectories of ocean use and management.

Our session encourages scientists from various disciplines to present their research on mitigating pressures (e.g. eutrophication, (plastic) pollution, habitat destruction and resource exploitation) and on enhancing recovery of marine ecosystems. We welcome solution-oriented research to support marine ecosystem recovery, including monitoring of marine ecosystem change, the effectiveness and consequences of marine management strategies and new approaches of marine ecosystem restoration by active ecosystem intervention, such as (e.g.) ecological replacement strategies and assisted evolution. We envisage this session to provide new understanding of the underlying ecological processes of marine ecosystem change both as a consequence of anthropogenic pressures and as a result of conservation and restoration measures. We welcome in particular submissions that explore interdisciplinary case studies of the challenges, risks and rewards of ecosystem intervention to support marine ecosystem recovery and the linked shoreline-crossing effects on society.

Responding to policy makers: what can we do, what do we need? Bridging the methodological gaps for better transparency

Conveners: Emilie Tew-Kaï, Florent Le Courtois, Bazile Kinda and François Le Loc’h

With a growing need for relevant marine spatial planning in a context of global change and blue economy growth, scientists are requested to evaluate ecosystem functioning and state under the pressure from anthropogenic activities. This challenge necessitates to (i) estimate spatial and temporal variations of marine ecosystems, from physical to biological fluctuations; (ii) be able to link ecosystem functioning to goods and services provided by the ocean; (iii) understand how pressures and natural variability affect ecosystem functioning; (iv) evaluate cumulative impacts of anthropogenic activities on marine ecosystems (Cumulative Effect Assessment (CEA) and Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) approaches); (v) estimate impact thresholds of activities’ intensity. Responding to policy makers thus implies a trans-disciplinary approach, combining physical oceanography, biology, ecology, acoustics, chemistry, and so on. Regarding the complexity of these trans-disciplinary processes, a dedicated framework for data certification and knowledge diffusion may be required. Moreover, it should lead to the identification of gaps and assessment of uncertainties. In particular, the definition of expert judgment based on the estimation of uncertainties is of main interest when supporting decision making in the policy process. As ecosystems are studied by many disciplinary fields, it appears important to use a diversity of valuable expert judgment as well as to diagnose uncertainty propagation at each step of a multi-criteria assessment (from data quality to expert judgment and mathematical assumptions).

In this context of response to policy makers, this session will address trans-disciplinary approaches and recent methodological strategies to bridge the gap between governance problematic and scientific innovation. This implies to exhibit the willingness for a mutual understanding to cooperate between institutions, scientists and society. The session will thus focus on sharing (i) new developments considering trans-disciplinarity (acoustics, physics, chemistry, ecology, economic and social approach…), (ii) proper and transparent treatment of sources of uncertainty as well as quality and validation assessment (mathematical theory of evidence, expert judgment validation methods, Bayesian network…), (iii) exchanges on uncertainty in the decision making process and; (iv) research based on stressor-response relationships, their potential impacts, and their relevance to determine threshold values required by policy makers.

Same, same, different: understanding variability and the relative roles of environment, climate, fishing and trophic dynamics in marine ecosystems

Conveners: Alida Bundy, Mariano Koen-Alonso and Paul E. Renaud

Many continental shelf ecosystems support high-value fisheries with a long history of exploitation. In the data rich northern hemisphere, over a century of management and monitoring of these ecosystems has produced a substantial database on their structure and functioning and led to development of policies for their sustainable use. Yet despite this, we still have limited understanding of ecosystem variability, species and ecosystem responses to change and the impacts of climate change. Some ecosystems that ostensibly appear very similar can respond quite differently to pressures such as fishing and climate change. Understanding how these drivers, singly and in combination, affect stock size, production, and energy flow through the system will provide insight into the commonalities and differences of the underlying mechanisms of observed ecosystem changes. This is critical both to understand system response to the various drivers, but also to project response to new stressors, to develop future scenarios and to manage for the future. Developing this understanding requires a combination of data compilation, novel analytical approaches, and ecological modelling.

The objective of this session is to explore marine ecosystem variability and the relative roles of environment, climate, fishing and trophic dynamics in marine ecosystems and implications for future management. We invite papers and posters that address these questions at the individual ecosystem level and through comparative process studies using analytical and modelling approaches and:

take a comparative approach to explore patterns in variability across multiple ecosystems
use novel analytical techniques to explore these questions
explore the major linkages, interactions and dependencies between and within human and ocean systems
explore the combined effects of fishing and global change
explore ecosystem variability over time and space

This session will consist of oral presentations, posters with associated speed presentations and a panel discussion on the question: “What is limiting our understanding of ecosystem variability? Implications for fisheries management”.

The multiple pathways of the biological carbon pump: current understanding and future challenges

Conveners: Frederic Planchon, Clara Manno, Bernard Queguiner, Emmanuel Laurenceau-Cornec, Anna Belcher and Stephanie Henson

The Biological Carbon Pump (BCP), the transfer to the deep sea of organic carbon fixed at the surface by marine organisms, is a key driver of atmospheric CO2 levels and an essential component of Earth climate. Despite substantial advances made during the past decades, our understanding of the magnitude and variability of the BCP remains limited. Global-scale model estimates of surface carbon export are still largely divergent (range from 5 to 13 PgC yr-1) and have an uncertainty range that is as large as the total amount of CO2 emitted annually by anthropogenic activities. Reducing this uncertainty represents a major scientific challenge and is required to infer realistic predictions of the global carbon cycle, and by extension, of climate change.

Understanding needs to be improved first at the process level. How organic carbon produced by autotrophic organisms is transferred at depth, reprocessed by heterotrophic food webs, and/or transferred through pelagic food webs up to top predators is still an open question. It is now well assumed that bacterial degradation, along with phytoplankton community structure, and assimilation/excretion by zooplanktonic organisms (including high trophic levels such as fish and/or gelatinous organisms) are important processes to consider. But, how does the heterotrophic community structure control the fate of carbon in the mesopelagic zone, and can we quantify this? For instance, zooplankton can perform large vertical migrations and actively transport carbon downwards through respiration and the production of fast sinking faecal pellets, but they can also consume and respire sinking particles.

This session will also focus at the observational level. Despite numerous and comprehensive field studies, large regions of the global ocean still remain severely under-sampled precluding a comprehensive view of the spatio-temporal variability of the surface and deep carbon export. This is particularly true for the Southern and Indian Oceans, which have received disproportionally low attention in comparison to other oceanic regions. Methodologies to study carbon fluxes have greatly improved in recent years. The advent of new generation instruments such as autonomous profilers or in situ optical imaging systems have allowed to reach unprecedented details on the characteristics of the sinking particle flux. What did we learn by implementing these new methodologies? Do these techniques compare with classical methods (moored/free-drifting sediment traps, marine snow catchers, radiotracers, nutrients/DIC budgets)? These are among the questions we would like to address during this session. We encourage submissions of field, experimental and modelling studies that have been carried out recently and focused on the general topic of the BCP.

The Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2): Motivating New Exploration in a Poorly Understood Basin

Conveners: Jerry Wiggert, Raleigh Hood, Jerome Vialard, Benjamin Kürten, and Francis Marsac

The Indian Ocean remains one of the most poorly sampled and under studied regions of the world ocean. The associated knowledge gaps are compounded by the Indian Ocean being a dynamically complex and highly variable system under monsoonal influence. The biogeochemical and ecological impacts of this complex physical forcing are not yet fully understood. Moreover, more than 25% of the world’s population lives in the Indian Ocean region and the population of most Indian Ocean rim nations is increasing rapidly. These increases in population are giving rise to multiple stressors in both coastal and open ocean environments. Combined with oceanic warming and acidification due to global climate change, these regional stressors are resulting in both the loss of biodiversity in the Indian Ocean as well as changes in the phenology and biogeography of many species. These pressures have given rise to an urgent need to understand and predict changes in the Indian Ocean, but the measurements and models that are needed to do this are still rudimentary in many aspects. In response to these needs, SCOR, IOC and IOGOOS have stimulated a second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2), following up on an initiative of the SIBER regional programme’s membership. The overarching goal of the IIOE-2 is to advance our understanding of interactions between geologic, oceanic and atmospheric processes that give rise to the complex physical dynamics of the Indian Ocean region, and to determine how those dynamics modulate climate, extreme events, marine biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, fisheries and human populations, in an end to end approach.

This session will bring together observationalists and modellers to exchange information and understanding on the current ‘state-of-knowledge’, gaps, challenges, and future directions in observing and modelling the complex physical, biogeochemical and ecological processes in the Indian Ocean in the context of anthropogenic influences and climate change. This session will also provide an opportunity for participants to find out about current IIOE-2 research and implementation efforts.

Towards a coordinated global marine biodiversity observing system

Conveners: Frank Muller-Karger, Gabrielle Canonico, Mark Costello and Isabel Sousa-Pinto

Living marine resources are essential to the nutritional, recreational, and health needs of billions of people, yet marine biodiversity and ecosystem processes remain major frontiers in ocean observing. Implementing operational, sustained programmes to observe biodiversity and to integrate these observations with environmental information is critical to understanding changing patterns of biodiversity in the face of increasing stressors and changing ecosystems, and to determining impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services. The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) is working in partnership with the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), and the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research project (IMBeR) to make available the marine biological and ecosystem observations needed to ensure living marine resources are sustainably conserved and managed and are able to support essential human needs. Efforts to date include developing new advanced methods to evaluate marine biogeographic provinces (seascapes) using multidisciplinary satellite remote sensing data, advancing 'omics methods, and capacity building in informatics and other areas to integrate existing and new field data into global clearinghouses like OBIS and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) following agreed standards.

This session invites presentations on field and remote observations, models, and synthesis that seek to quantify and understand life in the sea and how it is changing. Presentations on strategies for observing biodiversity and biological processes over small and large scales, advanced methods for biological observing, methods to characterize and monitor biodiversity, successful integration of biodiversity measures into observing systems, sustaining observations over the long term to detect change, and relevance to conservation science and uses of deep ocean resources are welcome.

This session also welcomes papers that promote the collection and widespread use of biological diversity and production data concurrent with other types of ocean observations. We invite talks that focus on ideas for implementation of “ecosystem essential ocean variables” eEOVs and improvements to marine data and information management.

Transboundary fisheries management in changing North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: taking stock, future scenarios

Conveners: Rashid Sumaila, Olav Kjesbu and David L. VanderZwaag

This 4-part session will highlight the changing distributions and abundances of transboundary fish stocks in the North Atlantic and Pacific and explore how selected bilateral and regional fisheries management arrangements are faring in addressing changing marine and maritime conditions and mobilities. First, how transboundary fisheries management arrangements in the Northwest Atlantic and Northeast Pacific are assessing and addressing ecosystem changes will be described. Northwest Atlantic arrangements include the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and Canada-U.S. bilateral cooperation in managing shared groundfish on Georges Bank. Northeast Pacific arrangements include the Pacific Salmon Commission, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, and the Pacific Halibut Commission. Second, the current state of and future scenarios for biological and economic changes in transboundary fish stocks will be projected for these marine regions with a particular focus on which countries are likely to be future “winners or losers.” Third, a Northeast Atlantic case study will examine changing fisheries distributions in the Northeast Atlantic and review challenges to transboundary fisheries management raised by shifting migrations of key species such as mackerel, hake, and Atlantic bluefin tuna off coastal Europe and Scandinavia. Commissions in this region to be discussed include North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) and the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission. In addition, Norway is a contracting party in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and ICCAT. Fourth, bilateral management of specific Canadian and US fisheries is discussed using game theory, which may provide clearer insights into socio-economic implications of climate change, thus providing optimal scenarios for policy management. Finally, a broad discussion with academic participants will be encouraged regarding the key constraints in transboundary governance arrangements and possible innovative ways to move forward. Invited speakers include each of the conveners; Phillip Saunders, Cecilia Engler, and Olga Koubrak Dalhousie University; and William Cheung and Juliano Palacios-Abrantes, University of British Columbia. This session will be the launch of a special issue of Ecology and Society to be published in 2019.

All slots for presentations are already filled and so abstracts will not be accepted.

Working in the science-industry interface: strategies for effective collaboration and pathways to positive environmental change

Conveners: Prue Addison and Chris Cvitanovic

Scientists are increasingly encouraged to work in the science-policy-practice interface to conduct research that addresses pressing environmental and sustainability issues. In the environment sector, many scientists have collaborated effectively with the public sector (e.g., government agencies and not-for-profit organisations), and have made significant contributions by embedding science in environmental policy and practice. In line with this, our understanding of what makes for successful and effective science-policy collaborations has deepened through research into the process of knowledge exchange and research impact across the science-policy interface. What has received less attention, however, is how science-industry collaborations can effectively contribute to addressing ocean sustainability challenges. The private sector – from big corporations to small and medium enterprises - hold significant power and influence to change their impacts and dependencies on the marine environment; they are critical players to address global environmental challenges and directing ocean sustainability initiatives.

In this session, presenters will share insights from working in the marine science-industry interface and: (i) articulate the case for science-industry relationships in addressing ocean sustainability challenges; (ii) share lessons around what makes for successful and effective science-industry relationships; and, (iii) identify new opportunities, pathways and research needs to develop effective science-industry collaborations, contribute to global sustainability challenges, and support positive environmental change.

The session involves two parts: (i) lessons from the convenors and participants from their research into science-industry collaborations; and (ii) facilitated discussion with participants to compare and contrast individual experiences in science-policy and science-industry collaborations in addressing global environmental and sustainability challenges. This session is open to all participants to present in and attend the group discussion.