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1. Marine Life 2030: building global knowledge of marine life for local action in the Ocean Decade

   https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac084  

   Muller-Karger, Frank E ; Canonico, Gabrielle ; Aguilar, Claudia Baron ; Bax, Nicholas J ; Appeltans, Ward ; Yarincik, Kristen ; Leopardas, Venus ; Sousa-Pinto, Isabel ; Nakaoka, Masahiro ; Aikappu, Akkeshi ; et al ( May 2022 , ICES Journal of Marine Science)

   Blasiak, Robert (Ed.)

   Abstract Marine Life 2030 is a programme endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (the Ocean Decade) to establish a globally coordinated system that delivers knowledge of ocean life to those who need it, promoting human well-being, sustainable development, and ocean conservation. It is an open network to unite existing and new programmes into a co-designed, global framework to share information on methods, standards, observations, and applications. Goals include realizing interoperable information and transforming the observation and forecasting of marine life for the benefit of all people. Co-design, sharing local capacity, and coordination between users of ocean resources across regions is fundamental to enable sustainable use and conservation. A novel, bottom-up networking structure is now engaging members of the ocean community to address local issues, with Marine Life 2030 facilitating the linkage between groups across different regions to meet the challenges of the Ocean Decade. A variety of metrics, including those proposed by the Group on Earth Observations, will be used to track the success of the co-design process. 

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2. A Blueprint for an Inclusive, Global Deep-Sea Ocean Decade Field Program

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.584861  

   Howell, Kerry L. ; Hilário, Ana ; Allcock, A. Louise ; Bailey, David M. ; Baker, Maria ; Clark, Malcolm R. ; Colaço, Ana ; Copley, Jon ; Cordes, Erik E. ; Danovaro, Roberto ; et al ( November 2020 , Frontiers in Marine Science)

   null (Ed.)

   The ocean plays a crucial role in the functioning of the Earth System and in the provision of vital goods and services. The United Nations (UN) declared 2021–2030 as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The Roadmap for the Ocean Decade aims to achieve six critical societal outcomes (SOs) by 2030, through the pursuit of four objectives (Os). It specifically recognizes the scarcity of biological data for deep-sea biomes, and challenges the global scientific community to conduct research to advance understanding of deep-sea ecosystems to inform sustainable management. In this paper, we map four key scientific questions identified by the academic community to the Ocean Decade SOs: (i) What is the diversity of life in the deep ocean? (ii) How are populations and habitats connected? (iii) What is the role of living organisms in ecosystem function and service provision? and (iv) How do species, communities, and ecosystems respond to disturbance? We then consider the design of a global-scale program to address these questions by reviewing key drivers of ecological pattern and process. We recommend using the following criteria to stratify a global survey design: biogeographic region, depth, horizontal distance, substrate type, high and low climate hazard, fished/unfished, near/far from sources of pollution, licensed/protected from industry activities. We consider both spatial and temporal surveys, and emphasize new biological data collection that prioritizes southern and polar latitudes, deeper (> 2000 m) depths, and midwater environments. We provide guidance on observational, experimental, and monitoring needs for different benthic and pelagic ecosystems. We then review recent efforts to standardize biological data and specimen collection and archiving, making “sampling design to knowledge application” recommendations in the context of a new global program. We also review and comment on needs, and recommend actions, to develop capacity in deep-sea research; and the role of inclusivity - from accessing indigenous and local knowledge to the sharing of technologies - as part of such a global program. We discuss the concept of a new global deep-sea biological research program ‘ Challenger 150 ,’ highlighting what it could deliver for the Ocean Decade and UN Sustainable Development Goal 14. 

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3. Sustainable-use marine protected areas to improve human nutrition

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49830-9  

   Viana, Daniel F ; Gill, David ; Zvoleff, Alex ; Krueck, Nils C ; Zamborain-Mason, Jessica ; Free, Christopher M ; Shepon, Alon ; Grieco, Dana ; Schmidhuber, Josef ; Mascia, Michael B ; et al ( September 2024 , Nature Communications)

   Coral reef fisheries are a vital source of nutrients for thousands of nutritionally vulnerable coastal communities around the world. Marine protected areas are regions of the ocean designed to preserve or rehabilitate marine ecosystems and thereby increase reef fish biomass. Here, we evaluate the potential effects of expanding a subset of marine protected areas that allow some level of fishing within their borders (sustainable-use MPAs) to improve the nutrition of coastal communities. We estimate that, depending on site characteristics, expanding sustainable-use MPAs could increase catch by up to 20%, which could help prevent 0.3-2.85 million cases of inadequate micronutrient intake in coral reef nations. Our study highlights the potential add-on nutritional benefits of expanding sustainable-use MPAs in coral reef regions and pinpoints locations with the greatest potential to reduce inadequate micronutrient intake level. These findings provide critical knowledge given international momentum to cover 30% of the ocean with MPAs by 2030 and eradicate malnutrition in all its forms.

    

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4. Hypoxia and acidification in ocean ecosystems: coupled dynamics and effects on marine life

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0976  

   Gobler, Christopher J. ; Baumann, Hannes ( May 2016 , Biology Letters)

   null (Ed.)

   There is increasing recognition that low dissolved oxygen (DO) and low pH conditions co-occur in many coastal and open ocean environments. Within temperate ecosystems, these conditions not only develop seasonally as temperatures rise and metabolic rates accelerate, but can also display strong diurnal variability, especially in shallow systems where photosynthetic rates ameliorate hypoxia and acidification by day. Despite the widespread, global co-occurrence of low pH and low DO and the likelihood that these conditions may negatively impact marine life, very few studies have actually assessed the extent to which the combination of both stressors elicits additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects in marine organisms. We review the evidence from published factorial experiments that used static and/or fluctuating pH and DO levels to examine different traits (e.g. survival, growth, metabolism), life stages and species across a broad taxonomic spectrum. Additive negative effects of combined low pH and low DO appear to be most common; however, synergistic negative effects have also been observed. Neither the occurrence nor the strength of these synergistic impacts is currently predictable, and therefore, the true threat of concurrent acidification and hypoxia to marine food webs and fisheries is still not fully understood. Addressing this knowledge gap will require an expansion of multi-stressor approaches in experimental and field studies, and the development of a predictive framework. In consideration of marine policy, we note that DO criteria in coastal waters have been developed without consideration of concurrent pH levels. Given the persistence of concurrent low pH–low DO conditions in estuaries and the increased mortality experienced by fish and bivalves under concurrent acidification and hypoxia compared with hypoxia alone, we conclude that such DO criteria may leave coastal fisheries more vulnerable to population reductions than previously anticipated. 

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5. Subnational biodiversity reporting metrics for mountain ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01232-3  

   Ly, Amina ; Geschke, Jonas ; Snethlage, Mark A. ; Stauffer, Kerrie L. ; Nussbaumer, Jasmin ; Schweizer, Dominic ; Diffenbaugh, Noah S. ; Fischer, Markus ; Urbach, Davnah ( October 2023 , Nature Sustainability)

   Biodiversity indicators are used to assess progress towards conservation and sustainability goals. However, the spatial scales, methods and assumptions of the underlying reporting metrics can affect the provided information. Using mountain ecosystems as an example, we compare biodiversity protection at subnational scale using the site-based approach of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG indicator 15.4.1) with an area-based approach compatible with the targets of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

    

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