Communicating marine climate change impacts in the Caribbean and Pacific regions

Townhill, Bryony; Hills, Jeremy M.; Murray, Peter A.; Nichols, Keith E.; Pringle, Patrick; Buckley, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110709

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Climate change is expected to affect the Pacific Ocean in different ways and to greatly impact islanders, exacerbated by the socio-economic vulnerability and dependence to marine resources of many islands (Andrew et al, 2019;Bell et al, 2011a;2011b;Hanich et al, 2018;Townhill et al, 2020). Many threats arise due to changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulations, which are expected to affect marine and coastal ecosystems.…”

Section: / Exposure To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

An appraisal of systematic conservation planning for Pacific Ocean Tropical Islands coastal environments

André

Wynsberge

Chinain

et al. 2021

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Section: / Exposure To Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

An appraisal of systematic conservation planning for Pacific Ocean Tropical Islands coastal environments

André

Wynsberge

Chinain

et al. 2021

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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“…This approach to the collection and dissemination of scientific data aligns well with the objectives laid out in Salpin et al (2018), who identified that the opportunity for Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) to undertake and benefit from marine science, including accessing appropriate technology, represents a significant contribution to their sustainable development aspirations. Many components of ecological measurements in Pacific countries were carried out under this program, with detailed summaries of the programme outputs presented in technical reports (Devlin et al, 2018;McManus et al, 2019) and several published papers including modelling of pollutant dispersal (Graham et al, 2020), seagrass mapping and evaluation (CMEP, 2019a(CMEP, , 2019b, climate change report cards (Townhill et al, 2020) and socio-economic assessments (Tyllianakis…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The water quality parameters that were measured under this program include physico-chemical data, dissolved and particulate nutrients, suspended sediment and chlorophyll-a, all of which are commonly used measures of eutrophication and general water quality assessments (Brodie et al, 2010;Devlin et al, 2007;Foden et al, 2010). Additional water quality related information on human health metrics (microbial contamination) and metal and chemical contaminant concentrations (persistent organic pollutants) were also collected and are reported elsewhere, (Devlin et al, 2018;Devlin et al, 2020;CMEP, 2019aCMEP, , 2019bGraham et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2020;Townhill et al, 2020). This water quality data, in addition to the nutrient and sediment data presented here, provided information on the pressures that may influence the resilience of vulnerable ecosystems in Vanuatu, such as the seagrass beds and coral reefs (CMEP, 2019a(CMEP, , 2019b.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When coastal water quality is poor, the ability of Pacific coastal ecosystems to support healthy fisheries, aquaculture, recreational opportunities, tourism and other beneficial uses can be severely limited (Brodie, 2016;Naidu et al, 1991;Tsamenyi and Jit, 2011). The scale and severity of water quality issues can be exacerbated when it occurs in combination with warming waters and loss of resilience through climate change impacts (Anthony et al, 2015;Brodie et al, 2020Johnson et al, 2020MacNeil et al, 2019;Ortiz et al, 2018;Townhill et al, 2020;Wolff et al, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…improvements in waste-water treatment or storm water runoff) or pollution reduction policies designed to better manage the coastal zone. Furthermore, these data help inform regional assessments of water quality (SPREP, 2018), climate change resilience reporting (CMEP, 2018;Komugabe-Dixson et al, 2019;Townhill et al, 2020) and reporting requirements to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (Vanuatu, 2019). The data will also enable identification of pollution hotspots and start to provide evidence of plume behaviour for effluents.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seagrass habitat in Tarawa Lagoon, Kiribati: Service benefits and links to national priority issues

Brodie

Maata

et al. 2020

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Nearshore deterioration of water quality in Pacific coastal waters is a growing problem, associated with increasing urban and industrial sewage discharges, and agricultural runoff. Published water quality studies in the Pacific region are limited in both number and scope, making it difficult to resolve the extent of the issue or quantify the variability of water quality across Pacific islands and countries. This study collected water quality measurements over three years in the coastal waters around the Island of Efate (Vanuatu) with majority of work carried out in Port Vila, its capital. Port Vila is the key urban centre for Vanuatu where the increasing population and pollution inputs are placing substantial pressure on the coastal environment. Highest concentrations of dissolved nutrients and suspended sediments were measured adjacent or near the urban drains that enter the coastal areas along the capital's seafront, highlighting many of the issues around anthropogenic inputs are linked to the increasing urbanisation in Port Vila Bay. We provide baseline data that explores variability of coastal water quality and these types of datasets for Pacific islands are a first step towards facilitating development of long-term monitoring programmes and informing coastal zone management decision making.Pacific countries and their marine waters have high environmental and human value, with vast areas of marine habitats, coastal waters, vulnerable ecosystems and biota (Tsamenyi and Jit, 2011). A large proportion of the Pacific community live close to the sea or are highly dependent on their association with it (Bell et al., 2011;Donnelly et al., 2012;Muckle et al., 2015) with human wellbeing being intrinsically linked to the health of the marine oceanscape. Whilst there are several ongoing research programs in the Pacific that target climate change, water quality and habitat loss, it is difficult to adequately report on the 40 million km 2 area of the Pacific oceanscape (Tsamenyi and Jit, 2011). There is an urgent need for accessible water quality data and improved understanding of the impacts of pollution to ensure good environmental health and human wellbeing and to support sustainable fishing and tourism (Komugabe-Dixson et al., 2019;Mcleod et al., 2019).The Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme was initiated in the Pacific in 2016 with funding from the United Kingdom government (McManus et al., 2019). The aim of the programme was to provide Commonwealth Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with improved hydrographic and scientific data relating to their marine environments. This approach to the collection and dissemination of scientific data aligns well with the objectives laid out in Salpin et al. (2018), who identified that the opportunity for Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) to undertake and benefit from marine science, including accessing appropriate technology, represents a significant contribution to their sustainable development aspirations. Many components of ecological measurements in Pa...

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Cascading effects of climate change on recreational marine flats fishes and fisheries

et al. 2022

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Tropical and subtropical coastal flats are shallow regions of the marine environment at the intersection of land and sea. These regions provide myriad ecological goods and services, including recreational fisheries focused on flats-inhabiting fishes such as bonefish, tarpon, and permit. The cascading effects of climate change have the potential to negatively impact coastal flats around the globe and to reduce their ecological and economic value. In this paper, we consider how the combined effects of climate change, including extremes in temperature and precipitation regimes, sea level rise, and changes in nutrient dynamics, are causing rapid and potentially permanent changes to the structure and function of tropical and subtropical flats ecosystems. We then apply the available science on recreationally targeted fishes to reveal how these changes can cascade through layers of biological organization—from individuals, to populations, to communities—and ultimately impact the coastal systems that depend on them. We identify critical gaps in knowledge related to the extent and severity of these effects, and how such gaps influence the effectiveness of conservation, management, policy, and grassroots stewardship efforts.

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Communicating marine climate change impacts in the Caribbean and Pacific regions

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

An appraisal of systematic conservation planning for Pacific Ocean Tropical Islands coastal environments

An appraisal of systematic conservation planning for Pacific Ocean Tropical Islands coastal environments

Seagrass habitat in Tarawa Lagoon, Kiribati: Service benefits and links to national priority issues

Cascading effects of climate change on recreational marine flats fishes and fisheries

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