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Ocean planning in a changing climate

Nature Geoscience volume 9, page 730 (2016)Cite this article

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To the Editor — The ways in which humans use ocean resources needs to be carefully planned over space and time, in order to minimize conflicts and foster compatibilities among uses, and between uses and the environment1. This planning process, most often termed marine spatial planning, has been developed worldwide from coastal to open-ocean regions as a way to foster sustainable ocean management and governance. Marine spatial planning is currently being developed in about 50 countries, yet despite its widespread acceptance and uptake, it still faces many political, social, economic and environmental challenges. Here we suggest that global climate change will present an additional, evolving challenge that requires flexible and adaptive ocean planning.

Some ocean uses, such as fisheries or conservation3,4, are likely to be more vulnerable, that is, more exposed and less resilient to climate change effects. Others, such as shipping5 are likely to be less affected globally (Fig. 1). As ocean uses have different social and economic importance for different nations and regions, the influence of these global vulnerabilities on ocean planning will vary from place to place. For example, a specific use of the oceans may be only moderately vulnerable to a changing climate but yet extremely valuable for a region's socio-economy. If so, it will be highly significant for local ocean planning processes. The spatial context is thus of paramount relevance to assess the extent of impacts.

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Figure 1: Vulnerability of ocean uses to climate change.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARE — Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Laboratório Marítimo da Guia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Nossa Senhora do Cabo, Cascais, 2750-374, Portugal

    Catarina Frazão Santos, Francisco Andrade & Rui Rosa

  2. Sound Seas, 6620 Broad Street, Bethesda, 20816, Maryland, USA

    Tundi Agardy

  3. Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Roma, 00153, Italy

    Manuel Barange

  4. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK

    Manuel Barange

  5. Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, 99 Pacific Street, Suite 555E, Monterey, 93940, California, USA

    Larry B. Crowder & Michael K. Orbach

  6. Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, 120 Oceanview Boulevard, Pacific Grove, 93950, California, USA

    Larry B. Crowder

  7. Ocean Visions Consulting, 213B Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris, 75007, France

    Charles N. Ehler

  8. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, UNESCO, 7 Place de Fontenoy, Paris, 75007, France

    Charles N. Ehler

  9. Duke University Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, 135 Duke Marine Lab Road, Beaufort, 28516, North Carolina, USA

    Michael K. Orbach

Authors
  1. Catarina Frazão Santos
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  2. Tundi Agardy
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  3. Francisco Andrade
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  4. Manuel Barange
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  5. Larry B. Crowder
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  6. Charles N. Ehler
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  7. Michael K. Orbach
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  8. Rui Rosa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catarina Frazão Santos.

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Santos, C., Agardy, T., Andrade, F. et al. Ocean planning in a changing climate. Nature Geosci 9, 730 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2821

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