| 英文摘要: | The pace of environmental change lends urgency to the need for integration of climate considerations into ocean policy and management. A recent rapid expansion of ocean and climate policies provides a timely window of opportunity for the scientific community to inform and support these efforts. Lessons can be learned from successful initiatives, where scientists are working hand-in-hand with decision makers and managers to enhance ocean resilience. Looking ahead, the most pressing decision-needs associated with oceans and climate change should serve to prioritize and drive scientific efforts.
We live on a blue planet. The oceans cover 71% of Earth's surface and contain 97% of the planet's water. Oceans provide many critical services on which people depend, including jobs in fishing and tourism, places for recreation and enjoyment, opportunities for commerce and transportation, global climate regulation, and carbon sequestration1. Globally, seafood provides nearly two billion people with almost 20% of their intake of animal protein2. Oceans are inherently linked to economic productivity and to the vibrancy of coastal communities. The ocean and coastal economy contributed 2.8 million jobs and over $282 billion to the US gross domestic product in 20113. In the United States, coastal watershed counties make up only 18% of the nation's land area, but are home to more than 50% of US citizens4. However, oceans are threatened by the impacts of climate change and acidification, which have already affected ocean health5, 6. These changes are compromising the ability of oceans to provide valuable ecosystem services, with ecological and socio-economic consequences7. Now and in the coming decades, the impacts of climate change on global oceans will lead to numerous challenges for sectors such as natural resource management, energy production, human health, transportation and national security8, 9, 10. These changes could drastically impact ocean services, as well as the societies that depend on them. Science is playing an increasingly important role in informing policy and management of the world's oceans. The realization that oceans are rapidly changing11, 12 has prompted calls for better international collaboration, integration across scientific disciplines and strengthened partnerships across ocean science, management and policy communities. Nevertheless, despite increasing political interest in the expanding body of knowledge on the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification, scientific understanding is often not reflected in policy and management decisions, and misperceptions among both scientists and decision makers impede the two-way exchange of information. In many instances, decision makers and managers lack access to scientific information that meets their specific needs, or they may expect information with higher certainty or resolution (for example, local-scale projections of climate and sea-level rise) than is feasible or necessary for addressing their planning needs. Conversely, scientists often view the pathway from basic research to enactment of policy as opaque and frustrating, and academic researchers, in particular, frequently are not encouraged, and do not always understand if and how, to engage in the policy dialogue. There is often a misperception that details and caveats inherent in scientific studies and models render such information useless in the policy-making process, a factor that, ironically, may have resulted from the lack of effective dialogue between scientists and decision makers in the first place. Such disconnects can hamstring efforts to develop and implement climate adaptation policies and practices based on best-available science. Ocean management needs to become more climate-smart; in other words, it needs to reflect and integrate current and projected impacts of climate change. This depends on multiple forms of scientific information that are spatially and temporally relevant and easily accessible, consistent methodologies that allow for cross-study comparisons, policies that reflect scientific understanding and are sufficiently flexible to accommodate uncertainty, and meaningful engagement across multiple sectors of society. The need for improved partnerships between scientists and society has been raised numerous times in recent decades13, 14. Innovative partnerships have been put into place to address this need and to enhance coordination and inform decision making. As a result, policies and practices are beginning to more accurately reflect scientific understanding. This provides an unprecedented chance for action, as the scientific understanding of climate impacts on oceans has improved, policies that depend on best-available science are being developed and early efforts to integrate climate information into ocean management provide transferable lessons learned. Here, we discuss emerging US science and policy initiatives associated with enhancing ocean resilience to climate change. In addition, we describe several examples where climate information has successfully been incorporated into ocean policy and planning efforts. Finally, we articulate opportunities for advancing partnerships between scientists, policy makers and society to address ocean and climate issues.
In the United States, an increasing spotlight on the importance of marine resources and ocean ecosystem services has led to a number of recent national-level initiatives with relevance to climate-related ocean change. Examples include the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy, the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification, the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, the National Ocean Policy and the President's Climate Action Plan (Table 1). In addition, existing US federal laws, such as the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, are being applied to manage the impacts of climate change and acidification on ocean waters15. New climate-smart policies and practices that reflect the need for sustainable ocean management in a changing climate are being developed and implemented. Collectively, these initiatives provide a framework for planning and action, with the goal of enhancing climate resilience.
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