Great progress has been made in measuring and monitoring the ocean, understanding of ocean and ecosystem processes and their role in maintaining the climate and food systems, forecasting and predicting ocean related impacts to coastal communities and implementing management and conservation frameworks that reduce threats and restore some key ecosystems. However, the basic benefits that people derive from a healthy ocean are in decline.

In a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, CLIOTOP Co-chair Karen Evans and colleagues Linwood Pendleton and Martin Visbeck argue that a transformation in ocean science is needed in order to arrest this decline and achieve the ocean we need for the sustainable future we want. The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) provides an opportunity to create a new movement that brings together the many disciplines of science, other disciplines (e.g. arts, humanities, engineering, law) and stakeholders from all relevant ocean sectors to generate new processes for informing policies that ensure a well-functioning, resilient and sustainable ocean that continues to provide benefits for all. They argue that the success of the Ocean Decade in achieving a sustainable future ocean will require an approach that is inclusive, participatory, and global in its ability to plan, implement, and deliver the required science in innovative ways that makes it accessible to and useable by all. 

The oceans’ twilight zone is the area just below 200m from the surface ocean down to 1000m. It plays a major role in removing and storing CO₂ from the atmosphere, and is home to the largest and least exploited ocean fish stocks. It is also the zone through which the massive migration of fish and zooplankton move towards the surface to feed each night, before retreating back down at dawn. Yet  despite its importance, the zone is physically, biogeochemically and ecologically poorly understood. It is a difficult region to study for a variety of substantial reasons, leaving many critics to suggest that coastal and near-shelf waters are more deserving of study, because of the significant environmental impacts there, and their importance to societies. Unfortunately, widespread environmental damage to these inshore regions can often not be avoided, so research efforts and local policies must aim to mitigate the worst effects. By contrast, the twilight zone is almost pristine, and as much of it lies beyond national jurisdiction, it is of common interest and responsibility, and global agreement is necessary to manage it.

This paper outlines the steps needed to ensure that enough is known about this complex global ecosystem to inform decisions about the impacts of climate change and potential future exploitation. We call on the international marine research community to focus its attention on the twilight zone during the upcoming United Nations Decade of the Ocean, and to seize the opportunity to establish a global policy that will protect this vast ecosystem for present and future generations.

Biodiversity offsets, as the last stage of the mitigation hierarchy, provide an opportunity to promote a more sustainable basis for development by addressing residual impacts and achieving “no net loss” for biodiversity. Despite debate around their effectiveness, biodiversity offsets are seeing increasing application on land but remain a rarely used tool in the marine environment. In this paper, we assess how offsets can be applied in the marine environment to achieve better biodiversity outcomes, and identify implications for conservation policy and practice.

Developing shared goals within interdisciplinary marine research teams can enhance success, both in terms of knowledge production processes, and efforts to link that knowledge to decision-making processes. However, there is very little guidance available for how best to develop shared goals that reflect the values and perspectives of all team members. In a new Perspective Paper just published in One Earth, Chris Cvitanovic and colleagues explore the utility of an organisational psychology model – the ASPIRe model – for developing shared goals within interdisciplinary marine research teams. They do so by applying the model to the Centre for Marine Socioecology in Tasmania, Australia – a group that brings together marine experts from a number of organisations and with varied disciplinary expertise including physics, law, economics, biology, sociology and governance. The full paper is Open Access and can be found here

We are very pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 7^th IMBeR 'Climate and Ecosystems' Summer School that will be held at UBC in Vancouver, Canada from 17-21 August 2020.

Numbers are limited to between 60-70 ClimEco7 participants to ensure good discussions and interactions between participants and the amazing lecturers. So when you apply, tell us why you should be selected to attend. We look forward to receiving applications from a wide range of ocean science disciplines.

The registration fee is still to be confirmed. No payment is necessary at this stage. Successful applicants will be informed of the deadline for payments later.

Last week, Carol Robinson, the Chair of the IMBeR Scientific Steering Committee, joined the IMBeR project office staff - John Claydon and Lisa Maddison from the International Project Office in Norway, and Fang Zuo and Kai Qin from the Regional Project Office in China - at a ceremony to mark the inauguration of the new International Project Office (IPO) in Shanghai, China.

A Memorandum of Understanding to support the IMBeR IPO-China for the next five years was signed by Carol Robinson and the ECNU President Prof. Qian Xuhong. The office is also supported by a consortium of supporting marine institutions and projects.