Rusty Brainard

2015

2016

The Coral Triangle (CT) is the most diverse and biologically complex marine ecosystem on the planet. The waters of the CT provide food security, livelihoods, and coastal protection to 100s of millions of people across its culturally diverse coastal communities. The vulnerability of the reef ecosystems and food security for the CT region is anticipated to increase significantly over coming decades with increases in coastal populations, ocean warming, ocean acidification (OA), and overfishing. These stressors are expected to reduce local and potentially regional biodiversity, with resulting decreases in reef resilience. Much of the region’s rich biodiversity could be lost before it is documented, limiting understanding of the ecological roles of reef communities on which to base future ecosystem-based management (EBM) decisions. Because the impacts cross complex geopolitical boundaries, multilateral science-based EBM is needed to manage the region’s extraordinary biological resources and the ecosystem goods and services they provide to local communities across the entire region.Leveraging ongoing USAID efforts in the Coral Triangle Region and NOAA expertise, this project, in its final year of funding, will provide technical assistance and capacity building while providing scientific data that can help managers integrate considerations of climate change(CC), ocean acidification (OA), and conservation of biodiversity into developing policy frameworks for implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) at local, national, and regional spatial and governance scales across the CT. Linking NOAA’s ecosystem and climate science and capacity building expertise at this demonstration site in Verde Island Passage (VIP) in the Philippines with other sites deploying the same suite of instrumentation will leverage and synergistically benefit both CRCP and the CT region by establishing foundational information layers about climate change, OA, cryptic biodiversity, and fisheries. Observations include: (1) subsurface temperature recorders to monitor thermal stress; (2) carbonate chemistry water sampling to monitor OA; (3) Calcification Accretion Units to monitor reef accretion (OA impacts); (4) Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) to monitor cryptobiota biodiversity (OA impacts).This demonstration project is working with the national, provincial, and municipal government agencies, University of Philippines, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and other partners to augment high priorityCoral Triangle country objectives. Specifically, the project will help partners obtain scientific data on ocean warming and ocean acidification (OA), biodiversity, and calcification that can be integrated into EAFM science-based management frameworks. The project has retrieved the ecosystem/climate science observing instruments from the demonstration site, which were in the ocean collecting data for 3 years (in line with other sites using the same methods globally). NOAA is now working with in-country and external partners to develop their capacity to process and analyze the data. As a result of these efforts, the Philippines Biodiversity Management Bureau plans to redeploy/continue utilizing the ARMS and potentially the entire suite of monitoring instrumentation.

This project will provide technical assistance to build local, national, regional and international science capacity to observe changes in ocean temperature, carbonate chemistry, biodiversity, and calcification rates at a key integration sites that can be compared with global efforts and will lead to the establishment of increased capacity and integration of regional CT partners into GOA-ON and climate monitoring efforts. It is anticipated that these efforts will lead to broader ecosystem and climate considerations integrated into EAFM policy and management frameworks beyond the period of NOAA engagement. By providing essential baseline knowledge and increased science and management capacity, Verde Island Passage will be used as a key demonstration site for the Philippines and broader CT. This project can inform the companion demonstration site funded by USAID/Timor Leste, a new country with almost no existing scientific or marine resource management capacity and potentially archipelagic-wide efforts in Indonesia.Establishing consistent standardized ecosystem and climate observations will enable unprecedented improvements in understanding and prediction of the impacts of climate change and OA on fisheries and biodiversity with commensurate improvements in integrated coastal management/conservation in the region. Leveraging NOAA capabilities with CTI will lead to groundbreaking ecosystem-based science to management frameworks and capacity building guidelines that can be utilized at local, national, regional and international levels to enhance sustainability of biodiversity, food security, and livelihoods.

• International Coral Triangle

International Project

Closed

Completed

https://www.coris.noaa.gov/search/rest/find/document?searchText=projectNumber%3A483%20OR%20projectTitle%3A"Climate%2C%20Biodiversity%20and%20Fisheries%20in%20the%20Coral%20Triangle%3A%20Embracing%20the%20E%20in%20Ecosystem%20Approaches%20to%20Fisheries%20Management"&start=1&max=10&f=searchPage