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FYI: Marine climate change impacts synthesis activity

Dear colleagues:
Following on from the ‘Climate Change Effects on Fish and Fisheries’ Conference in Japan, we would like to alert you to a project we have running to synthesise climate change impacts globally on marine systems.  As highlighted in the concluding remarks, impacts on marine biological systems were poorly accounted for the last IPCC assessment and it is up to us, the marine science community, to address these imbalances.

We need your help. We are searching for published papers and reports for a global meta-analysis of climate change impacts on marine systems that we are currently undertaking as a Working Group at the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, USA (www.nceas.ucsb.edu/featured/richardson). We are asking colleagues to upload pdf or word documents for potential inclusion at https://groups.nceas.ucsb.edu/marine-climate-impacts/provide-data . The latest list of papers and reports considered for entry in the database will soon be available here. We also ask that you supply your name and email address for acknowledgement and for contact if there are any queries. We are keen to expand geographic coverage and recognise that not all our colleagues work in English. If you have a study published in another language, we ask that you still upload it and provide a short summary in English (a few sentences) so we can assess its potential for the database. Submissions received before September 2010 would be of most use. Submissions may also be emailed to elvira.poloczanska@csiro.au with the details requested.

We intend this study will inform the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. We are currently scouring the peer-reviewed and grey literature for studies on biological responses of marine organisms or ecosystems/habitats to recent climate change (must include data after 1960), irrespective of whether those organisms or habitats actually showed a response to climate change or not. We are including time series and studies comparing two periods in time, of phenology, distribution, abundance, community change, condition, growth, physiology, and reproduction. This will allow us to address key questions about the responses among regions, species’ groups, habitats, and exploited vs non-target species. Once complete, the database will be made freely available through the NCEAS website.

We appreciate your contribution both to our efforts and to improving knowledge of marine climate impacts globally. Please forward this request to your colleagues.

Thanks in advance
Elvira S. Poloczanska1, Anthony Richardson1, Keith Brander2, Chris Brown3, John Bruno4, Lauren Buckley4, Mike Burrows5, Carlos Duarte6, Mark Gibbons7, Ben Halpern8, Carrie Kappel8, Pippa Moore9, Mary O’Connor8, John Pandolfi3, Camille Parmesan10, Maria Sanchez6, Dave Schoeman11, Bill Sydeman12

1. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia
2. National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Denmark
3. University of Queensland, Australia
4. University of North Carolina, USA
5. Scottish Association for Marine Science, UK
6. Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA), Spain
7. University of the Western Cape, South Africa
8. National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, USA
9. Edith Cowan University, Australia
10. University of Texas, USA
11. University of Ulster, UK
12. Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research USA

Dr Elvira Poloczanska
Climate Adaptation Flagship
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
PO Box 120
Cleveland, QLD 4163
Tel: (07) 3826-7191

www.cmar.csiro.au/climateimpacts/

View the Marine Climate Change Report Card for Australia
www.oceanclimatechange.org.au

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