The European Union and Ocean Use Management: The Marine Strategy and the Maritime Policy

Problems resulting from contemporary patterns of ocean use and threats to the viability of the marine environment have led to reconsideration of ocean use governance in a number of states, including the United States, Australia, and Canada. For its part, the European Union has been working on the development of a Marine Strategy to safeguard the environment and a more encompassing Maritime Policy into which the Marine Strategy would be folded. The desired Maritime Policy would reflect a holistic perspective of ocean space, embody an ecosystem-based approach to ocean use management, and provide a broad framework for ocean/coastal management. As has been seen elsewhere, developing such a governance system is difficult both in terms of conceptualization and, subsequently, in operationalization. The June 2006 European Commission Green Paper on Maritime Policy sets the stage for a year of consultations designed to develop an effective governance system for ocean management. Institutional and policy changes will be needed and it will be necessary to balance the objectives of economic growth and protection of environmental sustainability. This article examines current developments in efforts to devise a coherent and integrated European Union approach to ocean management.     

The Ecosystem Approach and the Search for An Objective and Content for the Concept of Holistic Ocean Governance

Although the need for holistic ocean governance has been widely accepted and some implementation efforts have been undertaken, there is still a significant lack of understanding or agreement as to its content, or primary objective(s). While both principled and process-based approaches have been proposed as providing objectives or content for the holistic approach, both have flaws. In this article, an approach that combines both principle and process—the ecosystem approach—is assessed and the degree to which it can provide and does already provide such content and objective(s) is explored.     

Fluctuating deposition of ocean water drives plant function on coastal sand dunes

Sea‐level rise will alter the hydrology of terrestrial coastal ecosystems. As such, it becomes increasingly important to decipher the present role of ocean water in coastal ecosystems in order to assess the coming effects of sea‐level rise scenarios. Sand dunes occur at the interface of land and sea. Traditionally, they are conceived as freshwater environments with rain and ground water as the only water sources available to vegetation. This study investigates the possibility of ocean water influx to dune soils and its effect on the physiology of sand dune vegetation. Stable isotopes are used to trace the path of ocean water from the soil to the vegetation. Soil salinity, water content and δ¹⁸O values are measured concurrently with stem water and leaf tissue of eight species during the wet and dry season and from areas proximal and distal to the ocean. Our results indicate the dune ecosystem is a mixed freshwater and marine water system characterized by oceanic influence on dune hydrology that is spatially heterogeneous and fluctuates temporally. Ocean water influx to soil occurs via salt spray in areas 5–12 m from the ocean during dry season. Accordingly, vegetation nearest to the sea demonstrate a plastic response to ocean water deposition including elevated integrated water use efficiency (δ¹³C_leaf) and uptake of ocean water that comprised up to 52% of xylem water. We suggest physiological plasticity in response to periodic ocean water influx may be a functional characteristic common to species on the leading edge of diverse coastal habitats and an important feature that should be included in modeling coastal ecosystems. Rising sea level would likely cause a repercussive landward shift of dune species in response to encroaching maritime influences. However, human development would restrict this process, potentially causing the demise of dune systems and the protection from land erosion they provide.     

Defining CO2 and O2 syndromes of marine biomes in the Anthropocene

Research efforts have intensified to foresee the prospects for marine biomes under climate change and anthropogenic drivers over varying temporal and spatial scales. Parallel with these efforts is the utilization of terminology, such as ‘ocean acidification’ (OA) and ‘ocean deoxygenation’ (OD), that can foster rapid comprehension of complex processes driving carbon dioxide (CO₂) and oxygen (O₂) concentrations in the global ocean and thus, are now widely used in discussions within and beyond academia. However, common usage of the terms ‘acidification’ and ‘deoxygenation’ alone are subjective and, without adequate contextualization, have the potential to mislead inferences over drivers that may ultimately shape the future state of marine ecosystems. Here we clarify the usage of the terms OA and OD as global, climate change‐driven processes and discuss the various attributes of elevated CO₂ and reduced O₂ syndromes common to coastal ecosystems. We support the use of the existing terms ‘coastal acidification’ and ‘coastal deoxygenation’ because they help differentiate the sometimes rapid and extreme nature of CO₂ and O₂ syndromes in coastal ecosystems from the global, climate change‐driven processes of OA and OD. Given the complexity and breadth of the processes involved in altering CO₂ and O₂ concentrations across marine ecosystems, we provide a workflow to enable contextualization and clarification of the usage of existing terms and highlight the close link between these two gases across spatial and temporal scales in the ocean. These distinctions are crucial to guide effective communication of research within the scientific community and guide policymakers responsible for intervening on the drivers to secure desirable future ocean states.     

An Assessment of Integrated Risk Assessment

In order to promote international understanding and acceptance of the integrated risk assessment process, the World Health Organization/International Programme on Chemical Safety (WHO/IPCS), in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, initiated a number of activities related to integrated risk assessment. In this project, the WHO/IPCS defines integrated risk assessment as a science-based approach that combines the processes of risk estimation for humans, biota, and natural resources in one assessment. This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of integration as identified up to this date and the degree of acceptance of this concept by the global risk assessment/risk management community. It discusses both opportunities and impediments for further development and implementation.

The major emerging opportunities for an integrated approach stem from the increasing societal and political pressure to move away from vertebrate testing leading to a demand for scientific integrated approaches to in vitro and in vivo testing, as well as to computer simulations, in so-called Intelligent Testing Strategies. In addition, by weighing the evidence from conventional mammalian toxicology, ecotoxicology, human epidemiology, and eco-epidemiology, risk assessors could better characterize mechanisms of action and the forms of the relationships of exposures to responses. It is concluded that further demonstrations of scientific, economic and regulatory benefits of an integrated approach are needed. As risk assessment is becoming more mechanistic and molecular this may create an integrated approach based on common mechanisms and a common systems-biology approach.     

Perspectives on an ocean management system

Abstract

Over the past ten years, federal management authorities for ocean uses and resources have become excessively compartmentalized and complex. In the interest of evaluating the need for a better articulated and organized national ocean program, this article examines the concept of ocean management. It attempts to portray an analytical review approach for assessing current ocean uses and management strategies. It explores the implications of ocean management as they impinge on the federal government's role in an organization for the marine environment. The concept of ocean management is reviewed from three perspectives: (1) an analysis of current conflicts among uses competing for scarce ocean resources; (2) an evaluation of existing programs which are designed to integrate other marine authorities; and (3) a survey of existing legal and administrative authorities that pertain to the marine environment. In light of these perspectives, the authors examine approaches that have been suggested for revising our ocean management system and offer recommendations toward this end.     

Determining indicator taxa across spatial and seasonal gradients in the Columbia River coastal margin

Bacterioplankton communities are deeply diverse and highly variable across space and time, but several recent studies demonstrate repeatable and predictable patterns in this diversity. We expanded on previous studies by determining patterns of variability in both individual taxa and bacterial communities across coastal environmental gradients. We surveyed bacterioplankton diversity across the Columbia River coastal margin, USA, using amplicon pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA genes from 596 water samples collected from 2007 to 2010. Our results showed seasonal shifts and annual reassembly of bacterioplankton communities in the freshwater-influenced Columbia River, estuary, and plume, and identified indicator taxa, including species from freshwater SAR11, Oceanospirillales, and Flavobacteria groups, that characterize the changing seasonal conditions in these environments. In the river and estuary, Actinobacteria and Betaproteobacteria indicator taxa correlated strongly with seasonal fluctuations in particulate organic carbon (ρ=−0.664) and residence time (ρ=0.512), respectively. In contrast, seasonal change in communities was not detected in the coastal ocean and varied more with the spatial variability of environmental factors including temperature and dissolved oxygen. Indicator taxa of coastal ocean environments included SAR406 and SUP05 taxa from the deep ocean, and Prochlorococcus and SAR11 taxa from the upper water column. We found that in the Columbia River coastal margin, freshwater-influenced environments were consistent and predictable, whereas coastal ocean community variability was difficult to interpret due to complex physical conditions. This study moves beyond beta-diversity patterns to focus on the occurrence of specific taxa and lends insight into the potential ecological roles these taxa have in coastal ocean environments.     

Integrated management of faba bean chocolate spot caused by Botrytis fabae in Gondar,Ethiopia

Abstract

Integrated management of faba bean chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae Sard.) was studied using moderately tolerant variety, “Hachalu” and the local cultivar at Chilga district during 2016 main cropping season. The objective was to evaluate effect of host resistance, intercropping and fungicide applications on epidemics of faba bean chocolate spot, yield and yield components of faba bean, and sole and intercrop systems productivity. The experiment was randomised complete block design in a factorial combination of two faba bean cultivars, two cropping systems (Hachalu- and local-barley intercropping in 2:1 ratio) and four levels of fungicide (Chlorothalonil) spray and integration in three replications of faba bean and barley, respectively. Cultivars and spray intervals significantly (p?<?.01) affected the seed yield while cultivars alone had significant variation (p?<?.01) on 100-seed weight as a main effect. Therefore, 21-days fungicide spray intervals integrated with Hachalu sole and Hachalu-barley intercropping may be considered for chocolate spot management.     

Ocean iron fertilization may amplify climate change pressures on marine animal biomass for limited climate benefit

Climate change scenarios suggest that large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be required to maintain global warming below 2°C, leading to renewed attention on ocean iron fertilization (OIF). Previous OIF modelling has found that while carbon export increases, nutrient transport to lower latitude ecosystems declines, resulting in a modest impact on atmospheric CO₂. However, the interaction of these CDR responses with ongoing climate change is unknown. Here, we combine global ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystem models to show that, while stimulating carbon sequestration, OIF may amplify climate-induced declines in tropical ocean productivity and ecosystem biomass under a high-emission scenario, with very limited potential atmospheric CO₂ drawdown. The ‘biogeochemical fingerprint’ of climate change, that leads to depletion of upper ocean major nutrients due to upper ocean stratification, is reinforced by OIF due to greater major nutrient consumption. Our simulations show that reductions in upper trophic level animal biomass in tropical regions due to climate change would be exacerbated by OIF within ~20 years, especially in coastal exclusive economic zones (EEZs), with potential implications for fisheries that underpin the livelihoods and economies of coastal communities. Any fertilization-based CDR should therefore consider its interaction with ongoing climate-driven changes and the ensuing ecosystem impacts in national EEZs.     

The European Union and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: Continuing the Development of European Ocean Use Management

The European Union has been engaged in an effort to develop a marine strategy to protect the marine environment and a more encompassing integrated maritime policy that would provide a comprehensive system for the management of the uses of the marine areas of Europe. An earlier article by the author described the beginnings of this policy development; this article examines the subsequent 2008 Directive of the European Parliament and the Council, which establishes a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive provides a plan of action with designated responsibilities and obligations and a schedule that is to be adhered to by member states and the European Commission. It represents a significant step in the European endeavor to advance ocean use management and sets the stage for future development of European marine policy.     

氮依赖型甲烷厌氧氧化菌的整合

氮依赖型甲烷厌氧氧化菌(nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation bacteria,n-damo细菌,属于NC10门)是最近10年来微生物生态学领域的研究热点。然而,对该类群基于现有数据的生态分布、群落结构和系统进化的整合分析还未见报道。【目的】为了更好地将近年来针对该类群的研究做一次全面梳理,本文通过整合前人已有发表数据和结合自身实验数据两方面进行。【方法】一方面,利用NCBI数据库(数据搜集到2016年11月)中所有n-damo细菌序列对其进行生物信息学分析;另一方面,对大九湖泥炭地表层泥炭利用16S rRNA二代测序技术对该类群进行检测,并同前人数据进行对比。【结果】n-damo细菌主要在沉积物、湿地和水稻土检出;基于pmo A基因的n-damo细菌的平均检出率是基于16S rRNA基因检出率的7倍,但是这两类基因分子标记物所得到的多样性指数保持相对稳定(1.4-3.4);贫氮的大九湖泥炭其NC10的丰度仅为0.067%。【结论】n-damo类群种群相对稳定,暗示其行使的生态功能相对单一;贫氮的大九湖泥炭其极低的NC10丰度暗示氮对NC10是限制因子;具有真正氮依赖型甲烷厌氧氧化细菌的Group A可能只占很少的一部分(小于20%),暗示出该类群真正的生态潜能需要进一步评估。本次整合分析为更好的理解n-damo细菌的生活环境、评估不同基因分子标记物下n-damo细菌的检出率、不同亚类群比如Group A和Group B等的丰度和真正的潜在生态功能提供参考。     

A Note on a Comparison of the Ocean Governance System Between Mainland China and Taiwan

With the increasing use of the oceans and coastal areas, there is a need to pay greater attention to and reexamine the issue of ocean governance. Through comparing the framework of ocean governance in mainland China with that in Taiwan in terms of legislation, administration, and law enforcement, this article establishes that there are advanced practices concerning ocean governance in Taiwan and lessons that may be applicable for mainland China.     

International Law and Western Sahara’s Maritime Area

Abstract

Western Sahara’s coastal waters have become contentious because of seabed petroleum exploration and fisheries undertaken pursuant to treaties between Morocco and the European Union, Japan, and Russia. These activities have been protested by the territory’s government-in-exile, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. In 2017 Morocco announced its intention to adopt legislation to create an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on the territory’s coast. This article considers the status of Saharan coastal waters in the circumstances of decolonization and occupation. The obligations on states interested in exploring and extracting Saharan ocean resources are considered and are argued to be restrictive regardless of the status of the territory’s coastal waters and recognition of a Saharawi state.     

New concepts in the law of the sea

Abstract

Current ocean law negotiations reflect conflicts between two old and competing approaches: the view that the coastal state should control activities in any large adjacent ocean area, and the view that most of the ocean should be left open to the free use of all nations. Both approaches are laissez‐faire, leave the distribution of benefits to arbitrary factors, and are based on national exclusivity. In the negotiations this conflict is exhibited in competing claims regarding navigation, mineral resources, fishing, environmental protection, and strategic uses. A possible resolution has emerged in the concept of the whole ocean as a common resource of humankind, according to which no individual state has a right to benefit from the ocean except pursuant to arrangements sanctioned by the community, and rights to benefit are determined not arbitrarily but by membership in the community. The regime now likeliest to be produced by such an approach includes (1) a narrow territorial sea and various navigation guarantees, (2) a wide coastal band coupling coastal state managerial functions with permanent international prerogatives, and (3) purely international manage‐ment of the deep seabed.     

The marine nitrogen cycle: recent discoveries,uncertainties and the potential relevance of climate change

The ocean''s nitrogen cycle is driven by complex microbial transformations, including nitrogen fixation, assimilation, nitrification, anammox and denitrification. Dinitrogen is the most abundant form of nitrogen in sea water but only accessible by nitrogen-fixing microbes. Denitrification and nitrification are both regulated by oxygen concentrations and potentially produce nitrous oxide (N₂O), a climate-relevant atmospheric trace gas. The world''s oceans, including the coastal areas and upwelling areas, contribute about 30 per cent to the atmospheric N₂O budget and are, therefore, a major source of this gas to the atmosphere. Human activities now add more nitrogen to the environment than is naturally fixed. More than half of the nitrogen reaches the coastal ocean via river input and atmospheric deposition, of which the latter affects even remote oceanic regions. A nitrogen budget for the coastal and open ocean, where inputs and outputs match rather well, is presented. Furthermore, predicted climate change will impact the expansion of the oceans'' oxygen minimum zones, the productivity of surface waters and presumably other microbial processes, with unpredictable consequences for the cycling of nitrogen. Nitrogen cycling is closely intertwined with that of carbon, phosphorous and other biologically important elements via biological stoichiometric requirements. This linkage implies that human alterations of nitrogen cycling are likely to have major consequences for other biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functions and services.     

Shifts in coralline algae,macroalgae, and coral juveniles in the Great Barrier Reef associated with present‐day ocean acidification

Seawater acidification from increasing CO₂ is often enhanced in coastal waters due to elevated nutrients and sedimentation. Our understanding of the effects of ocean and coastal acidification on present‐day ecosystems is limited. Here we use data from three independent large‐scale reef monitoring programs to assess coral reef responses associated with changes in mean aragonite saturation state (Ω_ar) in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBR). Spatial declines in mean Ω_ar are associated with monotonic declines in crustose coralline algae (up to 3.1‐fold) and coral juvenile densities (1.3‐fold), while non‐calcifying macroalgae greatly increase (up to 3.2‐fold), additionally to their natural changes across and along the GBR. These three key groups of organisms are important proxies for coral reef health. Our data suggest a tipping point at Ω_ar 3.5–3.6 for these coral reef health indicators. Suspended sediments acted as an additive stressor. The latter suggests that effective water quality management to reduce suspended sediments might locally and temporarily reduce the pressure from ocean acidification on these organisms.     

An Integrated Assessment Model for Helping the United States Sea Scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) Fishery Plan Ahead for Ocean Acidification and Warming

Ocean acidification, the progressive change in ocean chemistry caused by uptake of atmospheric CO₂, is likely to affect some marine resources negatively, including shellfish. The Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) supports one of the most economically important single-species commercial fisheries in the United States. Careful management appears to be the most powerful short-term factor affecting scallop populations, but in the coming decades scallops will be increasingly influenced by global environmental changes such as ocean warming and ocean acidification. In this paper, we describe an integrated assessment model (IAM) that numerically simulates oceanographic, population dynamic, and socioeconomic relationships for the U.S. commercial sea scallop fishery. Our primary goal is to enrich resource management deliberations by offering both short- and long-term insight into the system and generating detailed policy-relevant information about the relative effects of ocean acidification, temperature rise, fishing pressure, and socioeconomic factors on the fishery using a simplified model system. Starting with relationships and data used now for sea scallop fishery management, the model adds socioeconomic decision making based on static economic theory and includes ocean biogeochemical change resulting from CO₂ emissions. The model skillfully reproduces scallop population dynamics, market dynamics, and seawater carbonate chemistry since 2000. It indicates sea scallop harvests could decline substantially by 2050 under RCP 8.5 CO₂ emissions and current harvest rules, assuming that ocean acidification affects P. magellanicus by decreasing recruitment and slowing growth, and that ocean warming increases growth. Future work will explore different economic and management scenarios and test how potential impacts of ocean acidification on other scallop biological parameters may influence the social-ecological system. Future empirical work on the effect of ocean acidification on sea scallops is also needed.     

Temperate and tropical brown macroalgae thrive,despite decalcification,along natural CO2 gradients

Predicting the impacts of ocean acidification on coastal ecosystems requires an understanding of the effects on macroalgae and their grazers, as these underpin the ecology of rocky shores. Whilst calcified coralline algae (Rhodophyta) appear to be especially vulnerable to ocean acidification, there is a lack of information concerning calcified brown algae (Phaeophyta), which are not obligate calcifiers but are still important producers of calcium carbonate and organic matter in shallow coastal waters. Here, we compare ecological shifts in subtidal rocky shore systems along CO₂ gradients created by volcanic seeps in the Mediterranean and Papua New Guinea, focussing on abundant macroalgae and grazing sea urchins. In both the temperate and tropical systems the abundances of grazing sea urchins declined dramatically along CO₂ gradients. Temperate and tropical species of the calcifying macroalgal genus Padina (Dictyoaceae, Phaeophyta) showed reductions in CaCO₃ content with CO₂ enrichment. In contrast to other studies of calcified macroalgae, however, we observed an increase in the abundance of Padina spp. in acidified conditions. Reduced sea urchin grazing pressure and significant increases in photosynthetic rates may explain the unexpected success of decalcified Padina spp. at elevated levels of CO₂. This is the first study to provide a comparison of ecological changes along CO₂ gradients between temperate and tropical rocky shores. The similarities we found in the responses of Padina spp. and sea urchin abundance at several vent systems increases confidence in predictions of the ecological impacts of ocean acidification over a large geographical range .     

Integrated control of the most damaging pests of peach trees in Greece

In this study, the integrated management of Myzus persicae, Adoxophytes orana, Anarsia lineatella, Grapholita molesta, Panonychus ulmi and Tetranychus urticae was evaluated. The results showed that the population of Myzus persica on integrated systems was significantly lower than untreated control and higher than conventional systems. The population of P. ulmi and T. urticae was relatively low ( < 2 per leaf) in all treatments. Damage to fruit caused from A. orana and A. lineatella were significantly higher on untreated control than integrated or conventional systems. The results also showed that the damages caused from G. molesta were low in both conventional and integrated systems. In contrast, this insect caused significantly higher damage on untreated fruit.