At the 4th International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans from June 4 to 8 at the Washingington Hilton, Nereus Program Principal Investigator Thomas Frölicher (Princeton; University of Bern) and Nereus Fellow Gabriel Reygondeau (UBC) will be hosting a session about extreme ocean events and their impacts on marine ecosystems.

Session Description:
Extreme climate and weather events shape the structure of biological systems and affect the biogeochemical functions and services they provide for society in a fundamental manner. There is overwhelming evidence that the frequency, duration, intensity and timing of extreme events on land are changing under global warming, increasing the risk of severe, pervasive and in some cases irreversible impacts on natural and socio-economic systems. In contrast we know very little about how extreme events in the ocean, especially those associated with warming, acidification, deoxygenation and nutrient stress, will unfold in time and space. In addition, our understanding of the impact of ocean extreme events on marine organisms and ecosystem services is very poor. This session seeks current knowledge as well as new and evolving insights into modeling and observational efforts that advance our understanding of the regional and global short-term and long-term changes in marine extreme events (heat waves, hypoxia, acidification, nutrient stress) and how these events impact marine organisms, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Additionally, Nereus Program Director of Science William Cheung (UBC) and Fellow Oai Li Chen (UBC) will be hosting a session with Desiree Tommasi and Lisa Crozier on scenarios and models to explore the future of marine coupled human-natural systems under climate change (session #12).

 

Session Description:
This session invites oral or poster presentations that contribute to understanding the interactions between human and natural marine systems under climate change. Specific topics of the submissions may include, but are not limited to, scenarios e.g., shared socioeconomic pathways for marine systems or sectors; models that integrate different dimensions of human-natural systems e.g., biophysical, economic, social, political dimensions; management strategy evaluations e.g., stakeholder-driven simulation processes that incorporate biological, fishery, and management sub-models to compare the effectiveness of alternative regulatory policies while accounting for uncertainty in different sources, including climate effects; testing, comparison, exploration and integration of multiple modelling approaches; and empirical and mechanistic exploration of the dynamics of coupled human-natural systems. Studies from different marine systems, sectors and spatial scales are welcome. A special issue of a journal for this session may be organized.