management and normative aspects of our relationship with the environment and of
interpreting, integrating and advocating science by engaging in the policy process.
There were also differences in the rankings between regions. Furthermore, the
rankings do not reflect the research priorities of society as a whole or of government
policy makers.
Reports from the World Bank and the European Commission, according to Rudd
(2014), point to an increasingly held view of the ocean as the driver of economic
and social well-being as well as the importance of safety and security, all influenced
by the ocean conditions; the realization requires the health of the ocean to be
restored and maintained (Rudd 2014). The European Environment Agency (2014,
cited by Rudd) states: “Our seas are rapidly changing while our dependence on
them is growing. We do not fully understand the complex interactions of natural
and human-driven changes. But we do know that we are not yet on the path to
achieving healthy, clean and productive seas”. Rudd (2014) concludes that his
results “provide insights as to how research scanning results can be synthesized and
used to target ocean research on questions which, if answered, would be central to
achieving ocean sustainability”. They also provide stimulation for interdisciplinary
and trans-disciplinary research and cooperation.
The results by Rudd were supported by a Nordic Study (W. Boonstra, Marine
Policy; cited by Catherine Jex 2016). According to that study marine scientists
identified overfishing as a top concern, followed by elevated temperature, contamination and waste, and ocean acidification. Differences depended upon the scientific
background. Natural scientists stress the symptoms of global change driven by
human impacts, whereas social scientists tend to focus on human causes of the
threats. The review by Williamson et al. (2016) highlights the main science issues
raised by the G7 Science Ministers namely plastic pollution, deep-sea mining and
its ecosystem impacts, ocean acidification, de-oxygenation, ocean warming, biodiversity loss and marine ecosystem degradation, as the areas on which to focus
scientific efforts to find proper and economically valid solutions.
The silent services of the ocean in the context of global and climate change
include (Stocker 2015): the ocean uptake of over 90% of the excess energy in the
climate system, confirmed by observed warming on a worldwide scale to depths
over 2000 m; the ocean as a receiver and global distributer of the excess water from
melting land glaciers and what melts of the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica,
this and the warming driving the sea-level rise; the ocean absorption of up to 30%
of the carbon dioxide emitted by society and about 28% of the cumulative anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from 1750 to 2011 now stored in the ocean,
roughly equivalent to the amount taken up by the land biosphere. The price for the
ocean uptake is ocean acidification, which has reached great depths. The implications of this include gradual calcium carbonate under-saturation, the critical threshold of which can be predicted, probably with the smallest uncertainty of all
projections of future change related to the climate issue. Model simulations suggest
this threshold will first be crossed in the Arctic. The specific Sustainable Development Goal target 14.3 calls for minimizing and addressing impacts of ocean
acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels.
32 Development of International Cooperation in Oceanography: Incentives from. . .
533
interpreting, integrating and advocating science by engaging in the policy process.
There were also differences in the rankings between regions. Furthermore, the
rankings do not reflect the research priorities of society as a whole or of government
policy makers.
Reports from the World Bank and the European Commission, according to Rudd
(2014), point to an increasingly held view of the ocean as the driver of economic
and social well-being as well as the importance of safety and security, all influenced
by the ocean conditions; the realization requires the health of the ocean to be
restored and maintained (Rudd 2014). The European Environment Agency (2014,
cited by Rudd) states: “Our seas are rapidly changing while our dependence on
them is growing. We do not fully understand the complex interactions of natural
and human-driven changes. But we do know that we are not yet on the path to
achieving healthy, clean and productive seas”. Rudd (2014) concludes that his
results “provide insights as to how research scanning results can be synthesized and
used to target ocean research on questions which, if answered, would be central to
achieving ocean sustainability”. They also provide stimulation for interdisciplinary
and trans-disciplinary research and cooperation.
The results by Rudd were supported by a Nordic Study (W. Boonstra, Marine
Policy; cited by Catherine Jex 2016). According to that study marine scientists
identified overfishing as a top concern, followed by elevated temperature, contamination and waste, and ocean acidification. Differences depended upon the scientific
background. Natural scientists stress the symptoms of global change driven by
human impacts, whereas social scientists tend to focus on human causes of the
threats. The review by Williamson et al. (2016) highlights the main science issues
raised by the G7 Science Ministers namely plastic pollution, deep-sea mining and
its ecosystem impacts, ocean acidification, de-oxygenation, ocean warming, biodiversity loss and marine ecosystem degradation, as the areas on which to focus
scientific efforts to find proper and economically valid solutions.
The silent services of the ocean in the context of global and climate change
include (Stocker 2015): the ocean uptake of over 90% of the excess energy in the
climate system, confirmed by observed warming on a worldwide scale to depths
over 2000 m; the ocean as a receiver and global distributer of the excess water from
melting land glaciers and what melts of the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica,
this and the warming driving the sea-level rise; the ocean absorption of up to 30%
of the carbon dioxide emitted by society and about 28% of the cumulative anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from 1750 to 2011 now stored in the ocean,
roughly equivalent to the amount taken up by the land biosphere. The price for the
ocean uptake is ocean acidification, which has reached great depths. The implications of this include gradual calcium carbonate under-saturation, the critical threshold of which can be predicted, probably with the smallest uncertainty of all
projections of future change related to the climate issue. Model simulations suggest
this threshold will first be crossed in the Arctic. The specific Sustainable Development Goal target 14.3 calls for minimizing and addressing impacts of ocean
acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels.
32 Development of International Cooperation in Oceanography: Incentives from. . .
533