Ocean Frontier Institute

Climate change and biodiversity loss are twin crises that are driving global marine conservation efforts. However, if unaccounted for, climate change can undermine the efficacy of such efforts. Despite this, integration of climate change adaptation and resilience into spatial marine conservation and management has been limited in Canada and elsewhere. With climate change impacts becoming increasingly severe, now is the time to anticipate and reduce impacts wherever possible. We provide five recommendations for an inclusive, proactive, climate-ready approach for Canada’s growing marine conservation network: (1) integrating climate-resilience as a universal objective of the Canadian Marine Conservation Network, creating and implementing (2) national transdisciplinary working groups with representation from all knowledge holders and (3) necessary tools that integrate climate change into conservation design, (4) defining operational and climate-relevant monitoring and management objectives, and (5) strengthening communication and increasing knowledge exchange around the roles and benefits of protected areas within government and towards the public. Canada’s extensive marine and coastal areas reflect national and international responsibility to engage on this issue. Canada is well positioned to assume a leading role in climate change adaptation for marine conservation and help accelerate progress towards international commitments around mitigating ongoing biodiversity loss and climate change.

Abstract Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover is shrinking due to warming. Long-term sediment trap data show higher export efficiency of particulate organic carbon in regions with seasonal sea-ice compared to regions without sea-ice. To investigate this sea-ice enhanced export, we compared how different phytoplankton communities in seasonally ice-free and ice-covered regions of the Fram Strait affect carbon export and vertical dispersal of microbes. In situ collected aggregates, combined with microbial source tracking revealed that larger aggregates from sea-ice and under-ice diatom blooms were responsible for higher export efficiency and vertical microbial connectivity. During early summer, Phaeocystis aggregates dominated the ice-free regions and exported two-fold less carbon than diatom aggregates in ice-covered regions, and also less surface-born microbial clades to the deep-sea. This suggests that continuous ice-loss will further decrease pelagic-benthic coupling, impacting the quantity and quality of food input due to formation of slow-settling aggregates, with potential repercussions for Arctic deep-sea ecosystems.

Abstract Global oceanographic monitoring initiatives started by measuring abiotic essential ocean variables but are currently incorporating biological and metagenomic sampling. There is, however, a large gap between the taxonomic information produced by bacterial genomic analyses and information on bacterial functions, which is sought by biogeochemists, ecologists, and modellers. Here, we provide a mechanistic understanding of how a bacterial marker gene (16S rRNA) can be used to derive latitudinal trends for core metabolic pathways and, ultimately, be used for mapping ecosystem function change in global monitoring campaigns. From a transect spanning 7000 km in the South Pacific Ocean we identified ten metabolic pathways, which were related to ecological processes of primary productivity, temperature-regulated growth, coping strategies for nutrient limitation, energy metabolism, and degradation. We compared and contrasted these metabolic pathways with measured physico-biochemical parameters within and between oceanographic provinces, and found that functional diversity is as affected by oceanographic boundaries as is taxonomic composition. This study demonstrates that bacterial marker gene data, sampled and analysed with low costs and high throughput, can be used to infer on metabolic changes at the community scale. Such analyses may provide insight into the drivers of ecological changes and, overall, into the effects of biodiversity on marine ecosystem functioning.

Abstract Unconventional plays present a challenging case to design an optimized stimulation program and to maximize reservoir contact and hydrocarbon production. In this regard, conducting a reliable well spacing optimization study demands realistic and explicit fracture descriptions. This work applies an integrated technique to a multi-well case study in the Permian Basin to extract fracture dimensions based on microseismicity-derived behavioral fracture maps, while honoring the RTA-based estimates of the contributing fracture volume. The fracture dimensions are then used to conduct analytical and numerical studies to decide the optimal well spacing/placement design in the target formation. The numerical simulations in two stacked and staggered configurations confirm that although the staggered development causes a marginal decrease in the individual wells' performance, if successfully accomplished, it contributes to a higher vertical sweep efficiency from the section. Furthermore, comparing the approximations of failure planes, constructed based on the spatiotemporal analysis of microseismic events, with those achieved through seismic moment tensor inversion confirms that the collective behavior analysis gives fair estimates of fracture spatial evolutions.

Time-series data of physical oceanography, ocean current velocity, nutrient biogeochemistry, molecular biology, and carbon/particle export were obtained from mooring CAO2-01 in the Amundsen Basin of the central Arctic Ocean in August 2023 – September 2024. The mooring was deployed during RV POLARSTERN expedition PS138 and recovered during PS144. The attached archive contains raw data files of 5 Seabird SBE37 MicroCATs (nominal depths: 26m, 200m, 267m, 3796, 4291; sampling interval 30min or 1h), one upward-looking RDI Workhorse 300 kHz ADCP (nominal depth: 46m; sampling interval 30min), two AADI RCM11 current meter (nominal depths: 215m, 3796m; sampling interval 1h), one Wetlabs ECO PAR sensor (nominal depth: 26m; sampling interval 1h), one Wetlabs ECO Triplet fluorometer (nominal depth: 26m; sampling interval 2h), two Satlantic SUNA nitrate sensors (nominal depths: 26m, 267m; sampling interval 4h), two Sunburst SAMI-pCO2 sensors (nominal depths: 26m, 267m; sampling interval 1h) and two Sunburst SAMI-pH sensors (nominal depths: 26m, 267m; sampling interval 3h). The Sunburst SAMI-pH sensor SN193 had a power issue and did not collect any data. The mooring also included two McLane RAS water samplers (nominal depths: 26m, 267m), an ASL AZFP Acoustic Zooplankton Fish Profiler (nominal depth: 155m), a bio-optical trap (nominal depth: 870m), and two sediment traps (nominal depths: 214m, 3795m). Auxiliary information, such as sensor calibration sheets, mooring diagrams, and schedule files, is also provided, if applicable.

Abstract Ecosystem-based management is key to achieving sustainable ocean use. To realize this potential, marine ecosystem-based management requires greater involvement of the social sciences and humanities, especially to adopt a more holistic approach and incorporate human–nature interactions. An understanding of the state of marine social science and humanities research and its potential to provide advice for management can inform and further its use. To contribute to a future where marine ecosystem-based management fully utilizes marine social science and humanities research, this analysis systematically scoped and reviewed 176 peer-reviewed social science and humanities papers about marine systems in Atlantic Canada published between 2000 and 2021. The analysis used ecological, economic, social/cultural, and governance objectives defined in an ecosystem-based management framework to structure the analysis. The analysis asked three questions: (i) What is the scope of the social science and humanities literature about aquatic systems in Atlantic Canada? (ii) How does that literature relate to objectives in ecosystem-based management? (iii) To what extent is that literature framed for practical integration of advice into decision making? Results indicate a comprehensive body of research, with potential to inform ecosystem-based management but with limited framing for practical integration. This result highlights missed opportunities for the research to be ready for use in ecosystem-based management. The research offers a framework, method, and strategies to understand and improve the scope and practical use of social science and humanities to inform marine ecosystem-based management in Atlantic Canada and globally.

Time-series data of physical oceanography, ocean current velocity, and hydroacoustics were obtained from mooring CAO1-01 in the Amundsen Basin of the central Arctic Ocean in August 2023 – September 2024. The mooring was deployed during RV POLARSTERN expedition PS138 and recovered during PS144. The upper part of the mooring consisted of a 28m long solid plastic tube to protect the rope and shallow instruments from drifting icebergs and sea ice keels. The attached archive contains raw data files of 9 Seabird SBE37 MicroCATs (nominal depths: 8m, 14m, 24m, 30m, 35m, 46m, 51m, 61m, 86m; sampling interval 30min or 1h), 7 Seabird SBE56 temperature logger (nominal depths: 20m, 56m, 66m, 136m, 186m, 243m, 390m; sampling interval 1min), one upward-looking Nortek S500 ADCP (plus external battery pack) mounted on a gimbal in the top segment of the tube (nominal depth 8m; sampling interval 1h for average current measurements, and 4h for wave/burst measurements), and one upward-looking RDI Longranger 75 kHz ADCP (nominal depth: 291m; sampling interval 30min). The mooring also included a Develogic SonoVault hydroacoustic recorder (nominal depth: 267m). Auxiliary information, such as sensor calibration sheets, mooring diagrams, and schedule files, is also provided, if applicable.

<p>Deep convection in the subpolar North Atlantic has been suggested to be a key process impacting the strength and variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation as well as the ocean’s uptake and deep storage of heat and anthropogenic CO<sub>2. </sub>However, the spatial pattern and strength of deep convection are subject to variability on interannual-to-decadal timescales and despite intense research in the field the nature of this variability is not fully understood. In this work, we employ a hindcast simulation with the eddy-rich (1/20°) ocean/sea-ice model configuration VIKING20X to analyze the variability of deep convection in the subpolar North Atlantic over the last decades (1980-2018). A special focus is set on mixed layer depth (MLD) pattern and deep water formation characteristics in the Labrador versus Irminger Sea. We show that, in agreement with observations, the VIKING20X hindcast captures strong convection events with particularly deep MLDs in the winters of the early 1980s, late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as in recent years. Yet, there are large differences in the spatial pattern of the deep convection events, as well as in the volume and thermohaline properties of the newly formed deep water. Most notably, in recent years deep convection intensity, and in particular its spatial extent, increased in the Irminger Sea and decreased in the Labrador Sea compared to the late 1980s and early 1990s. We finally discuss potential drivers of the simulated changes, thereby contrasting the relative importance of wintertime atmosphere-ocean buoyancy fluxes and oceanic preconditioning.</p>