1. Climate Change Adaptation –
Marine Biodiversity & Fisheries
KEY MESSAGES –
1- Portfolio approaches are essential
2- Climate change information needs are
synergistic
3- Climate change science challenges are
both specific & generic

2. Climate Change Adaptation –
Marine Biodiversity & Fisheries
3 - Climate change science
challenges are both specific &
generic
– quality science is always our goal and
expected by our community, especially in a
very confused policy space

3. Major Science
Challenges
1 - Attribution– Climate change drivers and other
stressors [the 5% or the threshold issue]
2 - Variability– Climate change and a variable
climate, environment, recruitment success, management
arrangements etc [e.g. the sand castle debate]
3 - Extremes–– a low frequency high severity event
may be agenda setting [frequency versus severity plot]
4 – Synergies, feedbacks, interactions and
unforeseen consequences – do we really understand
our systems? [integration on all scales and contexts]

4. Major Science
Challenges [cont]
5 – Management pragmatism & adaptation
smarts– the so what? and do what? questions [the
“doom & gloom” or opportunity focus]
6 – Policy Confusion– arguably the most
confused public policy space in Australia [and
globally multiple agendas] placing extra
responsibility on science
7 – Science quality, certainty, errors &
leadership - responding to a questioning
community, and justifiably so! [the downscaling or
down skilling issue]

5. Changing currents in marine biodiversity
governance and management:
Responding to climate change
Spatial Scope
State marine jurisdictions:
• Queensland (between Cape York and the NSW border)
• New South Wales
• Tasmania (between the Kent Group and Southeast Cape)
Commonwealth jurisdiction adjoining these
state waters

6. Human adaptation options to increase resilience
of conservation-dependent seabirds and marine
mammals impacted by climate change
Alistair Hobday (CSIRO)
Lynda Chambers (BOM)
John Arnould (Deakin)

7. 2060
Frontiers in Ecology, 2006.
•95% of all deep-sea reef forming corals occur above the aragonite
saturation horizon
•By 2099, 70% of these sites will be in undersaturated water

8. Project: 2010/536
Beach and Surf Tourism and
Recreation in Australia:
Vulnerability and Adaptation
Mike Raybould (Bond)
Neil Lazarow (Griffith / DCCEE)
Dave Anning (UNSW/Bond)
8

9. Opportunity
-Range of long-term physical and biological datasets available
in SE Australia to build understanding of natural variability,
climate change patterns, likely range extensions and species
interactions.
Use this understanding to develop climate change related
predictions and potential adaptive intervention strategies to
enhance resilience of temperate reef ecosystems.

10. Richard Ling
Preadapting a Tasmanian coastal ecosystem to
ongoing climate change through reintroduction of a
locally extinct species
Nic Bax (CSIRO and UTAS)
Alistair Hobday (CSIRO)
Neville Barrett (UTAS)

11. Key outputs
Objective 2 Objective 1
Objective 3
Objective 4
1. Greatly extends existing scientific knowledge on the likely effects of climate change on
coral reef fishes, considering for the first time impacts on important fisheries species
(significant potential for high impact journal publications)
2. Fundamental information on environmental tolerances (at multiple stages in the life-cycle),
which is critical for improving captive breeding and aquaculture
3. Directly contributes to local management of fisheries resources asidenitified GBRMPA
Climate Change Action Plan., including
i) to explore specific sensitivities of ecologically and economically important species
ii) identifying areas of low and high resilience to climate change to prioritize management
iii) identify thresholds beyond whichclimate change of coral trout
Effects of climate change causes irreversible damage
morgan.pratchett@jcu.edu.au

12. Vulnerability of barramundi and related
industries to climate change
Dean Jerry, Carolyn Smith-Keune, Guy Carton, Jeremy vanderWal, Igor Pirozzi,
Kate Hutson and John Russell (QDEEDI)
James Cook University
Townsville, QLD
Australia

13. Aims
1) To consolidate natural resource information that is
currently dispersed and inaccessible, but relevant to
impacts on the oyster industry (e.g. pH, salinity, Chl-a,
seagrass and wetlands, lease conditions etc.)
2)Deliver it in a format with relevance to the oyster industry
to inform practical, adaptive reponses to shifting and
variable environmental conditions

14. Identification of climate-driven species shifts and
adaptation options for recreational fishers
Climate Adaptation
Daniel Gledhill
Ichthyologist, CSIRO
10 & 11 February, 2011

15. WA Program Development
National Climate Change Adaptation Research Plan:
Marine Biodiversity and Resources
Steve Blake, WAMSI

16. FRDC: Climate Change workshop
Management implications of climate change
effects on fisheries in WA
Nick Caputi
February 2011

17. JCU, Qld DEEDI, NT DoR, GBRMPA, QSIA, Infofish Australia,
UTAS, RRRC, Maynard Marine

18. Climate Change Adaptation
Building Community and Industry Knowledge
Jenny Shaw

19. Integrated conceptual framework...with
gaps still to be plugged
Knowledge & Strategies for Adaptation
Sentinel Biodiversity & Tourism Sentinel Indigenous,
Species & Communities Recreation/Tourism & Commercial
Species
Marine Fisheries
Marine
Management
Biodiversity
Planning &
Management
Marine Systems and Populations – Inshore & Inshore & Estuary
Shifts and Management Implications Estuary Based Based Aquaculture
Wild Fisheries
Nearshore and Estuary Climate
Marine Biophysical Climate Impact
Impact & Adaptation
Understanding

20. Climate Change Adaptation –
Marine Biodiversity & Fisheries
2 - Climate change
information needs are
synergistic
– all resource management challenges
have multiple drivers and are multi -
faceted in their solution

21. A Mitigation Example -
“Blue” Carbon [UNEP]
About 55% of all biological carbon capture is
“blue” carbon – ie: in the world’s ocean
ecosystems
Some 93% of the earth’s CO2 is stored and
cycled through our oceans
Between 50% - 71% of all carbon storage in the
ocean’s sediments occurs in just 0.5% of the
ocean area – the wetlands & estuaries

22. A Mitigation Example -
“Blue” Carbon [UNEP]
Wetlands and estuaries comprise less than 0.05
of the world’s land based plant biomass but store
a comparable amount of carbon
....or capture and store about the equivalent of
half the world’s transport sector emissions
annually
....but between 2% and 7% of our blue carbon
sinks [wetlands] are lost annually
Clearly optimisation is essential – for
habitat, food, biodiversity + carbon

23. An Adaptation Example
We will respond to climate change by
adapting and responding to climate
variability
Australia already has the most variable climate
Climate variability is the time frame for enterprise
profitability
The extremes are where the profits & costs really count
www.managingclimate.gov.au

24. July-September outcome…
May POAMA prediction
POAMA
Max T tercile 1
POAMA RF tercile 3
POAMA
Min T
tercile 1

25. Keeping the Great Barrier
Reef like this......a practice
innovation example
Sustainable Landscapes

26. ...not this
- implies attention to fostering
more profitable and sustainable
practices at commodity and
catchment scales
Sustainable Landscapes

27. Reef Rescue & Project Catalyst Roll Out
Key Ingredients include:
Grants [Reef Rescue] –
Increased $incentives if move to all “A” practices
Social Attitudes help determine $allocations by catchment
Regulations [Qld Govt] -
Ensuring all the industry moves to at least “C” practices
Monitoring [Reef Rescue + Natural Resources Groups]
Industry based practice monitoring by industry
Algorithms to translate to likely change in off-farm export
Water Quality & Ecosystem Health monitoring
R&D [Project Catalyst + Reef Rescue + Managing Climate
Variability + RDC Practice Projects]
What are the “new extremes”?
What are the A* opportunities to respond to these extremes?
How do we accelerate innovation?
Sustainable Landscapes

28. Climate Change Adaptation –
Marine Biodiversity & Fisheries
1 - Portfolio approaches are
essential - – if we are to deliver
research findings that meet multiple
objectives, policy contexts, investors and
stakeholders

29. Characteristics of a
Portfolio Approach
R&D programs should -
 meet the needs of multiple investors
– already FRDC, DCCEE, DAFF & State Governments
 be bedded in multiple policy
constructs - eg National Adaptation Research Plan,
National Climate Change Action Plan for Fisheries and
Aquaculture, FRDC Strategic Plan, National
Environmental Research Plan, Marine Biodiversity etc

30. Characteristics of a
Portfolio Approach [cont]
R&D programs should -
 deliver to multiple stakeholders and
sectors – c o n s e r v a t i o n , w i l d c o m m e r c i a l f i s h e r s ,
aquaculture, recreational fishers, indigenous resource
users, research agencies, management agencies, tourist
and other sectors
 be both national and regional in
scope – with a recognition that change and innovation
happens at multiple levels

31. Essential elements of a
portfolio approach
The key ingredients -
 conceptual frameworks – as a basis for
establishing the knowledge gaps and investment
priorities to meet both investor and stakeholder needs
 smart data systems -
management, discovery, synergy, rigor, dissemination
and legacy
 research capability – c o m p a r a t i v e l y m u l t i -
disciplinary and integrated, including across institutions

32. Essential elements of a
portfolio approach [cont]
The key ingredients –
 researcher information sharing and
networks – s e l f m a n a g i n g t e a m s b o u g h t t o g e t h e r a t
all levels within and across portfolios
 project management in a program
context – phasing projects and outputs so projects
synergise & integrate
 outcome and knowledge delivery
orientation – at scales from individual user to
national agenda setting final reporting

33. Climate Change Adaptation –
Marine Biodiversity & Fisheries
 Portfolio approaches are essential
 Climate change information needs are
synergistic
 Climate change science challenges are
both specific & generic