Observations and a model of net calcification declines in Palau's largest coral reef lagoon between 1992 and 2015

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2020. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125(8), (2020): e2020JC016147, doi:10.1029/2020JC016147.Net ecosystem calcification (NEC) rates of Palau's largest lagoon and barrier reef system between 1992 and 2015 are estimated from sparse total alkalinity (TA) and salinity measurements and a tidal exchange model in which surface lagoon water transported offshore on the ebb tide is replaced by saltier (denser) ocean water that sinks to the bottom after entering the lagoon on the flood tide. Observed lagoon salinities are accurately reproduced by the model with no adjustable parameters. To accurately reproduce observed lagoon TA, NEC for the lagoon‐barrier reef system was 70 mmols m−2 day−1 from 1992 to 1998, 35 mmols m−2 day−1 from 1999 to 2012, and 25 mmols m−2 day−1 from 2013 to 2015. This indicates that Palau's largest lagoon and barrier reef system has not recovered, as of 2015, from the 50% decline in NEC in 1998 caused by the loss of coral cover following a severe bleaching event. The cause of the further decline in NEC in 2012–2013 is unclear. Lagoon residence times vary from 8 days during spring tides to 14 days during neap tides and drive substantial spring‐neap variations in lagoon TA (~25% of the mean salinity‐normalized ocean‐lagoon TA difference). Sparse measurements that do not resolve these spring‐neap variations can exhibit apparent long‐term variations in alkalinity that are not due to changes in NEC.This work was partially supported by NSF award 1220529 to A.L.C., S.J.L., and K.E.F.S and NSF award 1737311 to A.L.C. and the Oceanography Department, Texas A&M University K.E.F.S.2021-01-0

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of initial scoping workshops Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the initial scoping workshops held as part of the ELMs Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of the initial workshops was to gather participants’ thoughts on long-term agreements, collaborative arrangements within agricultural or environmental practice, and private or blended finance agreements. The workshops also sought to gain insights into any existing experience participants may have with these matters. Four two-hour workshops were held during this scoping phase. Firstly, an online stakeholder workshop was held with ten participants. This was followed by three in-person farmer workshops; a total of eleven participants attended across these latter three workshops. These workshops employed a mix of discussion and participatory techniques, in order to elicit in-depth information according to the pre-designed protocol. There was broad consensus across all the workshops that Landscape Recovery agreements should be holistic in their approach to environmental gains, covering a range of different outcomes rather than having a single focus

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of template agreement co-design and testing workshops. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the template long-term agreement (LTA) co-design and testing workshops and interviews, held as part of the ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of these was to test, with participants, elements of the template LTA that has been drafted. The workshops and interviews allowed the research team to further co-design and refine the template agreement according to participants’ feedback

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Report of scenario building workshops Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for Defra

This report presents an overview of findings from the scenario building workshops, held as part of the ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for landscape recovery. The aim of these workshops was to develop, with participants, three high-level scenarios around which a long-term agreement for landscape recovery (LR) might be formed. Potential barriers and enablers to a long-term agreement based on each scenario were tested out, and participants’ suggestions for improvements were used to refine the scenarios. Consensus was sought as to which scenario should be taken forward to the next phase of the Test and Trial, where a template long-term agreement will be drafted based upon one of these. Two two-hour workshops were held during this phase. Firstly, an online workshop was held with ten non-farming stakeholders. This was followed by a two-hour in-person farmer workshop which was attended by five participants. In addition, invitees who were unable to attend either of the workshops were given the chance to comment on the scenarios by contributing to the online Miro boards or via email correspondence for a period of two weeks after each workshop. The workshops employed a mix of discussion and participatory techniques, in order to elicit in-depth information according to the predesigned protocol

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Final Report. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for DEFRA

This report presents an overview of the findings from the Defra-funded ELM Test and Trial: Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery. It describes the co-design methodology that the Test and Trial (T&T) used, and explains the co-designed development process used to produce a template head of terms long-term agreement (LTA). This is followed by a detailed summary of the key findings from each milestone of the T&T, before we draw conclusions about the potential viability of an LTA of this kind for Landscape Recovery (LR). Finally, recommendations are made for increasing the likelihood of the uptake and successful implementation of LTAs, especially in lowland, agriculturally productive landscapes. During this T&T, we held eight two-hour workshops, four with non-farming stakeholders and four with farmers1. We also held two-hour group interviews with a total of six farmers, and follow-up and evaluation interviews with six participants. A total of 35 different participants took part in the T&T: 22 stakeholders and 13 farmers. Most participants attended workshops during at least two milestones of the T&T, lending consistency to discussions over the course of the T&T and ensuring that outputs have been co-designed with participants

Principles for delivering transformative co‐design methodologies with multiple stakeholders for achieving nature recovery in England

Achieving successful multi‐stakeholder collaboration for sustainable outcomes is complex. This paper provides key principles for future co‐design projects aimed at fostering an inclusive approach to research. These have been developed based on a novel methodology that co‐designed the essential components of a long‐term, collaborative agreement for a nature recovery scheme in England. Using an assortment of iterative, deliberative participatory methods, this research engaged a wide variety of stakeholders to produce a template agreement for an agri‐environmental policy. We demonstrate that a flexible, highly reflective approach resulted in positive engagement with previously marginalised stakeholders. The approach also successfully navigated the unequal power dynamics seen both within and between groups. Finally, multiple feedback loops allowed participants to continually build on previous interactions as they developed and reviewed the agreement. By drawing out the complexities of the co‐design process, this paper explains how co‐design efforts can produce potentially transformative outputs. We hope that the principles introduced here offer a useful starting point for those planning to undertake multi‐stakeholder co‐design

Co-designing long-term agreements for Landscape Recovery: Head of Terms Template Agreement. Environmental Land Management Test and Trial for DEFRA

This document provides Heads of Terms (HoT) guidance for drafting the terms for a long-term agreement (LTA) to enter into a Landscape Recovery (LR) project with Defra and other private sources of funding, should a blended finance approach be adopted. The template HoT has been informed by a combination of desk research, workshops and interviews with land managers and other stakeholders, and the expert knowledge of Strutt & Parker. After an initial review of literature on existing forms of LTA (see Barkley, Short & Chivers 2022), we carried out eight workshops and a series of group and individual interviews with a total of 35 participants (see Barkley, Chivers & Short 2022a, 2022b and 2023). During these, we sought to better understand the key barriers and enablers to participation in LTAs for LR. We also co-designed, with participants, a hypothetical Natural Flood Management (NFM) scenario, around which the template LTA is framed. Initial drafts of clauses for the HoT agreement were shared with participants at workshops and interviews, and final revisions have been made to the document as a result of participant feedback from these sessions. We focused on developing, with participants, an agreement that could meet the needs of agriculturally productive land managers in a lowland, multi-party context. In this document, we detail the clauses that would likely need to be included when drawing up an LTA in this context. By presenting these clauses as they are shown here, we illustrate the many variations that may arise when working with different land managers and stakeholders, each of whom are likely to have differing requirements of an agreement

Coral macrobioerosion is accelerated by ocean acidification and nutrients

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014]. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Geological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geology 43 (2015): 7-10, doi: 10.1130/G36147.1.Coral reefs exist in a delicate balance between calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production and CaCO3 loss. Ocean acidification (OA), the CO2-driven decline in seawater pH and CaCO3 saturation state (Ω), threatens to tip this balance by decreasing calcification, and increasing erosion and dissolution. While multiple CO2 manipulation experiments show coral calcification declines under OA, the sensitivity of bioerosion to OA is less well understood. Previous work suggests that coral and coral reef bioerosion increase with decreasing seawater Ω. However, in the surface ocean, Ω and nutrient concentrations often covary, making their relative influence difficult to resolve. Here, we exploit unique natural gradients in Ω and nutrients across the Pacific basin to quantify the impact of these factors, together and independently, on macrobioerosion rates of coral skeletons. Using an automated program to quantify macrobioerosion in 3-D computerized tomography (CT) scans of coral cores, we show that macrobioerosion rates of live Porites colonies in both low-nutrient (oligotrophic) and high-nutrient (>1 µM nitrate) waters increase significantly as Ω decreases. However, the sensitivity of macrobioerosion to Ω is ten times greater under high-nutrient conditions. Our results demonstrate that OA (decreased Ω) alone can increase coral macrobioerosion rates, but the interaction of OA with local stressors exacerbates its impact, accelerating a shift toward net CaCO3 removal from coral reefs.This work was supported by NSF OCE 1041106 to A.L.C. and K.E.S., NSF OCE 1220529 to A.L.C., TNC award PNA/WHOI061810 to A.L.C., NSF Graduate Research Fellowships to T.M.D. and H.C.B., and a WHOI-OLI post-doctoral fellowship to K.E.S.2015-11-1

African biomass burning is a substantial source of phosphorus deposition to the Amazon, Tropical Atlantic Ocean, and Southern Ocean

The deposition of phosphorus (P) from African dust is believed to play an important role in bolstering primary productivity in the Amazon Basin and Tropical Atlantic Ocean (TAO), leading to sequestration of carbon dioxide. However, there are few measurements of African dust in South America that can robustly test this hypothesis and even fewer measurements of soluble P, which is readily available for stimulating primary production in the ocean. To test this hypothesis, we measured total and soluble P in long-range transported aerosols collected in Cayenne, French Guiana, a TAO coastal site located at the northeastern edge of the Amazon. Our measurements confirm that in boreal spring when African dust transport is greatest, dust supplies the majority of P, of which 5% is soluble. In boreal fall, when dust transport is at an annual minimum, we measured unexpectedly high concentrations of soluble P, which we show is associated with the transport of biomass burning (BB) from southern Africa. Integrating our results into a chemical transport model, we show that African BB supplies up to half of the P deposited annually to the Amazon from transported African aerosol. This observational study links P-rich BB aerosols from Africa to enhanced P deposition in the Amazon. Contrary to current thought, we also show that African BB is a more important source of soluble P than dust to the TAO and oceans in the Southern Hemisphere and may be more important for marine productivity, particularly in boreal summer and fall