Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

This capstone project tells the untold story of marine diamond mining, tracing its origins from the shores of Namibia to the fjords of Greenland. Despite the stark differences between these two locales, they share striking similarities in diamond potential. In Namibia, marine diamond mining flourished prior to the country's independence and the establishment of international mining laws, setting a precedent for potential challenges in Greenland's current political landscape. Through in-depth research, stakeholder interviews, and media production, this project fosters an informed storyline for a full-length documentary film. The capstone deliverables encompass a film treatment, budget, film plan, concise trailer, and transcribed interviews, strategically crafted towards securing future support of the project. The outcome of such seeking to advocate for greater transparency in the diamond industry and policies that prioritize both economic development and environmental integrity. The final film will engage audiences worldwide in considering the implications of marine diamond mining for Greenland's evolving climate and economy.

CLARITY film treatment can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ClarityTreatment

CLARITY interview transcriptions can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ClarityTranscriptions

Despite the massive scale of the Great Southern Reef, which hugs the coastline from New South Wales to Western Australia, many residents are unaware of its existence. Even fewer residents understand the large amount of biodiversity found in this interconnected temperate system characterized by kelp forests and rocky reefs. Efforts to publicize the area and gain traction for funding and conservation are in their infancy. Conservation funding remains disproportionately low compared to the Great Southern Reef’s counterpart, the Great Barrier Reef. Visibility is a tool that can be used to generate greater awareness, and by extension, balance funding and protection for the Great Southern Reef. To raise awareness, this project uses science communication tools and engages with local communities across the Great Southern Reef. By utilizing illustrative storytelling through film, this project looks through SeadragonSearch, a specific community that has come together to protect the endemic seadragon through photography. The goal in documenting this community is to enhance understanding of the Great Southern Reef while also encouraging the public to find their own community science action that can spark a movement of change. 

The purpose of this tool is to create a method for understanding the community-level impacts of marine spatial planning through the lens of well-being. Well-being consists of three dimensions, material, relational, and subjective. Assigning measurable indicators to each produces a quantitative and holistic measurement of well-being. Here, household well-being is measured through an 11-question, subjective survey, complemented by an additional set of subjective resilience questions. The household well-being and resilience scores generated from the surveys are aggregated to produce community-level well-being and resilience scores. These scores are useful for guiding marine spatial planners, as they identify vulnerable communities, highlight differences in communities, and track changes in community well-being over time. The insights gained from these scores can inform adaptive management measures, help planners select optimal locations for marine spatial plans, and inform planners’ understanding of changes in community well-being associated with marine spatial planning. This tool addresses the need for holistic, practical, and transferrable approaches and promotes mutually beneficial marine spatial plans.

As many marine species face dwindling populations due to the effects of climate change, it is vital to gain crucial information on what this means for the future of these organisms and their surrounding ecosystems. In order to gain insight to what ocean ecosystems might look like with shifting climate variability, we can look to the past. The goal of this project is to produce a two-million-year record of abundance of pelagic fish and sharks in the waters off Cape Town, South Africa. A Ichthyolith Accumulation Rate (IAR) was established to identify fish and shark production over the span of 2 million years. Results from this study show significant fluctuations of IAR, potentially contributing to the glacial-interglacial cycles that characterize the Pleistocene. When compared to complementary data, IAR data from this site is significantly higher compared to other subtropical regions. This increased IAR may be attributed to the behavior of the Agulhas Current that flows around the southern end of the Cape of Good Hope. This project aims to expand the geological history of fish abundances, providing baseline data to fill gaps in knowledge and guide future management efforts.

See the storymap created for this project here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9e02851bc352487db26e5c4aa9fed27b

Coral reefs are facing unprecedented threats due to climate change and local stressors,necessitating a better understanding of their responses and resilience mechanisms regionally. This study examines the impacts of the 2020 mass bleaching event on coral reef dynamics in Kenting National Park, Taiwan, using large-area imaging (LAI) technology. Four sites were analyzed, revealing insights into coral abundance, planar area, size distribution, and survivalrates of two common coral taxa, corymbose Pocillopora and massive Porites. Whilerestricted in scope, our findings highlight the resilience and adaptability of coral species inthe face of environmental stressors. Despite limitations, our study underscores the importance of LAI data in providing detailed insights into coral reef demography and dynamics, serving as both a scientific analysis tool and a means of effective science communication. Further research is needed to fully understand underlying mechanisms and ensure the long-termsustainability of coral reef ecosystems in Kenting National Park.

Island communities, which rely on marine resources, are increasingly facing risks such as global climate change and overfishing, leading to lowered catch rates and biodiversity loss. This not only threatens ecosystems, but livelihoods as well; thus, sustainable ocean and fisheries management actions are critical in maintaining habitat integrity and increasing fish populations. Developing legal policy and restoring habitats are two important sustainability actions; however, these methods do not always ensure community buy-in or acceptance. A growing field in resource management involves the use of Behavior-Centered Design (BCD) and Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) to improve community involvement and adoption of management measures, working with communities to encourage behaviors that promote the sustainable use of ocean resources. BCD and CBSM combine how humans make decisions with steps to design programs to improve inclusion and collaboration, and enhance impact such as to increase successful adoption and implementation of conservation policies. It has been proven to be an effective tool, accelerating community support of sustainability initiatives. This project created a guidebook centered around implementing these behavioral approaches in the context of ocean and fisheries management, created with guidance from personale at the Waitt Institute, the Blue Azores Program, and the University of California San Diego. It will support conservation managers in their initiatives and outreach with communities by providing an easy-to-understand framework and knowledge base focused on behavioral approaches. The guide includes aspects such as successes and lessons learned in BCD throughout the industry, ethics and social justice,and strategies for implementation and testing for success. It presents a case study of São Miguel Island, a community with a rich culture of sustainability throughout history, as well as in current fisheries and ecosystem conservation programs. The island is in the Azores archipelago, an autonomous region located about 1000 miles off the coast of Portugal. A supplemental ArcGIS StoryMap web page was created to highlight the rich marine-based culture of communities on São, Miguel Island. The guide will act as a resource that can support marine managers in their initiatives, improving inclusion, equity, and increasing the chances of effecting long-term change.

Please see media created for this project here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a9faa311e62640a5b830b679cb80bb88

There is a growing need to understand sea turtle biology and distribution as changingoceanographic conditions may cause dramatic shifts over time. However, conservation efforts for highly migratory and elusive species such as green and leatherback sea turtles remains achallenge, especially in the marine environment, limiting research to nesting females while the remainder of their life cycle is largely hidden. (1) Green turtles forage in bays and estuaries in Southern California and have been found to originate from tropical nesting beaches in Mexico. (1) On top of logistical challenges, traditional genetic studies on these species often rely on tissuesamples, which can be invasive and stressful for turtles, costly, and labor-intensive (3).Environmental DNA (eDNA) eDNA offers a non-invasive alternative, potentially revolutionizing the field. This method involves collecting samples of water, sand, air, etc. and essentially extracting DNA straight from the environment rather than the species of interest. (4) Previous studies have shown that eDNA can be extracted and identified from water samplescollected directly next to green turtles (5). The next challenge is to be able to quantify this eDNA to reliably determine presence or absence of the species, and to estimate relative abundance. Droplet Digital PCR is a system used to precisely quantify the amount of target DNA in a sample, and has not yet been used for eDNA studies of sea turtles. Without the need to capture or even see the organism itself, eDNA techniques could be vital for the detection and analysis of rare and elusive species. However, there is a need to systematically evaluate the reliability andefficacy of eDNA methodologies for sea turtle research, addressing issues related to sampleidentification, quantification, and temporal dynamics.

Climate adaptation plans are an effective way to manage a marine ecosystem and support climate change research. However, in developing nations that have to deal with the impacts of climate change, there is little follow-up and no measures on whether these climate adaptation plans are implemented effectively and yield the desired results. This report contains a detailed analysis of a climate adaptation plan implemented in Tabasco, Mexico, that sought to decrease vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. This report consists of a background on the climate adaptation plan in Tabasco and a comprehensive, step-by-step comparison of this plan to the the UNFCCC framework for adaptation. Lastly, this report is complete with two case studies in Tabasco and policy recommendations for improved climate adaptation plans and government involvement in climate policy. The purpose of this report is to determine that despite the completion status of the climate adaptation plan, the goals outlined in this plan were not achieved satisfactorily and did not reduce vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Mexico has faced challenges in effectively implementing conservation tools, ranging from weak enforcement to poor coordination between national, state, and local authorities. Ultimately, this report outlines the importance of a comprehensive and stakeholder-inclusive approach to climate change policy and planning, especially in the global south. 

The blue economy is an area of growing investment and evolution across industries, governments, and communities. The rising global population coupled with rapid development in technology and trade has spurred governments across the world to look to the ocean for new sources of economic growth. While the ocean has historically been seen as an endless source of protein and extractive resources, the impacts of climate change are revealing the fallacy of this long-held assumption. Ocean acidification, warmer temperatures, and rising sea levels are resulting in habitat and biodiversity loss, extreme weather patterns, and changes to fish stock compositions and migration patterns. As a result of these changes, it is increasingly important to ensure a sustainable coexistence between humans and marine ecosystems. By developing a blue economy that prioritizes not only economic growth, but also the health of the environment and the livelihoods of local communities, it is possible to build a lasting blue economy for generations to come. The following paper analyzes existing blue economy frameworks utilized around the world to inform a model that assesses the feasibility of implementing blue economy programs in U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries.

This study examines coral reef management strategies using case studies from Maui, Fiji, and Florida. Through interviews and observations, the investigation explores community-driven initiatives and scientific efforts to conserve coral reefs. In Maui, holistic projects like Pacific Whale Foundation's Mauka to Makai program respond to environmental challenges. In Fiji, organizations like Coral Gardeners and Corals for Conservation employ tailored active restoration methods. Meanwhile, ongoing efforts in Florida underscore the urgency of addressing climate change. These findings emphasize the importance of global collaboration and proactive measures to ensure the resilience of coral reef ecosystems. Digital communication through photography and videography will reveal monitoring plans to combat the local stressors to coral reefs in each region.

Please see media created for this project here:   bit.ly/3VJHdMJ