Applications of OA Science
Environmental Risk and Impact Assessment in Tongoy Bay, Chile and San Quintin Bay, Baja California
The CEAZA Scientific Center launched the Planificación de la Acción Climática (Climate Action Planning - CLAP) research program in the Coquimbo Region of Chile to inform and implement climate action planning at the regional, national, and international level. This 5-year project was designed to improve the region’s ability to generate predictions of future climate change effects at various scales. To achieve this, CLAP aims to advance current observational and modeling capabilities in geophysics and ecology, and to evaluate the sensitivity of marine ecosystems to climate change. By providing new knowledge of the biosphere, CLAP will deliver science-based products for addressing the impacts of climate variability on targeted ecosystem services.
Socio-ecological systems reflect the highly interconnected relationship between human societies and local ecosystems. This interdependence impacts the resilience of these systems. Social scientists and natural scientists (biological, biogeochemical, and physical researchers) from CLAP and OARS are teaming up to explore the sensitivity of socio-ecological systems to the effects of climate change in Tongoy Bay, Chile and Bahia San Quintin, Mexico. At both of these pilot sites, interdisciplinary teams are conducting social-ecological vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessments in aquaculture communities that are impacted by extreme climatic events like ENSO. Researchers will co-produce physical climate storylines (PCS) with aquaculture industries associated with low-likelihood/high-impact events, and implement adequate environmental observations to select the best adaptive strategies for local sustainability and resilience.
Logistics
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Véronique Garçon, CNRS/IPGP, France
Jose Martin Hernandez Ayon, UABC, Mexico
Boris Dewitte, CEAZA, Chile
Rodrigo Estevez, Sociologist, University of Santo Tomas, Chile
Pilar Molina, Head of Knowledge Transfer, CEAZA, Chile
Victor Aguilera, Oceanographer, CEAZA, Chile
Claudio Vasquez, CEAZA Business administrator, CEAZA, Chile
Kirsten Isensee, Oceanographer, IOC UNESCO, France
Linda Barranco, Oceanographer, CEAZA, Chile
Stefan Gelcich, Ecologist, PUC, Chile
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January 2021- December 2025
The CEAZA Scientific Center launched the Planificación de la Acción Climática (Climate Action Planning - CLAP) research program in the Coquimbo Region of Chile in January 2021. This 5-year program will conclude in December 2025.
In November 2023, IOC-UNESCO co-hosted an International Summer School with OARS, GOOD, CLAP, and COPAS. After the success of a Stakeholder Day during this summer school, special emphasis was placed on the social-ecological vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessment being conducted over selected marine dependent human communities as part of the CLAP project.
Since then, IOC-UNESCO has supported two more workshops, and consultants are now writing a social science synthesis of lessons learned. The future of this project involves developing physical climate storylines (PCS) in co-production efforts with aquaculture industries, and implementing adequate environmental observations to select the best adaptive strategies.
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Preliminary survey analyses and workshops were carried out with artisanal fishing communities and the industrial sector in Tongoy Bay, Chile and with oyster farmers in Bahía San Quintín, México to assess risk perception and adaptive strategies in response to extreme weather events.
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Two years of continuous measurements (each 30 min) for pH and monthly discrete samples for high precision pH and TA measurements were collected.
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Quality control tests for continuous data involve calibration at constant temperature (25°C, for pH), data pre-processing to identify outliers, and comparison with higher precision measurements of pH.
The latter is estimated from TA and pH (NBS) data (besides temperature and salinity) with CO2CYS. The accuracy of TA measurements is 2-3 μmol kg-1, and both TA and pH involve the utilization of CRM.
Objectives
This ambitious project aims to capture the dynamic interplay between climate and socio-cultural processes, and their resulting influence on resilience to extreme events. By developing physical climate storylines with local aquaculture communities in Chile and Mexico, this project will assess risk perception to environmental stressors. This framework illustrates how climate variability, local decision-making, and national policies influence the severity of the impacts of high-frequency extreme events on local communities and thereby their adaptive capacity.
Lessons Learned
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Communities in both pilot sites have existing relationships with local universities, through which a high degree of trust has been built over decades. The artisanal scallop fishery in San Quintin was originally seeded by the institute in the 1970s. Several generations of the aquaculture community have engaged with researchers and continue to participate in university-driven projects. Though the collaboration with researchers in Tongoy Bay is much younger, trust has been thoroughly established. The university maintains a community liaison who is highly responsive to community questions. In small towns like these, healthy interpersonal relationships and reciprocal trust are essential to the success of any project, industrial or academic.
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Co-production of physical climate narratives are built on a foundation of regional projections, but they transform into socio-ecological scenarios in which aquaculture farmers can project themselves into the experience. To successfully facilitate this type of narrative-building, it is necessary to link expertise from different scientific disciplines and diverse stakeholder groups. Maintaining an active dialogue with the community in an equitable way is the main pillar of success in a co-production effort such as this.