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Climate change and its impacts on our oceans and coasts - a full report
Two NRF researchers, from SAIAB (South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity) and the SAEON (South African Environmental Observation Network) Egagasini Node recently edited a comprehensive report on current knowledge in this field, incorporating the work of 19 authors from 12 institutions. Nicola James (SAIAB) and Juliet Hermes (SAEON) had the task of editing the marine component of a report titled Insights into the impacts of climate change on the South African marine and coastal environment. The SAEON report provides the details behind the marine component in South Africa's Second National Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was published in 2010. The Second Communication is an integrated document that provides a relatively short overview of climate change and its implications for South Africa. "SAEON approached 19 authors to write chapters on climate change and the marine environment. We then summarised this work into a 20 page chapter for the IPCC report," says James. The authors assessed climate impacts by firstly reviewing the scientific literature on climate change impacts on South African marine life and ecosystems in the context of known impacts elsewhere in the world. The next steps involved summarising the key trends, impacts and vulnerabilities of ecosystems and marine life to climate change and assessing knowledge gaps and the research and resources needed to better assess possible impacts. "The amount of work and information that the authors put into the report could not all be contained in a short summary, so we produced a full length document covering all aspects of climate change and its impacts on South Africa's marine and coastal environment," says Hermes. "This provides an excellent reference document, addressing past and current research, as well as highlighting potential issues and gaps in our knowledge." The report is written for a scientific audience and scientists working on climate change will particularly find it useful. Download the full report |
