Abstract
The pace of environmental change lends urgency to the need for integration of climate considerations into ocean policy and management. A recent rapid expansion of ocean and climate policies provides a timely window of opportunity for the scientific community to inform and support these efforts. Lessons can be learned from successful initiatives, where scientists are working hand-in-hand with decision makers and managers to enhance ocean resilience. Looking ahead, the most pressing decision-needs associated with oceans and climate change should serve to prioritize and drive scientific efforts.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the National Climate Assessment Oceans and Marine Resources technical input team and chapter author team, as well as participants in the workshop on 'Sustaining national climate assessments of oceans and coasts', for providing information and perspectives that were instrumental to the development of this manuscript. We also thank F. Choi for his assistance in conceptualization of figures, as well as K. Lackstrom for input on the drought case study. This is publication number 317 of the Northeastern University Marine Science Center. The article contents are solely the opinions of the authors and do not constitute a statement of policy, decision or position on behalf of NOAA, the US government, Conservation International or the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium.
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L.P. and J.H. contributed equally to conceptualization and writing of this manuscript. B.H. helped to develop the concepts for the paper, B.H. and E.F. contributed to writing, and J.H., E.F., B.H., and L.P. led the development of figures and tables.
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Petes, L., Howard, J., Helmuth, B. et al. Science integration into US climate and ocean policy. Nature Clim Change 4, 671–677 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2312
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2312
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