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Professor Mumby's research on the impact of parrotfish grazing on the resilience of coral reefs has had a direct impact on the management of Caribbean reefs and fisheries. The results of his research have influenced conservation policy across the Caribbean and have led to the Governments of Belize and Bonaire enacting legislation to ban fishing of parrotfish. The work has also motivated the National Marine Fisheries Service (USA) and the Caribbean Fishery Management Council (Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands) to set annual catch and size limits for parrotfish caught in US Caribbean fisheries.
Our award-winning work (Aviva/Earthwatch International Award 2006) on measuring growth of corals in relation to climate and environmental changes linked to capacity building has informed managers and policy-makers in developing countries of the measures required for an integrated system of conservation and management. In Jamaica, our research on modelling coral growth linked to discussions with local stakeholders and the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) showed that implementation of co-operative management plans can allow reef ecosystems to withstand major physical effects; these plans have been implemented. In Belize, we worked with local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the Fisheries Department to enable them to both measure and model coral reef growth, and so develop methods for sustaining their reefs. Our work has enabled reef managers in Jamaica and Belize to monitor their reefs and they have put in place new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) so that their reefs can be protected in times of climate and environmental change. This has resulted in increased fishing yields in both countries.
Newcastle University research has made significant contributions to international best practice guidelines used to restore coral reefs. Coral reefs are the most biologically diverse eco-systems on earth, directly and indirectly providing an estimated $375 billion per year in ecosystem services. Despite their importance, very little work had been undertaken to assess the strategies used to rehabilitate damaged reefs prior to the Newcastle research. Research findings have subsequently been incorporated into international best practice guidelines which are used by a diverse group of users including reef managers who use them to plan more ecologically robust reefs and maritime insurers who use them to assess insurance claims related to reef damage by grounded ships.
University of Southampton research has been crucial in informing and stimulating worldwide debate on geoengineering — the possible large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system in order to avoid dangerous climate change. Climate modellers at Southampton helped to reveal the potential extent of the fossil fuel "hangover" — the long-term damaging effects expected from anthropogenic CO2 emissions centuries or even millennia after they end. This work led Professor John Shepherd FRS to initiate and chair a Royal Society study, whose 2009 report, Geoengineering the Climate: Science, government and uncertainty, is the global benchmark document on geoengineering strategies, influencing UK and foreign government policy.
By putting public engagement at the heart of our deep-sea research, we have delivered benefits to society of generating inspiration and curiosity about science, raising public awareness of our research insights and their context, and providing cultural enrichment by supporting lifelong learning. We have achieved these impacts through: interactions with print, online, and broadcast media that have brought our research to millions; series of talks and events that have inspired specific audiences of tens of thousands; and a network of interactive online resources that has enabled people worldwide to share in our exploration of deep-ocean environments and their biodiversity.
Dr Ceri Lewis' research expeditions to the Canadian High Arctic to investigate impacts of ocean acidification, have informed educational material, introducing oceans education to schools, both nationally and internationally. Lewis worked with Digital Explorer, a non-profit organisation, to provide free lesson plans and multi-media resources on ocean acidification and Arctic climate change to classrooms, both nationally and internationally. The resulting education resources, informed by Ceri's fieldwork, are already being used by 1,225 UK secondary schools (i.e. 30% of secondary schools in the UK), reaching over 658,000 pupils within the first year of being launched. These school resources are also being used internationally including a training programme in Alaska and outreach examples across Europe.
Based on biogenic reef research at Heriot-Watt University (HWU), nine Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been designated and established in the Northeast Atlantic, Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, and a further six are under consideration. These MPAs represent 10% of the Caribbean Sea area, 6% of the UK's inshore Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and 18% of the MPAs under consideration in Scotland. In addition, our ecological assessments of the biodiversity value and structure of biogenic habitats, and their sensitivities to widespread stressors, stakeholder conflict assessment and economic assessments have underpinned the objectives, management measures and assessment of MPAs, and other marine spatial planning initiatives, undertaken in the context of both the current marine environmental conditions and future climate change trajectories.
Research on the status, distribution and ecology of sea turtles at the University of Exeter has driven national and international conservation policy, engaged millions of people worldwide and raised substantial funding for conservation. Governments including the UK, Cayman Islands, Cyprus and Gabon have used this research in making legislation and multi-million pound management decisions. Development of open-access animal tracking tools has facilitated a global network of over 135 countries, with more than 300 projects tracking thousands of animals from 118 species. The ability to adopt tracked animals online has attracted millions of visitors and raised funding for conservation projects world-wide.
Information on the potential impacts of climate change across the world, and on the effects of policies designed to reduce emissions, is fundamental to inform the development of climate mitigation and adaptation policy. Research conducted at the Unit has been critical to the establishment of a target 80% cut in UK carbon emissions by 2050, as enforced by the Climate Change Act (2008), and provided an affirmation of the relevance of the 2f0b0C global mean temperature rise target central to national and international climate mitigation policy. Research into the global consequences of climate change, particularly for water resources and river flooding, has been used by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to assess the impacts of un-mitigated climate change and the effects of different mitigation policy options.
UK upland peatlands constitute the world's greatest area of blanket bog, an endangered biome, and are the UK's largest natural habitat, carbon store, and pure water resource. The multi-institutional project "Climate Change Impacts on UK Upland Soils" identified models to predict the response of blanket bog to climatic and environmental changes and drew the attention of diverse stakeholders to the challenge of conserving these peatlands in a warming climate. The results have had impact on public policy and the environment by stimulating and informing debate. Since 2011, they have been (i) used by local and national agencies such as the Forestry Commission, (ii) included in the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, (iii) cited by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission of Enquiry on Peatlands, and (iv) used in evidence for policy making by Defra and the Scottish Parliament.