Systems approach for establishing climate smart aquaculture to balance biodiversity conservation and food security in coral reef ecosystems

该项目旨在了解气候智能型可持续海水养殖作为一种基于自然的解决方案（NbS）对加强热带海洋生态系统的生物多样性和粮食安全的影响。大约10亿人的生计直接依赖于珊瑚礁，但许多依靠珊瑚礁资源实现可持续发展的国家缺乏综合海洋资源规划系统，将海水养殖视为实现环境、社会、经济和粮食安全目标的一部分。阻碍评估和纳入海水养殖国家海洋资源计划和战略的一个关键挑战是，在海水养殖如何与人类需求和海洋生物多样性相互作用方面存在科学知识差距。具体而言，我们缺乏强有力的社会生态证据，证明海水养殖在珊瑚礁保护、粮食安全和可持续生计方面的更广泛作用。该博士项目将共同制定关键绩效指标，以改善热带国家对海水养殖的评估和参与，以加强珊瑚礁生物多样性保护、海产品生产和社区应对气候变化能力的战略规划。我们希望该项目将在我们的案例研究领域以及其他领域产生直接效益。我们将共同创造新的整体方法，提供科学的社会经济和生态证据，帮助热带国家在考虑海水养殖发展时，确定在何处试点综合多营养水产养殖作为基于自然的解决方案是最佳的。许多国家依赖珊瑚礁生态系统维持其环境健康（从脆弱的渔业获得粮食安全以及从珊瑚礁到极端气候事件的保护）、经济（基于渔业和旅游业的可持续生计）和社会（沿海文化、娱乐和福祉），在极端气候变化（例如飓风、飓风、海啸发生频率更高）和不确定的全球事件（金融危机）中面临前所未有的挑战。粮食短缺和全球流行病)将无法获得气候智能型海水养殖，而这种养殖能够提供复原力，通过可持续珊瑚礁海水养殖实现经济繁荣、生物多样性保护和就业。该项目将解决以下科学目标：(1)气候变化将如何影响可持续海水养殖作为一种基于自然的解决方案的复原力，特别是在沿海社区容易因珊瑚礁渔业减少而面临粮食不安全的热带国家？(2)未来情景气候模型如何与综合多营养水产养殖系统的环境-经济-社会权衡相关联？(3)模型中可视化的变化如何使系统方法为科学政策提供信息，从而为气候智慧型海水养殖最佳地点的包容性和协作性决策奠定基础？

This project will aim to understand impacts of climate smart sustainable mariculture as a nature-based solution (NbS) for enhancing biodiversity and food security in tropical marine ecosystems. About 1 billion people's livelihoods depend directly on coral reefs, but many countries relying on coral reef resources for sustainable development lack an integrated marine resource planning system that considers mariculture as part of delivering environmental, social, economic and food security goals. A key challenge hindering the evaluation and inclusion of mariculture national marine resource plans and strategies is a scientific knowledge gap in how mariculture interacts with the needs of people and marine biodiversity. Specifically, we lack robust socio-ecological evidence on the wider role of mariculture in coral reef conservation, food security, and sustainable livelihoods. This PhD project will co-develop key performance indicators for improving assessment and engagement with mariculture in tropical countries to enhance strategic planning of conservation of coral reef biodiversity, seafood production and community resilience in the face of climate change. We hope that the project will have direct benefits in our case study areas, and beyond. We will co-create new holistic approaches to provide scientific socio-economic and ecological evidence to enable tropical countries considering mariculture development on where best to pilot integrated multi-trophic aquaculture as nature-based solutions.Many countries dependent on coral reef ecosystems for the health of their environment (food security from vulnerable fisheries and protection from coral reefs to extreme climate events), economy (sustainable livelihoods based on fishing and tourism) and society (coastal culture, recreation and well-being) facing unprecedented challenges in extreme changes in climate (e.g., higher frequency of cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis) and uncertain global events (financial crisis, food shortages and global pandemics) will not have access to climate smart mariculture that can offer resilience to provide economic prosperity, biodiversity conservation and employment from sustainable coral reef mariculture.The project will address the following scientific objectives: (1) How will climate change affect resilience of sustainable mariculture as a nature-based solution, especially in tropical countries where coastal communities are vulnerable to food insecurity from declining coral reef fisheries? (2) How can future scenario climate models relate to environmental-economic-social trade-offs for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems? (3) How do changes visualised in models enable systems approaches to inform science policy that underpin inclusive and collaborative decision-making on best locations for climate smart mariculture?