September 28 – 29, 2018

A3-206, Zhou Long Quan Building

Xiamen University Xiang’an campus, Xiamen, China

AGENDA

**Overall meeting design:

This unique workshop is composed of information and knowledge sharing via short talks (10+2 mins) in Day One and Discussion in Day Two. The goals of the predefined discussion topics are to frame large scale initiatives possible for funding support from mainland and/or Hong Kong agencies. Discussion leaders are expected to give an introduction as a group or individually of no more than 15 mins. What follows will be free discussions with/without PowerPoints with no more than 3 mins/each. The final stage of 10 mins is the summary of the discussion. Among others, we hope to have as a preproposal-type of summary by the discussion leaders which includes, but is not limited to, their relevance to scientific and societal challenges, main hypotheses, prior research links from mainland and Hong Kong, possible collaborations, or network teams.

DISCUSSION TOPICS

Topic #1: Continuous observations of coastal Chinese waters: developing autonomous and interdisciplinary platforms

This discussion topic is to bring together new perspectives of technology advancement and interdisciplinary understanding to the coastal system aiming for integrative and sustainable ways of observing the coastal system.

Brief description: Recent advances in observation technology, as well as a number of interdisciplinary field studies carried out by different institutes, have led to significant advances in our understanding of China coastal ocean patterns and processes. The water masses, nutrients and marine species can be transported and transformed on the China coastal currents, which are driven by the seasonal monsoons. Although individual observations in regionally important locations can give snapshots for understanding the physical and biogeochemical patterns and processes, e.g., coastal upwelling, downwelling and water-mass separation points, there are challenges for developing an integrated understanding of these complex processes. Importantly, these coastal processes underly and drive biological and ecological patterns and are therefore fundamental for predicting the future of these systems (Topic #2). In order to capture the diverse and dynamic nature of coastal ocean processes, this theme will focus on the development of long-term interdisciplinary and synchronous observations along China’s coasts, emphasizing the development of integrated observation platforms (shipboard, profiler, seafloor cable, remote-sensing, etc.) using state-of-the-art technology, but also integrating these observations with biological patterns and processes. These observations and the integrated data can play a vital role in advancing our understanding of China’s continental shelf, near-shore coastal, and estuarine conditions and processes, how these drive biological processes, and provide essential information for complex coastal ocean stewardship issues.

Discussion leaders: Jianping Gan, Benoit Thibodeau and Yuwu Jiang

Topics #2: Approaches to understand the functioning of coastal ecosystems under the coupled impacts of intensive human activity and climate change

This topic will highlight the coupled impacts of human activity and climate change on different ecosystems (intertidal, subtidal, coral and rocky reefs, and mangroves). The topic will integrate discussion of impacts on natural systems and their functioning by considering impacts on the ecosystem services that these systems provide, such as carbon capture and storage (Blue Carbon), aquaculture production (e.g., abalone and oysters) and wild-catch fisheries.

Brief description：Most of the world’s coastal ecosystems are heavily impacted by multiple anthropogenic stressors, and the fingerprints of these stressors on these economically and ecologically important ecosystems are already evident. Concomitantly, accelerating development of commercial (e.g., aquaculture, fisheries and transportation), residential and tourist activities, is driving unprecedented transformation of coastal ecosystems world-wide. The extraordinary coastal development and anthropogenic stressors along China’s coastline provide a unique opportunity to study how climate change and habitat modification, two of the most important contemporary anthropogenic drivers, interact to change coastal biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the services provided, and subsequent impacts on food security and sustainability.

In order to achieve the sustainable development of coastal ecosystems under the impacts of human activity and climate change, there are many knowledge gaps which need addressing, from observations to determine patterns to experiments to identify key processes. Addressing these knowledge gaps at different spatial scales will provide data for development of predictive models which can be used for management and incorporated into the predictive frameworks developed in Topic #3.

Discussion leaders: Gray Williams, Bayden Russell, Kunshan Gao, Hui Huang and Yunwei Dong

Topic #3: The future of coastal ecosystems and human communities under 3°C warming: predictive modeling and empirical approaches to maximize adaptation.

This topic is to discuss the changing coastal ecosystem with unique regional or even localized settings under multiple stressors in the general context of climatic changes. This topic would also be interested in identifying challenges both the scientific community and the society are facing to live in the coastal regions under 3°C. Among others, it is particularly challenging to perform regional forecast of the coastal ecosystem and thus both numerical predictive modeling and empirical upscaling approaches are significant and important.

Brief description: The world is currently on course to warm by 3°C by the end of this century. In a 3°C world, there will be more harsh droughts, more extreme weather, increased disruption of food production, rising sea levels, and heightened storm surges. These latter two effects, in particular, threaten many current coastlines and underwater habitats critical for human habitation and coastal production. This is especially important in China, as 3°C warming by 2100 is predicted to raise sea levels by 2 m, threatening 275 million city dwellers in Asian coastal megacities and industrial hubs such as Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Local preparations for a 3°C world are woefully inadequate, partly because of inadequate predictions with which to make management decisions. It is, therefore, critical to identify the potential responses and resilience of Chinese coastal regions to help design and implement adaptation strategies and maintain the health of coastal habitats and human infrastructure in a 3°C world.

Discussion leaders: Fei Chai, Richard Bellerby, David Baker, Yuwu Jiang, and Jilan Su