National Centre for coasts and climate

Despite considerable knowledge about climate change and its impacts on marine and terrestrial habitats in coastal ecosystems, there has been very little change in the way coasts are governed in Australia. The local governments responsible for coastal management do not always get the science-based information at the scales they require.

We’ve established the National Centre for Coasts and Climate (NCCC) at the University of Melbourne to work with stakeholders to identify the best ways of addressing climate change impacts in Australian coastal ecosystems. Through the NCCC we’re investigating how coastal vegetated habitats store carbon, and how climate change is likely to impact on coastal erosion. We’ll use this knowledge to develop ecological engineering solutions to enhance the capacity of coastal ecosystems to adapt to climate change.

Check out the Earth Systems and Climate Change hub website here - “National Centre for coasts and climate.”

‘Concerning': Marine heatwaves increasing, especially near Australia

Marine heatwaves are increasing in their frequency and duration at an accelerating rate in many parts of the world, especially around Australia, a team of international scientists has found.

Warm waters may be welcomed by beachgoers but
the impacts beneath the waves are not so good.

The number of oceanic heatwave days a year has increased by 54 per cent in the past century globally, the researchers determined, using data of sea-surface temperatures from long-established sites and satellites.

“We have seen an increasing trend in the frequency and duration [of marine heatwaves], and that trend has accelerated in the past 30 years or so," said Lisa Alexander, associate professor at University of NSW's Climate Change Research Centre, and an author of the paper published in Nature Communications on Wednesday.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from The Age - “‘Concerning': Marine heatwaves increasing, especially near Australia.”

Holding your head up as the dilemma worsens

It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep you head up as the news about climate change, and its implications, become increasingly worryingly.

The collapse of our oceans discussed in the CNN story:  “Overfished and under-protected: Oceans on the brink of catastrophiccollapse” that illustrates the emerging difficulties of humanity’s increasing ecological footprint.

Earth’s oceans are often the forgotten environmental sink and the CNN story says: “Remoteness, however, has not left the oceans and their inhabitants unaffected by humans, with overfishing, climate change and pollution destabilizing marine environments across the world”.