Mitigation of sea level rise effects by addition of sediment to shrimp ponds

In New Caledonia barren salt-pans located landward to mangroves are used for the construction of shrimp ponds. The existing farms are jeopardized by the projected rise in the sea level, because the landward boundaries of ponds are situated at the elevation reached by spring tides. One low-cost strategy for mitigating the effects of sea level rise is to raise the level of the bottom of ponds. To test the effectiveness of such an adaptation, we built 4 experimental ponds in the low-lying zone of an existing 10 ha shrimp pond. The level of the bottom of 2 ponds was raised by adding about 15 cm of agricultural soil. Placing agricultural soil in the pond did not impair the functioning of the shrimp pond ecosystem. On the contrary, it resulted in unexpectedly better shrimp production in the 2 ponds with agricultural soils versus control ponds. We conclude that placing a layer of soil inside shrimp ponds is a promising strategy for maintaining the viability of shrimp ponds as the sea level rises.

Developing European operational oceanography for Blue Growth, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and ecosystem-based management

Operational approaches have been more and more widely developed and used for providing marine data and information services for different socio-economic sectors of the Blue Growth and to advance knowledge about the marine environment. The objective of operational oceanographic research is to develop and improve the efficiency, timeliness, robustness and product quality of this approach. This white paper aims to address key scientific challenges and research priorities for the development of operational oceanography in Europe for the next 5-10 years. Knowledge gaps and deficiencies are identified in relation to common scientific challenges in four EuroGOOS knowledge areas: European Ocean Observations, Modelling and Forecasting Technology, Coastal Operational Oceanography and Operational Ecology. The areas "European Ocean Observations" and "Modelling and Forecasting Technology" focus on the further advancement of the basic instruments and capacities for European operational oceanography, while "Coastal Operational Oceanography" and "Operational Ecology" aim at developing new operational approaches for the corresponding knowledge areas.