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The management of oceans and coasts needs to be informed by the best available knowledge. One way to support that is through interactive knowledge exchange (KE). Over the last decade, KE strategies have been shared with the marine research community, however, it is unclear whether this has led to recent (i.e., since 2015) progress. Through a systematic review of 60 recent academic articles applying or evaluating marine science-policy KE we synthesize trends in strategies, reasons for using a specific strategy, enablers, achievements, and evaluation. Most articles located were from North America, routinely included local actors or organizations, and spanned different governance levels. In addition to knowledge co-production and boundary organizations as well-established strategies, research networks and engaged funders coordinating and supporting science-policy KE played an increasing role. However, studies rarely provided reasons for why they adopted a specific KE approach within their given context. Achievements of KE are becoming more broadly understood and, among others, included the generation of new knowledge and impact on management or individuals. Factors that enable such achievements are a key area of progress in the literature. Individual case studies referred to the process level (e.g., practical collaboration, inclusive participation and equity, clear goals, continuity), interpersonal level (e.g., trust building, relationships, regular face-to-face contact), and individual level (e.g., skillsets, understanding, champions, facilitators). The measures to evaluate the effectiveness of KE were predominately qualitative (e.g., relevance of knowledge, use of knowledge in management, individual conceptual impacts, and level of engagement). It is increasingly understood what diversity of impacts to look for and unfold ways for more purposeful evaluation. In conclusion, much progress has been made in recent years, and we identify ten further research needs around the inclusivity, institutionalization, strategy selection, and efficiency of KE approaches to support evidence-informed ocean and coastal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As anthropogenic pressures on the environment grow, science-policy interaction is increasingly needed to support evidence-informed decision-making. However, there are many barriers to knowledge exchange (KE) at the science-policy interface, including difficulties evaluating its outcomes. The aims of this study are to synthesize the literature to elucidate the a) intended and b) claimed outcomes of KE processes at the interface of environmental science and policy, as well as the c) evidence used to evaluate them and d) methods used for collecting evaluation data. Results from systematically identifying and analyzing 397 articles show that co-production, knowledge brokerage, boundary organizations, and social connections were the most common strategies for KE. KE processes commonly aimed, claimed and referred to evidence regarding the usability of knowledge (e.g. credibility, salience, legitimacy) and social outcomes (e.g. networking, awareness, learning, trust-building). They also aimed for deeper policy/economic/societal impacts and actual use of scientific knowledge within decision-making. These additional goals, however, were seldom claimed to have been achieved, although products (e.g. maps/tools) and process attributes (e.g. equity, power-relations, transparency) were commonly used for evidencing impact. Hence, this study found that success from KE at the interface of environmental science and policy comes in diverse forms and showed a divergence between what studies aim for (ambitious) and what they evidence or claim as an achievement (more modest). This may represent failures of KE processes to reach intended goals, shortcomings in evaluation literature/approaches, or mismatches between timescales of evaluation and impact. Overall, this suggests a need to better align goals with evaluation measures to plan, facilitate, and appreciate the diverse impacts of KE processes. [Display omitted] • Our review aims to understand success at the environmental science-policy interface. • Success at the science-policy interface comes in very diverse forms. • Usability of knowledge and/or social outcomes are most common goals. • Divergence between what studies aim for and what they evidence/claim as impact. • Results show need to plan for, and appreciate diverse impacts of knowledge exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses a major challenge for global marine ecosystems and species, leading to a wide range of biological and social-ecological impacts. Fisheries are among the well-known sectors influenced by multiple effects of climate change, with associated impacts highly variable among species and regions. To successfully manage fisheries, scientific evidence about the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the species targeted by fisheries is needed to inform decision-making processes. This is particularly pertinent for fisheries within European seas, as they include some of the fastest warming water bodies globally, and are thus experiencing some of the greatest impacts. Here, we systematically examine the existing scientific climate-related literature of 68 species that are both commercially important in European seas and considered threatened according to the IUCN Red List to understand the extent of information that is available to inform fisheries management and identify critical knowledge gaps that can help to direct future research effort. We also explore the climate and fishing vulnerability indices of species as potential drivers of current scientific attention. We found no literature for most of these species (n = 45), and for many others (n = 19) we found fewer than five papers studying them. Climate change related research was dominated by a few species (i.e., Atlantic salmon, European pilchard, and Atlantic bluefin tuna) and regions, such as the Northeast Atlantic, revealing a highly uneven distribution of research efforts across European seas. Most studies were biologically focused and included how abundance, distribution, and physiology may be affected by warming. Few studies incorporated some level of social-ecological information. Moreover, it appears that research on species with high climate and fishing vulnerabilities is not currently prioritized. These results highlight a gap in our understanding of how climate change can impact already threatened species and the people who depend on them for food and income. Our findings also suggest that future climate-specific adaptation measures will likely suffer from a lack of robust information. More research is needed to include all the species from our list, their relevant geographic regions, and subsequent biological and social-ecological implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-increasing pressure on marine environments is leading to a growing demand for evidence-informed decision-making, which is supported via interactive knowledge exchange among marine researchers and decision-makers. While there is increasing guidance on how to undertake effective knowledge exchange at the interface of science and policy, there is little information on the monetary and non-monetary costs of such endeavours. As a first step to filling this gap we undertake a narrative review of the literature and illustrate it with individual experiences from four case studies, each of which has implemented a common knowledge exchange strategy within a marine context: knowledge co-production, knowledge brokerage, boundary organisation or social connections/network. Our aim is to: (i) identify the range of costs associated with knowledge exchange activities; (ii) investigate whether the benefits outweigh the costs; and (iii) provide practical considerations to aid planning and budgeting for knowledge exchange projects in the future. We highlight direct (e.g., budget for training, labour, administration, events) and indirect, monetary and non-monetary costs (e.g., emotional effort, trust building) and risks that can occur before, during, and after projects, bearing much invisible effort. We find that the costs and benefits of knowledge exchange efforts are often intangible, hard to measure, underappreciated and insufficiently budgeted for within research projects. Researchers considering knowledge exchange activities must adequately account for preconditions of the research activity (e.g., context and scale) and invest in pre-project effort to make it work (e.g., time and costs involved in building relationships, recruitment/writing proposals), which may need institutional funding. We also recommend that funded project leaders include contingency funds to capitalise on emergent and unforeseen activities, while unfunded project leaders consider an interaction (e.g., a meeting or online conference) to maintain links for future opportunities. • Knowledge exchange (KE) between science and policy is necessary but can be costly. • Costs can be direct, indirect, monetary and non-monetary in nature. • Beneficial KE needs investments before, during, and after projects. • Consider preconditions to engagement (context, scale, timeframes, cost-efficiency). • Institutional support, contingency funds, and fall-back options needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services provided by coral reefs may be susceptible to the combined effects of benthic species shifts and anthropogenic nutrient pollution, but related field studies are scarce. We thus investigated in situ how dissolved inorganic nutrient enrichment, maintained for two months, affected community-wide biogeochemical functions of intact coral- and degraded algae-dominated reef patches in the central Red Sea. Results from benthic chamber incubations revealed 87% increased gross productivity and a shift from net calcification to dissolution in algae-dominated communities after nutrient enrichment, but the same processes were unaffected by nutrients in neighboring coral communities. Both community types changed from net dissolved organic nitrogen sinks to sources, but the increase in net release was 56% higher in algae-dominated communities. Nutrient pollution may, thus, amplify the effects of community shifts on key ecosystem services of coral reefs, possibly leading to a loss of structurally complex habitats with carbonate dissolution and altered nutrient recycling. [Display omitted] • Nutrient enrichment affects coral- and algae-dominated reef communities differently. • Increased productivity in algae- but not in coral-dominated communities • Shift from net calcification to framework dissolution only in algal communities • Greater increase from sink to dissolved organic nitrogen source in algal communities • Nutrient pollution amplifies effects of community shifts on reef ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen cycling in coral reefs may be affected by nutrient availability, but knowledge about concentration-dependent thresholds that modulate dinitrogen fixation and denitrification is missing. We determined the effects of different nitrate concentrations (ambient, 1, 5, 10 μM nitrate addition) on both processes under two light scenarios (i.e., light and dark) using a combined acetylene assay for two common benthic reef substrates, i.e., turf algae and coral rubble. For both substrates, dinitrogen fixation rates peaked at 5 μM nitrate addition in light, whereas denitrification was highest at 10 μM nitrate addition in the dark. At 10 μm nitrate addition in the dark, a near-complete collapse of dinitrogen fixation concurrent with a 76-fold increase in denitrification observed for coral rubble, suggesting potential threshold responses linked to the nutritional state of the community. We conclude that dynamic nitrogen cycling activity may help stabilise nitrogen availability in microbial communities associated with coral reef substrates. • Nitrate availability modulates N fluxes associated with turf algae and coral rubble. • Thresholds depend on nitrate concentration and are substrate-specific. • Coral rubble might help to process nutrient pulses via denitrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While categorized as Small Island Developing States, South Pacific Island nations are the custodians of major ocean areas containing marine resources of high commercial and environmental significance. Yet, these resources are threatened by climate change, overfishing, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as habitat destruction. The study, carried out in the early stage of the interdisciplinary research project SOCPacific (https://socpacific.net), aims to: a) identify the main policies on which fisheries management is currently based in the South Pacific, particularly in Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu; b) investigate the evolution over time of key issues covered in these policies and related to coastal and/or offshore fisheries sectors; c) trace disconnections on the matter between legally binding instruments and non-binding strategies. A list of more than 200 documents relevant to regional fisheries management was gathered and separated into legally binding instruments and non-binding strategies. Legal instruments focused more on offshore issues (tuna fisheries and IUU fishing) and increasingly covered IUU fishing issues, confirming that tuna fisheries have an established hard policy arena. In strategies pertaining to coastal fisheries, community involvement appears as a key topic and a clear overall trend towards increasingly addressing climate change was spotlighted. Sustainability, community involvement, climate change, and food security issues are more covered in strategies than in legal instruments. Topics mostly addressed in relation to coastal areas are not substantially covered in legal instruments, suggesting that establishing binding measures might not be deemed as beneficial as strategies in coastal fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]