many parts of the worldrsquos oceans (2) The ocean is rap-idly changing and yet the ways in which these changeswill play out are not yet clear
Although improved management and conserva-tion have helped to reduce threats and restore somekey ecosystems the basic benefits that people receivefrom a healthy ocean are in overall decline (3) If leftunchecked a growing and resource-hungry humanpopulation will add additional pressures on the oceanScientific research experimentation data collectionmonitoring and modeling provide the knowledgeframeworks and evidence needed to model and ex-plore the environmental consequences of policy anddevelopment proposals and thus to chart a sustain-able future ocean
The current scale pace and practice of oceanscientific discovery and observation are not keepingup with the changes in ocean and human conditionsWe need fundamental changes in the way thatresearchers work with decision makers to co-createknowledge that will address pressing developmentproblems Researchers need to share their data morefreely and sooner so that their work can informdecisions in near real time Academia governmentand industry need to find new and better ways to
collaborate and innovate Huge gaps in scientificcapacity and capability around the world will requirethat we fundamentally change the way we train andemploy researchers from developing countries Aboveall we need to dramatically expand the breadth ofdisciplines that are directly involved in new transdisci-plinary ocean research
Accelerating Ocean ScienceTo catalyze this transformation the United Nations(UN) General Assembly has called for a Decade ofOcean Science for Sustainable Development (2021ndash2030) ldquoThe Decaderdquo to develop the frameworks andtools required for the sustainable development of theocean The aim of The Decade is to create a newmovement for bringing together researchers andstakeholders from all relevant sectors to generate anew scientific process to inform policies that ensure awell-functioning productive resilient and sustainableocean (ref 4 Fig 1) and support the UN 2030 Agendafor Sustainable Development and associated Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Roughly 40 of the worldrsquos population lives within100 km of a coast (5) More than 600 million peoplecurrently live in low-elevation coastal zones a number
Fig 1 The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development seeks to link stakeholders and researchers inhopes of catalyzing the science needed to improve ocean ecology function and human well-being Image creditVanessa Gonzalez-Ortiz (artist)
that is expected to grow to more than a billion by 2050(6) These coastal seas are hotspots of humanndashoceaninteractions and are also regions where humans are atelevated risks from ocean threats (eg storm surgesand tsunamis) and changes in the ocean conditions(eg sea level rise and associated coastal erosion) Asustainable coastal ocean requires an improved ca-pacity to measure and monitor the ocean its healthand function in coastal areas to assess the effective-ness of policy interventions and create better fore-casting and prediction to help stakeholders understandfuture ocean-related impacts on coastal communitiesso they can better plan and regulate the human uses ofcoastal ecosystems
Great progress has been made in describing un-derstanding and enhancing our ability to predictchanges in the ocean system (eg 7) Satellites andglobally operating platforms have dramatically in-creased our ability to measure and monitor oceanconditions (8 9) However we often still lack the abilityto quickly get these data into the hands of decisionmakers in a way that is relevant and can help themsustainably manage human uses and impacts in thevast and rapidly changing global ocean
Technical and logistical constraints governmentpolicies global scientific capacity and capability lackof effective knowledge sharing geopolitical disputesand ongoing military conflict challenge our ability tocollect and share in situ data in some parts of the worldresulting in many geographic gaps in observations Forexample measurements of ocean conditions (egocean acidity nitrification ecological health) are nota-bly scarce in the Coral Triangle region of the westernPacific Ocean the South China Sea and coastal EastAfrica all areas of high significance for potential coralreef refugia (10) These are also places where meetingthe UN 2030 Agenda and associated SDGs will becritically important for growing populations but at thesame time highly challenging (11)
Many aspects of the subsurface ocean includingbasic oceanographic conditions and biodiversity arestill not fully understood including in the polar re-gions the seabed and many high seas and deep seasareas and their underlying seabeds These resource-rich areas are the subject of rapidly developing in-ternational policy including new treaties for themanagement of the high seas new leases for seafloormining and proposed measures to protect bio-diversity in the areas beyond national jurisdiction thatneeds to be informed by good ocean knowledgedata and science Until these vast areas are betterunderstood and characterized exploitation of mineraland energy resources and efforts to manage fisheriesand ocean industries will neither be properly informednor effective in reducing impacts and risks associatedwith these potentially threatening uses (12 13)
The full spectrum of benefits that humans receivefrom a well-functioning ocean are still poorly un-derstood As a result researchers know little about thesignificance of biodiversity and habitat changes orloss about whether wersquore approaching key tipping
points or about whether responses to ocean disastersare timely and effective
A lack of access about ocean health data overtime limits what we can glean about how the oceanhas responded to past human pressures such as fish-ing shipping mining and coastal agriculture anddevelopment as well as the longer-term conse-quences for future sustainability Many relevant datastreams from long-term ecological research and localmonitoring programs even those made public maynot be easily found accessed or interpreted Privatedata streams from businesses and industrymdashfor ex-ample those used to route ships and exploit marineresourcesmdashare never shared publicly (14 15) Thejoint Academies of Sciences of the G20 countries havehighlighted the need to better coordinate and in-tegrate the collection management analysis andsharing of these interdisciplinary data streams and asso-ciated knowledge that comes from the analysis of thesedata (15) Better means of sharing and accessing datawould improve our ability to conduct interdisciplinaryscience on regional and global scales Only a concertedglobal effort can align themany existing data networks tofacilitate sustainable development
Catalyzing Ocean ScienceTo nurture the ocean science needed for sustainabledevelopment we believe that the next generation ofocean science will need to improve how we
1 Identify and routinely measure essential variablesrelated to the climate ocean processes and socio-ecological systems that can serve as sentinels ofocean health
2 In association with industry develop new and low-cost technologies including new sensors and newmethodological approaches to measure and mon-itor these ocean variables
3 Establish new public-private partnerships in oceanobserving data distribution and information prod-uct delivery between science engineering and in-formation technology communities and
4 Develop new tracking and prediction capacities tosupport integrated multi-hazard early warningsystems improved community preparedness andawareness
5 Establish innovative ways to share data informa-tion and knowledge amongst all stakeholders inan open transparent and equitable manner
6 Advance efforts to build a ldquodigital twin oceanrdquo toexplore discover and visualize current and futureoceans
7 Build science capacity and capability through newways of training mobilizing resources sharing ofinfrastructure and exchanging of experts andknowledge across nations institutions anddisciplines
To achieve these changes researchers need toembrace ldquowhole earthrdquo approaches to ocean obser-vation analysis and modeling that include all relevantdisciplines and people from the start to allow com-munities to better account and plan for the complex
Pendleton et al PNAS Latest Articles | 3 of 4
Dow
nloa
ded
by g
uest
on
Aug
ust 1
9 2
020
and often nonlinear processes that drive ocean sys-tems and the many pressures impacting them
Large portions of the public are aware that pres-sures such as overfishing and pollution have a majorimpact on the ocean But few understand the func-tioning of the ocean the services it provides or howtheir day-to-day activities might be impacting theocean (16 eg 17) We as researchers must simplifythe language we use to more clearly and openlycommunicate complex ocean science and sustainabledevelopment issues across cultures and languagesResearchers must actively target future generationsand take into consideration the emerging technologyand digital platforms used to communicate Finallyresearchers need newmedia allies to reach out to newcommunities by partnering with personalities from thebusiness or entertainment world
A New Era for Ocean ScienceThe UN Decade of Ocean Science for SustainableDevelopment has already embarked on a new stake-holder process that will be inclusive participatory andglobal in its approach to plan implement and deliverthe science required for meeting the SDGs To suc-ceed this process will require fundamentally newways of bringing all ocean stakeholders together sothat parties with a vested interest from small-scaleindigenous fishers to large-scale corporate leaderscan participate in a solutions-focused scientific pro-cess for generating new ocean knowledge
Whether The Decade can achieve a transformationin ocean science will depend on the joint efforts ofresearchers engineers and scholars from all disci-plines working in close collaboration with stakeholdersfrom all sectors of the community Although The De-cade does not formally begin until 2021 the time isnow for all stakeholders including researchers tocome together to develop and sponsor these trans-formative events propose new projects and partner-ships and to be part of new global community ofocean science for sustainable development We en-courage all of our colleagues to join this community athttpwwwoceandecadeorg to begin to build newrelationships with nonscience stakeholders and toembrace a new era of innovation data sharing andscientific cocreation
AcknowledgmentsThe authors acknowledge all of the members of the UnitedNations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Develop-mentrsquos Executive Planning Group (EPG httpsenunescoorgocean-decadeepg) for inspiring this article and for participat-ing in the writing of a longer paper with a similar focus Addi-tionally the authors thank the staff and leadership of theIntergovernmental Oceanographic Commission for their assistancein communicating with the EPG and for organizing the work ofthe first Global Planning Meeting Although the ideas in thismanuscript are those of the authors the authors acknowledgethat these ideas were inspired by and reflect ideas expressedby the many members of the EPG as well as the participantsof the Global Planning Meeting Finally the authors thankVanessa Gonzalez-Ortiz (httpvgonzalezortizcom) for the figureartwork
1 OECD The Ocean Economy in 2030 (OECD Paris France 2016) httpsdoiorg1017879789264251724-en Accessed 5November 2019
2 United Nations The First Global Integrated Marine Assessment (Cambridge University Press 2016) httpsdoiorg1010179781108186148
3 IPBES Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform onBiodiversity and Ecosystem Services E S Brondizio J Settele S Dıaz H T Ngo Eds (IPBES Secretariat Bonn Germany 2019)
4 IOC-UNESCO ldquoThe Science we need for the ocean we want the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for SustainableDevelopment (2021-2030)rdquo (2019)
5 United Nations ldquoOcean Fact Sheet Packagerdquo (2017)6 B Neumann A T Vafeidis J Zimmermann R J Nicholls Future coastal population growth and exposure to sea-level rise andcoastal flooding A global assessment PLoS One 10 e0118571 (2015)
7 K A Alexander et al Progress in integrating natural and social science in marine ecosystem-based management research MarFreshw Res 70 71ndash83 (2019)
8 S C Riser et al Fifteen years of ocean observations with the global Argo array Nat Clim Chang 6 145ndash153 (2016)9 J D Shutler et al Progress in satellite remote sensing for studying physical processes at the ocean surface and its borders with theatmosphere and sea ice Prog Phys Geogr 40 215ndash246 (2016)
10 O Hoegh-Guldberg E V Kennedy H L Beyer C McClennen H P Possingham Securing a long-term future for coral reefs TrendsEcol Evol (Amst) 33 936ndash944 (2018)
11 J M Shultz M A Cohen S Hermosilla Z Espinel A McLean Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development for small islanddeveloping states Disaster Health 3 32ndash44 (2016)
12 R Danovaro et al An ecosystem-based deep-ocean strategy Science 355 452ndash454 (2017)13 United Nations The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (United
Nations 2017) httpsdoiorg101835629045c1f-en Accessed 21 May 201914 K Evans N J Bax D C Smith Enhancing the robustness of a national assessment of the marine environment Mar Policy 98 133ndash
145 (2018)15 Science 20 ldquoS20 Japan 2019 Science 20 Threats to Coastal and Marine Ecosystems and Conservation of the Ocean Environment ndash
with Special Attention to Climate Change and Marine Plastic Wasterdquo (2019)16 G Fauville et al Development of the International Ocean Literacy Survey Measuring knowledge across the world Environ Educ
Res 4622 1ndash26 (2018)17 B S Steel C Smith L Opsommer S Curiel R Warner-steel Public ocean literacy in the United States Ocean Coast Manage 48
97ndash114 (2005)
4 of 4 | wwwpnasorgcgidoi101073pnas2005485117 Pendleton et al
Dow
nloa
ded
by g
uest
on
Aug
ust 1
9 2
020
