Teaching, learning and assessment methods for sustainability education on the land-sea interface

The Land-Sea Interface (LSI) is where land and sea meet, not only in physical terms, but also with regards to a large variety of ecological and societal aspects. The United Nations has proclaimed the period 2021-2030 the Ocean Decade, which entails striving for a sustainable use of the ocean and teaching and learning about ocean related issues. Teaching and learning about the LSI are also tightly connected with several Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) such as Life Below Water, Zero Hunger and Sustainable Cities and Communities. Teaching and learning about sustainability lacks a uniform pedagogy, and it is probably wise to maintain that apparently adaptive diversity. In this globally relevant methods overview, we present a wide range of relatively new and/or successful and mostly largely learner-centered methods. We also discuss how effective and popular they are, and give examples on how most of these methods are already used in LSI sustainability teaching. There will probably not be any successful "one size fits all" model developing for LSI teaching and learning, and each module, course and programme will have to develop its own recipe for successful teaching and learning, possibly with support from one or several methods discussed in this paper.

Marine protected areas do not buffer corals from bleaching under global warming

BACKGROUND

The rising temperature of the oceans has been identified as the primary driver of mass coral reef declines via coral bleaching (expulsion of photosynthetic endosymbionts). Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been implemented throughout the oceans with the aim of mitigating the impact of local stressors, enhancing fish biomass, and sustaining biodiversity overall. In coral reef regions specifically, protection from local stressors and the enhanced ecosystem function contributed by MPAs are expected to increase coral resistance to global-scale stressors such as marine heatwaves. However, MPAs still suffer from limitations in design, or fail to be adequately enforced, potentially reducing their intended efficacy. Here, we address the hypothesis that the local-scale benefits resulting from MPAs moderate coral bleaching under global warming related stress.

RESULTS

Bayesian analyses reveal that bleaching is expected to occur in both larger and older MPAs when corals are under thermal stress from marine heatwaves (quantified as Degree Heating Weeks, DHW), but this is partially moderated in comparison to the effects of DHW alone. Further analyses failed to identify differences in bleaching prevalence in MPAs relative to non-MPAs for coral reefs experiencing different levels of thermal stress. Finally, no difference in temperatures where bleaching occurs between MPA and non-MPA sites was found.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that bleaching is likely to occur under global warming regardless of protected status. Thus, while protected areas have key roles for maintaining ecosystem function and local livelihoods, combatting the source of global warming remains the best way to prevent the decline of coral reefs via coral bleaching.