Competitive Call for Research Projects to Explore the MPA and Climate Resilience Nexus

Purpose

The overall goal of this solicitation is to understand the role that California’s MPA Network plays in the face of climate change, climate variability, and marine heatwaves in the lives of key species, habitats, or human activities. Projects must be research-based. Applications submitted in response to this solicitation should advance implementation of the OPC’s Strategic Plan to Protect California’s Coast and Ocean 2020-2025.

Description

Research projects that are designed with scalable and replicable methods and linked with research questions or monitoring components to inform future projects will be prioritized. Projects must inform adaptative management of the MPA Network and be able to directly link research outcomes to potential management tools. Projects should also be responsive to priorities outlined in the Climate Resilience and California’s MPA Network report. Projects should advance scientific understanding of the intersection of California’s MPA Network and climate change, including potential areas of refuge, vulnerability, and resilience. It is anticipated that proposals will focus on one of the three project types outlined below, however proposals that include components of multiple project types will be considered. The following three project types will be prioritized for funding. Projects that: Characterize local vulnerability of MPAs across multiple stressors to evaluate the potential of the MPA Network to provide ecological resilience through climate refugia. Projects should investigate and identify physical, ecological, and biological characteristics of climate refugia in California coastal systems and assess whether MPAs include or promote these conditions. Projects should investigate the spatial distribution of MPAs relative to historic and current stressor exposures and how those stressors are likely to evolve in the future. Model habitat and species distributions in current and future conditions to inform risk assessments of species, ecosystems, and habitats within MPAs. Projects should model future species and habitat distributions while considering important conditions that affect focal taxa of MPA monitoring, including but not limited to: physiological tolerances, tipping-point thresholds, species and ecological community range shifts, and genetic diversity. Projects can also feature risk assessments that focus on key managed species or culturally important species and identify those that are most at risk from climate change. Refer to the list of species targeted for long-term MPA monitoring in the 2018 MPA Monitoring Action Plan (Tables 7 - 10, pages 33 - 40). Projects that propose to assess culturally important species should be able to describe how the lead investigators will engage with Tribes and other communities to determine cultural importance. Assess social values and outcomes relating to MPAs and climate resilience in California. Projects should aim to understand social resilience outcomes of MPAs in California specifically. Proposed projects could assess the state of the knowledge to identify and assess important gaps in our understanding of the interactions between MPAs and social resilience under a changing climate. Projects should investigate the role that MPAs play in protecting or rehabilitating species or ecosystems that are considered culturally important to different societal groups, or what species or ecosystems are considered important to society (beyond economic or consumptive uses).