Ocean acidification (OA) has negative impacts on ecosystems, people, and coastal economies. Specifically, OA weakens shell-building marine organisms, which leads to consequences for commercially important species valued by many U.S. west coast coastal communities dependent on shellfish farming. The degree to which these communities are negatively impacted by these stressors, or adapt and thrive, will depend on various vulnerability and resilience factors. Resilience depends not only on the strength of ecosystems, but also on the ability of communities to cope and adapt. These human dimension questions in relation to ocean acidification are only now coming to light for California. The adaptive capacity of these communities, as well as the role of existing or future state ocean and coastal policies to facilitate adaptation, will require a multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach that integrates both social and natural scientific knowledge and datasets.
These collaborative discussions identified key knowledge gaps that, once addressed, will help inform our understanding of how coastal communities may thrive in the face of rapid environmental change and support state-specific decisions and decision-making processes that may facilitate coastal community response, resilience, and adaptation to OA.
