Marine spatial planning makes room for offshore aquaculture in crowded coastal waters.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) seeks to reduce conflicts and environmental impacts, and promote sustainable use of marine ecosystems. Existing MSP approaches have successfully determined how to achieve target levels of ocean area for particular uses while minimizing costs and impacts, but they do not provide a framework that derives analytical solutions in order to co-ordinate siting of multiple uses while balancing the effects of planning on each sector in the system. We develop such a framework for guiding offshore aquaculture (bivalve, finfish, and kelp farming) development in relation to existing sectors and environmental concerns (wild-capture fisheries, viewshed quality, benthic pollution, and disease spread) in California, USA. We identify > 250,000 MSP solutions that generate significant seafood supply and billions of dollars in revenue with minimal impacts (often < 1%) on existing sectors and the environment. We filter solutions to identify candidate locations for high-value, low-impact aquaculture development. Finally, we confirm the expectation of substantial value of our framework over conventional planning focused on maximizing individual objectives.

Photoadaptation in marine phytoplankton : changes in spectral absorption and excitation of chlorophyll a fluorescence.

The optical properties of marine phytoplankton were examined by measuring the absorption spectra and fluorescence excitation spectra of chlorophyll a for natural marine particles collected on glass fiber filters. Samples were collected at different depths from stations in temperate waters of the Southern California Bight and in polar waters of the Scotia and Ross Seas. At all stations, phytoplankton fluorescence excitation and absorption spectra changed systematically with depth and vertical stability of the water columns. In samples from deeper waters, both absorption and chlorophyll a fluorescence excitation spectra showed enhancement in the blue-to-green portion of the spectrum (470-560 nm) relative to that at 440 nm. Since similar changes in absorption and excitation were induced by incubating sea water samples at different light intensities, the changes in optical properties can be attributed to photoadaptation of the phytoplankton. The data indicate that in the natural populations studied, shade adaptation caused increases in the concentration of photosynthetic accessory pigments relative to chlorophyll a. These changes in cellular pigment composition were detectable within less than 1 day. Comparisons of absorption spectra with fluorescence excitation spectra indicate an apparent increase in the efficiency of sensitization of chlorophyll a fluorescence in the blue and green spectral regions for low light populations.