Halina T. Kobryn

Electricity production contributes 40% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Conversion to renewable energy production is therefore critical for mitigating climate change. Australia’s commitment to meeting emission targets has seen rapid growth in the renewable energy sector. Wind energy met 13.4% of Australia’s total energy demands over the last 12 months, but the rapid increase in wind energy developments will see this proportion increase. In 2023, there were 121 Australian wind farms operating or under construction, but an additional 188 have been proposed. Markedly, there is a projected 12-fold increase over current wind energy generation, with more, much larger turbines, proposed. As the number of wind energy projects increases, so has the scrutiny of their environmental impact. Wind energy, in particular, has a pronounced ecological impact on bird and bat species due to collisions with turbine blades and towers. Understanding the potential impact of the growth of wind farms on threatened wildlife species requires species-specific collision risk data. However, reported turbine strike data is lacking for most Australian species, especially scarce, threatened species, and those whose geographic range does not overlap with existing wind farms. Without actual strike data, conservation management decisions are currently being made on the basis of theoretical predictions. To fully assess and address potential environmental impacts of wind turbine developments We have reviewed the biological traits of bird and bat species, available collision mortality monitoring, and compiled direct activity observations to identify a list of Western Australian species that are potentially at risk of wind turbine collision. We have also identified knowledge gaps that require additional research. This work is building research and industry collaboration towards managing and mitigating the balance between green energy development and the conservation challenges that it represents.

Among the most important threats facing marine ecosystems today is the combined impact of multiple stressors. Stressors in marine and estuarine ecosystems have a large number of forms and sources. Most stressors represent the extremes of normal environmental variation that have increased in frequency or severity as a consequence of human activities. Given their ubiquity, several stressors often simultaneously affect organisms, populations and communities. Marine ecosystem stressors that are of particular concern in the Indian Ocean include warming, sea-level rise, deoxygenation, acidification, eutrophication, atmospheric and plastic pollution, coastal erosion and overfishing. These stressors, combined with other physical consequences of human activities, are affecting marine biological processes from genes to ecosystems, over scales from rock pools to ocean basins, impacting ecosystem services and threatening human food security.

Two of the core questions in the above context of relevance to the Indian Ocean region that call for the attention of the IIOE-2 scientific community are:

1. How are human-induced ocean stressors (for example, warming, sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, deoxygenation, acidification, eutrophication, atmospheric and plastic pollution, coastal erosion and overfishing) impacting the biogeochemistry and ecology of the Indian Ocean?
2. How, in turn, are these impacts affecting human populations?

Additional questions embedded in the research plan:

·      How does coastal urbanization affect biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems and fisheries in the adjacent coastal zones (such as shelf regions, estuaries/delta, mangroves, coral reefs, lagoons, beaches, etc.) of the Indian Ocean?

·      What is the effect of rising atmospheric CO2 on biological productivity and fisheries as well as especially vulnerable coastal ecosystems (such as coral reefs, mangroves, etc.) in the Indian Ocean?

·      How does eutrophication, atmospheric pollution and the loss of O2 affect biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems and fisheries in coastal zones and the open Indian Ocean?

·      What are the socio-economic consequences of altered biodiversity and changing food webs (including fisheries) in the Indian Ocean?

·      What are the consequences for human health caused by pollution, altered ecosystems and increasing aquaculture activities in the Indian Ocean?

·      How will these changes impact biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem dynamics in both open ocean and coastal environments of the Indian Ocean?

·      What are the socio-economic consequences of increasing damage to coastal zones in the Indian Ocean caused by the loss of mangroves and coral reefs, intensification of cyclones, sea level rise, etc.?