Science Response 2012/044
Risk-based assessment of climate change impacts and risks on the biological systems and infrastructure within Fisheries and Oceans Canada's mandate - Atlantic Large Aquatic Basin
Context
In keeping with the Federal Adaptation Policy Framework, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) initiated an Aquatic Climate Change Adaptation Service Program (ACCASP; 2011-2016) in order to implement a science-based climate change program focused on adaptation and delivery of Fisheries and Oceans’ mandated areas of responsibility. The Program will undertake risk assessments, foster research projects to increase the understanding of the impacts of climate change as well as the development of applied science-based tools to enable adaptation in support of the Department’s strategic outcomes.
One of the primary objectives of the Program is to assess the risks posed by climate change to the delivery of DFO’s mandate within four defined Large Aquatic Basins (LABs), namely the Arctic, Pacific, Freshwater, and Atlantic. The assessment of regional risks will help front-line managers respond to climate change.
As a first step towards this objective, a Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) Science Special Response Process (SSRP), which involved one face-to-face meeting in each of the four LABs, was conducted to assess the risk to biological systems and infrastructure that fall under the purview of DFO. Each assessment was based on interim summary documents that describe climatic ‘Trends and Projections’ (TP) and ‘Impacts, Opportunities and Vulnerabilities’ (IVO) evaluations over two temporal scales (10 and 50 years). The detailed TP and IVO reports, which are extensive and detailed assessments of the climatic changes and impacts at the sub basin level in each LAB will be published by the end of 2012-2013 fiscal year (to be published [Footnote 1][Footnote 2]).This work was based on two national internal DFO reports (Interis 2005, 2012) which provided preliminary assessments of the impacts of climate change on DFO’s strategic outcomes; these assessments served as the departure point for the four LAB assessments.
A SSRP was used due to the short timeframe to provide this advice. The urgency for the advice stems from the need to assess the linkages between the science, socio-economic, and policy risk assessment background documents which will collectively inform the LAB-based Integrated Risk Assessment workshops, scheduled for early winter 2012/2013. The objective of these integrated workshops will be to take the evidentiary base provided by science, socio-economics, and policy and incorporate DFO program area (e.g. fisheries management, oceans management, etc.) considerations to determine the most acute basin-level climate risks for the Department. The results will help DFO decision-makers adapt decisions to reflect climate change considerations so that Canadians may continue to derive socio-economic benefits from our oceans and inland waters. This information will also be instrumental in informing priorities for ACCASP’s competitive funding envelopes, which are aimed at understanding climate change impacts and developing applied adaptation tools, for the 2013-14 funding year and beyond.
Summary background documents were provided to participants who reviewed the scientific information available on trends and projections and the impact, vulnerabilities and opportunities for each LAB. However, this advisory meeting was held to peer review the resulting risk summary sheets for each Departmental risk identified in the Interis reports (2005,2012). A separate review process for the publication of background documents will occur once they are finalized, prior to the end of the 2012-2013 departmental fiscal year (to be published [Footnote 1][Footnote 2]).
This Science Response Report (SRR) details the results from the National SSRP of November 6‑7, 2012, on the Risk-based Assessment of Climate Change Impacts and Risks on the Biological Systems and Infrastructure within Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Mandate: Atlantic Basin, in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. This meeting carried out a risk-based assessment of climate change impacts and risks to the biological systems and infrastructure within Fisheries and Oceans Canada's mandate for the Atlantic LAB. The SRRs resulting from the SSRPs for each of the four LABs will be posted as they become available on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Science Advisory Schedule website.
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