Hobday Alistair J.

No Thumbnail Available
Last Name
Hobday
First Name
Alistair J.
ORCID

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Article
    Drivers and impacts of the most extreme marine heatwaves events
    (Nature Research, 2020-11-09) Sen Gupta, Alexander ; Thomsen, Mads ; Benthuysen, Jessica A. ; Hobday, Alistair J. ; Oliver, Eric ; Alexander, Lisa V. ; Burrows, Michael T. ; Donat, Markus G. ; Feng, Ming ; Holbrook, Neil J. ; Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Sarah ; Moore, Pippa J. ; Rodrigues, Regina ; Scannell, Hillary A. ; Taschetto, Andrea S. ; Ummenhofer, Caroline C. ; Wernberg, Thomas ; Smale, Dan A.
    Prolonged high-temperature extreme events in the ocean, marine heatwaves, can have severe and long-lasting impacts on marine ecosystems, fisheries and associated services. This study applies a marine heatwave framework to analyse a global sea surface temperature product and identify the most extreme events, based on their intensity, duration and spatial extent. Many of these events have yet to be described in terms of their physical attributes, generation mechanisms, or ecological impacts. Our synthesis identifies commonalities between marine heatwave characteristics and seasonality, links to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, triggering processes and impacts on ocean productivity. The most intense events preferentially occur in summer, when climatological oceanic mixed layers are shallow and winds are weak, but at a time preceding climatological maximum sea surface temperatures. Most subtropical extreme marine heatwaves were triggered by persistent atmospheric high-pressure systems and anomalously weak wind speeds, associated with increased insolation, and reduced ocean heat losses. Furthermore, the most extreme events tended to coincide with reduced chlorophyll-a concentration at low and mid-latitudes. Understanding the importance of the oceanic background state, local and remote drivers and the ocean productivity response from past events are critical steps toward improving predictions of future marine heatwaves and their impacts.
  • Article
    A decade of incorporating social sciences in the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research Project (IMBeR): much done, much to do?
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-06-21) van Putten, Ingrid ; Kelly, Rachel ; Cavanagh, Rachel D. ; Murphy, Eugene J. ; Breckwoldt, Annette ; Brodie, Stephanie ; Cvitanovic, Christopher ; Dickey-Collas, Mark ; Maddison, Lisa ; Melbourne-Thomas, Jessica ; Arrizabalaga, Haritz ; Azetsu-Scott, Kumiko ; Beckley, Lynnath E. ; Bellerby, Richard G. J. ; Constable, Andrew ; Cowie, Greg ; Evans, Karen ; Glaser, Marion ; Hall, Julie A. ; Hobday, Alistair J. ; Johnston, Nadine M. ; Llopiz, Joel K. ; Mueter, Franz ; Muller-Karger, Frank E. ; Weng, Kevin ; Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter A. ; Xavier, José C.
    Successful management and mitigation of marine challenges depends on cooperation and knowledge sharing which often occurs across culturally diverse geographic regions. Global ocean science collaboration is therefore essential for developing global solutions. Building effective global research networks that can enable collaboration also need to ensure inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to tackle complex marine socio-ecological challenges. To understand the contribution of interdisciplinary global research networks to solving these complex challenges, we use the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project as a case study. We investigated the diversity and characteristics of 1,827 scientists from 11 global regions who were attendees at different IMBeR global science engagement opportunities since 2009. We also determined the role of social science engagement in natural science based regional programmes (using key informants) and identified the potential for enhanced collaboration in the future. Event attendees were predominantly from western Europe, North America, and East Asia. But overall, in the global network, there was growing participation by females, students and early career researchers, and social scientists, thus assisting in moving toward interdisciplinarity in IMBeR research. The mainly natural science oriented regional programmes showed mixed success in engaging and collaborating with social scientists. This was mostly attributed to the largely natural science (i.e., biological, physical) goals and agendas of the programmes, and the lack of institutional support and push to initiate connections with social science. Recognising that social science research may not be relevant to all the aims and activities of all regional programmes, all researchers however, recognised the (potential) benefits of interdisciplinarity, which included broadening scientists’ understanding and perspectives, developing connections and interlinkages, and making science more useful. Pathways to achieve progress in regional programmes fell into four groups: specific funding, events to come together, within-programme-reflections, and social science champions. Future research programmes should have a strategic plan to be truly interdisciplinary, engaging natural and social sciences, as well as aiding early career professionals to actively engage in such programmes.