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Climate change and climate variability are affecting marine mammal species and these impacts are projected to continue in the coming decades. Vulnerability assessments provide a framework for evaluating climate impacts over a broad range of species using currently available information. We conducted a trait-based climate vulnerability assessment using expert elicitation for 108 marine mammal stocks and stock groups in the western North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Our approach combined the exposure (projected change in environmental conditions) and sensitivity (ability to tolerate and adapt to changing conditions) of marine mammal stocks to estimate vulnerability to climate change, and categorize stocks with a vulnerability index. The climate vulnerability score was very high for 44% (n = 47) of these stocks, high for 29% (n = 31), moderate for 20% (n = 22), and low for 7% (n = 8). The majority of stocks (n = 78; 72%) scored very high exposure, whereas 24% (n = 26) scored high, and 4% (n = 4) scored moderate. The sensitivity score was very high for 33% (n = 36) of these stocks, high for 18% (n = 19), moderate for 34% (n = 37), and low for 15% (n = 16). Vulnerability results were summarized for stocks in five taxonomic groups: pinnipeds (n = 4; 25% high, 75% moderate), mysticetes (n = 7; 29% very high, 57% high, 14% moderate), ziphiids (n = 8; 13% very high, 50% high, 38% moderate), delphinids (n = 84; 52% very high, 23% high, 15% moderate, 10% low), and other odontocetes (n = 5; 60% high, 40% moderate). Factors including temperature, ocean pH, and dissolved oxygen were the primary drivers of high climate exposure, with effects mediated through prey and habitat parameters. We quantified sources of uncertainty by bootstrapping vulnerability scores, conducting leave-one-out analyses of individual attributes and individual scorers, and through scoring data quality for each attribute. These results provide information for researchers, managers, and the public on marine mammal responses to climate change to enhance the development of more effective marine mammal management, restoration, and conservation activities that address current and future environmental variation and biological responses due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the authors were first invited to write these columns, the editors felt it would be an interesting way to give the readers of "CBE - Life Sciences Education" an agency's-eye view of its concerns, workings, and accomplishments. This column is written with that charge in mind. It is intended to inform the community about outreach efforts, some of the mechanisms used, and the effectiveness of these efforts. In 2007, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched an initiative called Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (V&C), designed to enable the biology community to address the challenges of preparing undergraduates for 21st-century biology using 21st-century findings about effective teaching strategies. Over the next 2 years, with support from the partners listed above, the community engaged in "conversations" among faculty, administrators, students, and professional societies through a series of workshops. Those conversations culminated in a working conference in 2009, in which more than 500 faculty, administrators, and students pooled their collective wisdom. The tangible result from all this effort, "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action," is a document setting forth their vision of the approaches needed to ensure undergraduate biology education truly reflects the biology of the 21st century in both the content included and the competencies developed and the delivery reflects what is known about effective teaching practices. Since the release of the report, many organizations, including those listed above, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Research Council, and a number of professional societies have led efforts to disseminate the document and engage the biology community in efforts to implement the actions outlined in it. This article discusses how successful these efforts have been. Six years after those initial conversations, it is important to try to determine the extent of dissemination and implementation of V&C, not only to determine the challenges ahead and possible next steps, but also to begin to establish mechanisms for effective response when a science experiences the sort of rapid evolution in approach, resources, and focus that has occurred recently in biology.

Climate change is impacting the function and distribution of habitats used by marine, coastal, and diadromous species. These impacts often exacerbate the anthropogenic stressors that habitats face, particularly in the coastal environment. We conducted a climate vulnerability assessment of 52 marine, estuarine, and riverine habitats in the Northeast U.S. to develop an ecosystem-scale understanding of the impact of climate change on these habitats. The trait-based assessment considers the overall vulnerability of a habitat to climate change to be a function of two main components, sensitivity and exposure, and relies on a process of expert elicitation. The climate vulnerability ranks ranged from low to very high, with living habitats identified as the most vulnerable. Over half of the habitats examined in this study are expected to be impacted negatively by climate change, while four habitats are expected to have positive effects. Coastal habitats were also identified as highly vulnerable, in part due to the influence of non-climate anthropogenic stressors. The results of this assessment provide regional managers and scientists with a tool to inform habitat conservation, restoration, and research priorities, fisheries and protected species management, and coastal and ocean planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]