The average acidity (pH) of the world's oceans has been stable for the last 25 million years. However, the oceans are now absorbing so much man made CO2 from the atmosphere that measurable changes in seawater pH and carbonate chemistry can be seen. It is predicted that this could affect the basic biological functions of many marine organisms. This in turn could have implications for the survival of populations and communities, as well as the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function. In the seas around the UK, the habitats that make up the seafloor, along with the animals associated with them, play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy and productive marine ecosystem. This is important considering 40% of the world's population lives within 100 km of the coast and many of these people depend on coastal systems for food, economic prosperity and well-being. Given that coastal habitats also harbour incredibly high levels of biodiversity, any environmental change that affects these important ecosystems could have substantial environmental and economical impacts. During several recent international meetings scientific experts have concluded that new research is urgently needed. In particular we need long-term studies that determine: which organisms are likely to be tolerant to high CO2 and which are vulnerable; whether organisms will have time to adapt or acclimatise to this rapid environmental change; and how the interactions between individuals that determine ecosystem structure will be affected. This current lack of understanding is a major problem as ocean acidification is a rapidly evolving management issue and, with an insufficient knowledge base, policy makers and managers are struggling to formulate effective strategies to sustain and protect the marine environment in the face of ocean acidification. This consortium brings together 25 key researchers from 12 UK organisations to begin to provide the knowledge and understanding so desperately needed. These researchers share a unified vision to quantify, predict and communicate the impact of ocean acidification on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in coastal habitats. They will use laboratory experiments to determine the ways in which ocean acidification will change key physiological processes, organism behaviour, animal interactions, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The understanding gained will be used to build and run conceptual, statistical and numerical models which will predict the impact of future ocean pH scenarios on the biodiversity and function of coastal ecosystems. The consortium will also act as a focal point for UK ocean acidification research promoting communication between many different interested parties; UK and international scientists, policy makers, environmental managers, fisherman, conservationists, the media, students and the general public.

The surface ocean is home to billions of microscopic plants called phytoplankton which produce organic matter in the surface ocean using sunlight and carbon dioxide. When they die they sink, taking this carbon into the deep ocean, where it is stored on timescales of hundreds to thousands of years, which helps keep our climate the way it is today. The size of the effect they have on our climate is linked to how deep they sink before they dissolve - the deeper they sink, the more carbon is stored. This sinking carbon also provides food to the animals living in the ocean's deep, dark 'twilight zone'. Computer models can help us predict how future changes in greenhouse gas emissions might change this ocean carbon store. Current models however struggle with making these predictions. This is partly because until recently we haven't even been able to answer the basic question 'Is there enough food for all the animals living in the twilight zone?'. But in a breakthrough this year we used new technology and new theory to show that there is indeed enough food. So now we can move on to asking what controls how deep the carbon sinks. There are lots of factors which might affect how deep the material sinks but at the moment we can't be sure which ones are important. In this project we will make oceanographic expeditions to two different places to test how these different factors affect carbon storage in the deep ocean. We will measure the carbon sinking into the twilight zone and the biological processes going on within it. Then we will determine if the systems are balanced - in other words, what goes in, should come out again. We will then write equations linking all the parts of the system together and analyse them to make them more simple. At the same time we will test whether the simple equations are still useful by seeing if they produce good global maps of ocean properties for which we have lots of data. Finally, when we are happy that our new equations are doing a good job we will use them in a computer model to predict the future store of carbon in the ocean.

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are complex challenges that pose significant threats to society. The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and impacts on biodiversity, highlighted by the UN, are likely to impact AMR emergence and transmission. It is essential to account for the social, cultural and physical environments of AMR, including the impacts of climate change. Increasing temperatures and changing patterns of rainfall will affect AMR evolution and transmission, patterns of migration, and will change food production, land use and freshwater use. Conversely, antimicrobials may impact microbial geochemical cycling, such as nitrogen cycling in soils and methane production in ruminant microbiomes. These interactions raise the intriguing possibility that a bidirectional relationship exists between climate change and AMR. The Climate AMR Network (CLIMAR) will examine the relationship between climate change and AMR via a Planetary Health framework that examines AMR in terms of planetary boundaries within which humans and ecosystems can continue to develop and thrive. Network themes will include climate change, novel chemical and biological entities (including antimicrobials and AMR bacteria), impacts on microbial biodiversity, land system changes and freshwater use, all of which have mechanistic links with AMR. This Planetary Health framing builds on the One Health approach (which interweaves the health of humans, non-human animals and environments) by adding additional layers of mechanistic understanding, urgency, social dimensions and intergenerational justice, whilst also providing a transdisciplinary framework based on five Planetary Health pillars: (1) interconnection within Nature, (2) the Anthropocene and health, (3) equity and social justice, (4) movement building and systems change, and (5) systems thinking and complexity. These five Pillars will inform our activities including white paper production and research projects by focusing on key knowledge gaps in AMR, climate change and their intersection. These objectives will be informed by an initial systems mapping exercise that will identify the relationships between climate change and AMR, facilitating calibration of network objectives and incorporating input from members joining post-award. It will be necessary to ensure that CLIMAR network activities complement, rather than replicate, planned activities in all other funded networks. We aim to integrate this consideration into this network's activities from its inception. Additionally, professional communications expertise in combination with specialisation in policy development will ensure real impact and change results from network activities. Bringing a Planetary Health perspective to AMR, with a specific focus on interactions with climate change, provides an opportunity to develop AMR narratives beyond a One Health framing. The latter recognises the linkages between "human health", "animal health" and "environmental health" but does not fully convey the fundamental contribution of planetary processes or social determinants, encapsulated by the planetary boundaries and transdisciplinary pillars, to the mental models that facilitate reasoning and decision making. If we aspire to achieve transdisciplinary solutions and interventions, and to reduce AMR infections whilst promoting drug discovery and innovation of alternatives to stay one step ahead of AMR, we need evidence to support decision making as well as compelling narratives to facilitate understanding and encourage action; recognising that solutions may be found in domains that are traditionally outside the interests of AMR researchers.

see Master Je-S form submitted by Edinburgh University.

Our planet's natural resources face unsustainable demands and there is evidence that current management approaches are failing to move resource use towards a sustainable future. This failure is particularly acute in marine ecosystems where about 95% of fisheries are fully- or over-exploited. A step-change is needed to achieve sustainability, but such change can only be affected if it aligns with consumer demand, real world fishing practicalities, and with sustainable national policies such as the Natural Capital Approach described by the UK's 25 Year Environment Plan. The 'Pyramids of Life' approach to a sustainable future captures and helps to communicate complex relationships between different species, human behaviours, and marine ecosystem functions. Ecological pyramids represent different size-based trophic levels with the relative scarcity of larger organisms being regulated by well-understood scaling principles based on energy flow from smaller prey. Human needs can also be represented in hierarchical pyramids where lower level physiological needs (e.g. need for food) must be satisfied before higher level needs (e.g. need for self-esteem) can influence behaviour (e.g. value systems). If presented together, information from such pyramids would allow stakeholders to understand complex and dynamic systems and their interdependencies, contribute to inform adaptive decision-making and lend itself to efficient and scalable modelling tools based on existing datasets The problem for the UK's marine resources is that fisheries management agreements typically use metrics which are based, for a given species, on the number of tonnes landed above some given minimum size. This can distort the size structure of naturally productive pyramids, causing local crashes in populations. It can also be wasteful where catches inevitably encompass many species. Consumer preference and market forces also play a role, promoting "plate-sized" catches and well-known species at the possible expense of more ecologically sustainable alternatives. We have shown that management which better respects ecological pyramids, and where harvest at a particular size class is proportional to the production at that size class (in units of carbon per year), can be both more productive and surprisingly resilient to external challenges. The challenge is to convert this academic observation into practical reality. To do this, we need to understand the behaviour of consumers, and of fishers, and to identify where change can be commercially viable as well as ecologically sustainable. Again the pyramid concept, this time describing values and behaviours, is helpful. Co-development with our partner organisations has identified key target species and fisheries, and existing datasets, where targeted changes in management can align with both the realities of human behaviour and economic value, and ecological sustainability. The research combines overlapping expertise in socio-economics and human behaviour (University of East Anglia), ecology and detailed spatio-temporal datasets (Cefas),and mathematics and marine ecology (University of York). Our partners Seafish and Waitrose bring detailed expertise in market dynamics, consumer behaviour and fishing effort, as well as matching our commitment to long-term sustainability. Together, this body of work will provide a multidimensional perspective of the value of marine ecosystems so that future management interventions are based squarely on what is sustainable.