Autonomous vessels and robotics, artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity are transforming international shipping and naval operations. Likewise, blockchain offers new efficiencies for compliance with international shipping records, while renewable energy from currents and waves and offshore nuclear power stations open opportunities for new sources of power within and from the sea. These and other emerging technologies pose a challenge for the governance framework of the law of the sea, which is adapting to accommodate the accelerating rates of global change. This volume examines how the latest technological advances and marine sciences are reshaping the interpretation and application of the law of the sea. The authors explore the legality of new concepts for military operations on the continental shelf, suggest remote sensing methodologies for delimitation of maritime boundaries, and offer a legal roadmap for ensuring maritime cyber security.

America's unrestricted access to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Gulf of Mexico, rivers, Great Lakes, and Arctic region powers domestic and global commerce. The ease of moving cargo and people beyond our coasts fuels the Nation's competitive advantage, advances trade, generates capital, and drives the domestic economy forward, in turn projecting strength abroad and safeguarding our national interests. Similarly, the biological diversity and productivity of the ocean sustains the health of coastal communities and promotes a vibrant national economy. The ocean also plays a fundamental role in the Earth system. Ensuring responsible ocean stewardship with science and technology (S&T) breakthroughs depends on a strategic Federal portfolio supported by foundational basic research. Science and Technology for America's Oceans: A Decadal Vision identifies pressing research needs and areas of opportunity within the ocean S&T enterprise for the decade 2018-2028.

Ocean science connects a global community of scientists in many disciplines - physics, chemistry, biology, geology and geophysics. New observational and computational technologies are transforming the ability of scientists to study the global ocean with a more integrated and dynamic approach. This enhanced understanding of the ocean is becoming ever more important in an economically and geopolitically connected world, and contributes vital information to policy and decision makers charged with addressing societal interests in the ocean. Science provides the knowledge necessary to realize the benefits and manage the risks of the ocean. Comprehensive understanding of the global ocean is fundamental to forecasting and managing risks from severe storms, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and managing ocean resources. In the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is the primary funder of the basic research which underlies advances in our understanding of the ocean. Sea Change addresses the strategic investments necessary at NSF to ensure a robust ocean scientific enterprise over the next decade. This survey provides guidance from the ocean sciences community on research and facilities priorities for the coming decade and makes recommendations for funding priorities.

Technological improvements have greatly increased the ability of marine scientists to collect and analyze data over large spatial scales, and the resultant insights attainable from interpreting those data vastly increase understanding of poplation dynamics, evolution and biogeography. Marine Metapopulations provides a synthesis of existing information and understanding, and frames the most important future directions and issues. - First book to systematically apply metapopulation theory directly to marine systems - Contributions from leading international ecologists and fisheries biologists - Perspectives on a broad array of marine organisms and ecosystems, from coastal estuaries to shallow reefs to deep-sea hydrothermal vents - Critical science for improved management of marine resources - Paves the way for future research on large-scale spatial ecology of marine systems

We live on a dynamic Earth shaped by both natural processes and the impacts of humans on their environment. It is in our collective interest to observe and understand our planet, and to predict future behavior to the extent possible, in order to effectively manage resources, successfully respond to threats from natural and human-induced environmental change, and capitalize on the opportunities â€" social, economic, security, and more â€" that such knowledge can bring. By continuously monitoring and exploring Earth, developing a deep understanding of its evolving behavior, and characterizing the processes that shape and reshape the environment in which we live, we not only advance knowledge and basic discovery about our planet, but we further develop the foundation upon which benefits to society are built. Thriving on Our Changing Planet presents prioritized science, applications, and observations, along with related strategic and programmatic guidance, to support the U.S. civil space Earth observation program over the coming decade.

Over the last decade, the study of shark biology has benefited from the development, refinement, and rapid expansion of novel techniques and advances in technology. These have given new insight into the fields of shark genetics, feeding, foraging, bioenergetics, imaging, age and growth, movement, migration, habitat preference, and habitat use. This pioneering book, written by experts in shark biology, examines technologies such as autonomous vehicle tracking, underwater video approaches, molecular genetics techniques, and accelerometry, among many others. Each detailed chapter offers new insights and promises for future studies of elasmobranch biology, provides an overview of appropriate uses of each technique, and can be readily extended to other aquatic fish and marine mammals and reptiles. Including chapter authors who were pioneers in developing some of the technologies discussed in the book, this book serves as the first single-source reference with in-depth coverage of techniques appropriate for the laboratory and field study of sharks, skates, and rays. It concludes with a unique section on Citizen Science and its application to studies of shark biology. This is a must-read for any marine biologist or scientist working in the field of shark biology, as well as marine biology students and graduates.