Ayana Johnson | |
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Born | August 23, 1980 |
Education | Harvard University (BA) University of California, San Diego (MS, PhD) |
Organization | Urban Ocean Lab [1] |
Known for | Marine biology Marine conservation Climate communication Climate policy |
Board member of | Patagonia [2] Greenwave [3] |
Awards | Time100 NEXT 2021 [4] |
Scientific career | |
Thesis | Fish, Fishing, Diving and the Management of Coral Reefs (2011) |
Doctoral advisor | Jeremy Jackson |
Website | Official website |
External videos | |
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How to find joy in climate action, TED2022 A Coral Reef Love Story, TED2019 |
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (born August 23, 1980) is a marine biologist, policy expert, and conservation strategist. She is the co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for ocean-climate policy in coastal cities, [1] [5] and the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College. [6]
She was an adjunct professor at New York University in the Department of Environmental Studies and previously worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
She was born on August 23, 1980. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York [1] as the daughter of a teacher/farmer and an architect/potter. [7] In high school, she served in the Student Conservation Association, working on the Continental Divide Trail in the San Juan Mountains. [8] [9]
Johnson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental science and public policy at Harvard University in 2002, where she was a friend of actress Tatyana Ali. [10] In 2011, Johnson earned a PhD in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. [11] Her PhD research focused on understanding multi-disciplinary sustainable management approaches for coral reef resources, and her dissertation was entitled Fish, Fishing, Diving and the Management of Coral Reefs. [12]
For her research, Johnson was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, an NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellowship, a Switzer Environmental Fellowship, and was a 2010–11 American Association of University Women fellow. [13] [14] In 2012, the fish trap she invented to reduce bycatch won the first Rare/National Geographic Solutions Search contest. [15]
Johnson's research interests focus on urban ocean conservation, sustainable fishing, ocean zoning, climate change, and social justice. Johnson has conducted research on the bycatch impacts in Caribbean coral reef trap fisheries [16] and has also collaborated on research related to international collaboration for reducing the impacts of climate change on small island states. [17]
Prior to graduate school, Johnson worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. After completing her PhD, Johnson worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and then went on to work as the Director of Science and Solutions at the Waitt Foundation in Washington, D.C. to fund ocean conservation projects. [18] In 2013, she became executive director of the Waitt Institute and co-founded the Blue Halo Initiative to partner with governments and local communities in Barbuda, Montserrat, and Curaçao to enact more sustainable plans for ocean use and conservation. With the Blue Halo Initiative, Johnson led the Caribbean's first successful ocean zoning project, providing maps, communications, policy support, and scientific assistance to the island Barbuda as it began to regulate and protect its coastal waters. [14] [19] [20] [21]
Currently, Johnson works as a consultant for ocean conservation and climate policy issues and leads Urban Ocean Lab, an ocean policy think tank that she co-founded with Jean Flemma and Marquise Stillwell. [1] Until 2021 she was the founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, [22] a consulting firm that helped find ocean "conservation solutions grounded in social justice". [22] She is also a former adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University. [11] [14]
Johnson was a national co-director of partnerships for the inaugural March For Science in 2017. [23] [14]
In August 2020, Johnson launched the How to Save a Planet podcast [24] with co-creator and co-host Alex Blumberg. In September 2020 One World/Penguin Random House published Johnson's first book All We Can Save , which is an anthology of writing by women climate leaders edited by Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. [25] [26]
In November 2021, Johnson organized a joint statement signed by over 100 notable figures demanding that Edelman end its work with fossil fuel companies, such as Exxon. She also promoted the hashtag #EdelmanDropExxon on social media. [27]
In July 2023, Johnson began a three-year tenure as the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College. [6]
In 2014, Johnson was named a Mack Lipkin Man and Nature Series Fellow. [28] She was selected as an inaugural TED resident in Spring 2016 and was a 2016 Aspen Institute Fellow. [14] [29] She was named a University of California San Diego "40 Under 40" outstanding alumni. [30] She serves on the board of directors for Patagonia, Greenwave, [7] the Billion Oyster Project and World Surf League's PURE campaign [31] [32] as well as on the advisory boards for the Environmental Voter Project, [33] the Simons Foundation's Science Sandbox, [34] Scientific American , [35] and Oceanic Global. [36]
In 2016, Johnson delivered a TED talk in New York City, "How to Use the Ocean Without Using it Up". [37] She delivered a second TED talk in Vancouver, "A Love Story for the Coral Reef Crisis". [38] In 2017, she was a keynote speaker at the Smithsonian Institution "Earth Optimism" conference. [39] She advised and moderated the inaugural World Ocean Festival in 2017. [40] In February 2018, she took part in the YouTube series "Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants". [41] In February 2021, she was named a Time100 Next, nominated by Gina McCarthy. [42]
In June 2022, Johnson was appointed a member of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. [43]
Johnson's work has been covered by The New York Times , [44] Nature journal, [45] Scientific American , [46] and The Atlantic . [47] Her conservation and policy work is frequently profiled in popular media, including The Observer , [48] Atlas of the Future, [49] Outside , [50] and Elle , which named her as one of the "27 Women Leading the Charge to Protect Our Environment". [51]
Johnson's writing about the intersections of climate change, ocean conservation, and environmental justice has been published in numerous outlets, including The New York Times , [52] The Washington Post , [53] [54] Time , [55] and Scientific American. [56] [57] She was interviewed by the NPR podcast, Short Wave, in 2020 following her Washington Post op-ed. [58] Since 2013, she has contributed to the National Geographic Society [59] and HuffPost blogs. [60]
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, separated from the coast by a channel 160 kilometres (100 mi) wide in places and over 61 metres (200 ft) deep. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labelled it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World in 1997. Australian World Heritage places included it in its list in 2007. The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland in 2006.
Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to loss of symbiotic algae and photosynthetic pigments. This loss of pigment can be caused by various stressors, such as changes in temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel the zooxanthellae that live inside their tissue, causing the coral to turn white. The zooxanthellae are photosynthetic, and as the water temperature rises, they begin to produce reactive oxygen species. This is toxic to the coral, so the coral expels the zooxanthellae. Since the zooxanthellae produce the majority of coral colouration, the coral tissue becomes transparent, revealing the coral skeleton made of calcium carbonate. Most bleached corals appear bright white, but some are blue, yellow, or pink due to pigment proteins in the coral.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are protected areas of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. In some situations, MPAs also provide revenue for countries, potentially equal to the income that they would have if they were to grant companies permissions to fish. The value of MPA to mobile species is unknown.
Marine conservation, also known as ocean conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas through planned management in order to prevent the over-exploitation of these marine resources. Marine conservation is informed by the study of marine plants and animal resources and ecosystem functions and is driven by response to the manifested negative effects seen in the environment such as species loss, habitat degradation and changes in ecosystem functions and focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, restoring damaged marine ecosystems, and preserving vulnerable species and ecosystems of the marine life. Marine conservation is a relatively new discipline which has developed as a response to biological issues such as extinction and marine habitats change.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) is an Australian environmental not-for-profit organisation. It was founded in 1965 as the Queensland Littoral Society before changing its name to the Australian Littoral Society and then finally in 1995 to its current title. It works on protecting the health and vitality of Australia's coasts and oceans.
Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States. The organization seeks to promote healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems, prevent marine pollution, climate change and advocates against practices that threaten oceanic and human life.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, is a biologist and climate scientist specialising in coral reefs, in particular bleaching due to global warming and climate change. He has published over 500 journal articles and been cited over 50,000 times.
The Coral Triangle (CT) is a roughly triangular area in the tropical waters around the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. This area contains at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. The Coral Triangle is located between the Pacific and Indian oceans and encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region, and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region. As one of eight major coral reef zones in the world, the Coral Triangle is recognized as a global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. Its biological resources make it a global hotspot of marine biodiversity. Known as the "Amazon of the seas", it covers 5.7 million square kilometres (2,200,000 sq mi) of ocean waters. It contains more than 76% of the world's shallow-water reef-building coral species, 37% of its reef fish species, 50% of its razor clam species, six out of seven of the world's sea turtle species, and the world's largest mangrove forest. In 2014, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported that the gross domestic product of the marine ecosystem in the Coral Triangle is roughly $1.2 trillion per year and provides food to over 120 million people. According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network, the region annually brings in about $3 billion in foreign exchange income from fisheries exports, and another $3 billion from coastal tourism revenues.
Coral reef protection is the process of modifying human activities to avoid damage to healthy coral reefs and to help damaged reefs recover. The key strategies used in reef protection include defining measurable goals and introducing active management and community involvement to reduce stressors that damage reef health. One management technique is to create Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that directly limit human activities such as fishing.
Jeremy Bradford Cook Jackson is an American ecologist, paleobiologist, and conservationist. He is an emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, and visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. He studies threats and solutions to human impacts on the environment and the ecology and evolution of tropical seas. Jackson has more than 170 scientific publications and 11 books, with nearly 40,000 citations listed on Google Scholar.
Jason deCaires Taylor is a British sculptor and creator of the world's first underwater sculpture park – the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park – and underwater museum – Cancún Underwater Museum (MUSA). He is best known for installing site-specific underwater sculptures that develop naturally into artificial coral reefs, which local communities and marine life depend on. Taylor integrates his skills as a sculptor, marine conservationist, underwater photographer and scuba diving instructor into each of his projects. By using a fusion of Land Art traditions and subtly integrating aspects of street art, Taylor produces dynamic sculptural works that are installed on the ocean floor to encourage marine life, to promote ocean conservation and to highlight the current climate crisis.
Marine Conservation Institute is a tax-exempt nonprofit ocean conservation organization working to identify and protect vulnerable ocean ecosystems worldwide. The organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices in Washington, D.C., and Glen Ellen, California.
The Waitt Institute is a non-profit that partners with committed governments and local communities to create and implement sustainable ocean plans to benefit people, the economy, and the environment.
Jessica Melbourne-Thomas is a marine, Antarctic, and climate change scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. Her research focuses on climate change, its effects on the marine environment, and how to adapt and response to these changes.
Ruth Deborah Gates was the Director of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and the first woman to be President of the International Society for Reef Studies. Her research was dedicated to understanding coral reef ecosystems, specifically coral-algal symbiosis and the capacity for corals to acclimatize under future climate change conditions. Doctor Gates is most accredited with looking at coral biology and human-assisted coral evolution, known as super corals, as notably seen in the documentary Chasing Coral, available on Netflix.
Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) is a partnership between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agencies, established in 2000. The program is a multidisciplinary approach, initiated by the NOAA, to managing and understanding coral reef ecosystems through research and the publication of data to support relevant partners involved in coral reef restoration.
Nyawira A. Muthiga is an African conservation zoologist who is Director of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association Marine Programme in Kenya. She is a conservation scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Climate change in Fiji is an exceptionally pressing issue for the country - as an island nation, Fiji is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, coastal erosion and extreme weather. These changes, along with temperature rise, will displace Fijian communities and will prove disruptive to the national economy - tourism, agriculture and fisheries, the largest contributors to the nation's GDP, will be severely impacted by climate change causing increases in poverty and food insecurity. As a party to both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement, Fiji hopes to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 which, along with national policies, will help to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Joan Ann ("Joanie") Kleypas is a marine scientist known for her work on the impact of ocean acidification and climate change on coral reefs, and for advancing solutions to environmental problems caused by climate change.
Emma Frances Camp is an English Australian marine biologist, Coral Expert, and National Geographic Explorer who researches the mechanisms of stress tolerance in corals. She is the Team Leader of the Future Reefs Team at the University of Technology Sydney. She is also the co-founder and lead scientist of Coral Nurture Program. In addition to her research, she promotes the retention of females in STEM fields.