Strengthening Public Health Through Ocean Research: Interdisciplinary Research and Sustainable Actions

Knowledge of the relationship between ocean health and human health is limited and fragmented, calling for transdisciplinary research and strategic action. The involvement of public health alongside marine experts is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the health-environment-climate nexus in a planetary health perspective.

In response to the continuous challenges posed by global climate change and environmental degradation, the scientific community is increasingly reconsidering its previous concept of human health, linking it to the availability of natural resources and ecosystem services on which health and life itself depend.

The emergence of Planetary Health in the face of major environmental challenges, has identified a number of issues to be addressed, including several crucial research priorities . Knowledge in this field is widely considered to be inadequate due to the limited scope and comparability of studies, the lack of transdisciplinary research, and limited funding. Investigating threats to human health associated with the disruption of natural systems, including climate change, becomes particularly challenging when addressing the links between ocean health and human health. Despite numerous gaps and uncertainties in our understanding, both ocean and human health are undeniably endangered by climate change and the decline of marine ecosystems, encompassing coastal waters, high seas, and the vast expanses of the deep seabed. These changes include water warming, acidification, sea level rise, changes in salinity, persistent pollution, and loss of biodiversity, all of which are exacerbated by complex synergies that intensify the effects of already unsustainable direct and indirect anthropogenic pressures, impacting on economic and social systems as well as on health. An understanding of these complex and interdependent relationships is crucial to inform policy and promote sound and effective action towards sustainability and health.

To address this need, multisectoral and transdisciplinary research is more and more required to simultaneously evaluate emerging pollutants and the consequent effect on the planetary health.

The aim of this special issue is to share disseminate original research, comments and review studies that address advances, trends, challenges and future perspectives concerning the development and assessment of new adaptation, mitigation and prevention strategies for the planetary health by the study of the ocean’s health.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Ocean Health, Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Human Health

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.