Understanding and valuing coastal and marine biodiversity and ecosystems services

Intro

The lack of biodiversity knowledge and appropriate monitoring are critical limiting factors in the definition and implementation of measures, where the range, population size and suitable habitat area are unknown in the majority of Member States and for the majority of vulnerable marine species and ecosystems. Since biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate in Earth’s history, there is an urgent need to take conservation measures and develop holistic ecosystem-based management approaches to enable these ecosystems to be resilient to environmental changes and able to provide services for humankind and the planet’s life support system.

Scope

– Increase understanding of the dynamics of marine biodiversity and ecosystems processes and functioning
– Genomics and taxonomic technologies for the inventory and fast identification of marine species, generating reference datasets from identified voucher specimens and novel methods to improve biodiversity monitoring and inventory
– Increase understanding of how input from freshwater and estuarine systems influence coastal marine communities and their ecosystem functionality
– Use of non-invasive monitoring as an integral component of any marine ecosystem exploration and assessment
– Contribution to the Global Taxonomy Initiative

Objective

– Closing the gap in knowledge and exploration of marine and coastal biodiversity
– New theoretical frameworks of the organisation of marine biotic communities
– Ocean health prediction
– Improved detection, monitoring and impact assessment of invasive alien species on biodiversity and conservation monitoring of endangered species;
– Natural capital accounting with estimation of the value and co-benefits of services from healthy deep sea to coastal ecosystems
– Improved science-based maritime spatial planning and identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas and design of Marine Protected Areas