Key challenge: Ecosystem goods and services
Can we sustain and increase the goods and services
provided by marine ecosystems while ensuring that we do not
compromise uses and activities of future generations?
Many goods and services are provided by coastal and shelf
ecosystems, which account for only 7% of the total ocean area, but
support over 50% of the world fisheries, providing vital nutrition
to 3 billion people. Offshore gas and oil production, tourism,
trade and shipping each bring approximately 150-200 billion US$ to
the world economy per year, making coastal ecosystems one of the
most economically valuable in the world.
As the human population grows to an expected 9 billion by 2050,
human societies will have to face the unprecedented challenge of
living within environmental limits. The pressures on the Earth
system will increase, particularly in the coastal zone, already
hosting over 50% of the world’s population and set to rise
rapidly.
Marine science will be increasingly expected to inform society
as to the choices that we have and the consequences of our actions,
requiring an intensification of our efforts to monitor, study and
understand the marine environment.
PML is exploring the links between ecosystem and human health in
order to understand societal dependence on healthy marine
ecosystems and ultimately to improve the quality of human life.
In particular, PML scientists are looking at the public health
benefits that can be related to human use of the marine environment
for recreation, leisure and tourism, as well as the benefits
arising from the consumption of marine organisms. With so many
people relying on fish as their main source of protein, it is
essential that we understand processes which impact upon the
variability of natural resources such as fisheries.
Projects
- QUEST_FISH
QUEST_FISH focuses on how climate change will affect the
potential production of global fisheries resources in the future,
compared to past and present scenarios, in the absence of
exploitation. This approach removes uncertainties as to what
exploitation regulations will be implemented in coming decades, and
focuses on the added impacts that climate change is likely to
cause, and on the subsequent additional risks and vulnerabilities
to human societies.
- Development of
assimilative capacity and carrying capacity models for water bodies
utilised for marine bivalve and caged fish
farming
- Marine Ecosystem Evolution in a
Changing Environment (MEECE)
MEECE is a European FP7 Integrated project
with 22 partners co-ordinated by PML. MEECE uses predictive models
that consider the full range of climatic and anthropogenic
drivers to explore the responses of the marine ecosystem in a
holistic manner. This innovative approach will help scientists and
decision makers to respond to multiple driver impacts with
appropriate, knowledge based, management applications. MEECE will
also go a step further and provide methodologies to evaluate these
new decision making and management
tools.