Developing innovative tools to understand marine biodiversity
and good environmental status
02 November 2012
PML scientists are involved in a new
EU funded project DEVOTES which aims to improve our knowledge about
how human activities and global change impact marine
biodiversity.
The
DEVOTES project is made up of more than 250 scientists in 23
research centres from 12 European Union countries (as well as
Ukraine, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the USA). This is a four
year project, with a total budget of €12, co-ordinated by the
Spanish technological centre AZTI-Tecnalia. It will explore how
marine biodiversity is measured and how these measures may be used
to assess Good Environmental Status (GES). This will result in
cutting-edge tools for characterising regional seas and determining
whether GES for biodiversity is being achieved within Europe.
Within the project PML aims to address key
questions regarding the state of biological diversity and its
relationship to food-webs, seafloor integrity, human impacts and
climate change.
PML will study multiple human pressures on
marine biodiversity, the adequacy of monitoring and the challenges
of comparing against a shifting baseline due to climate change. PML
is also leading investigations to determine the socio-economic
implications of maintaining or changing current
monitoring/management practices (which are focused on achieving and
maintaining GES).
The aim is to support the development of
cost-effective systems in monitoring and management strategies.
Using existing biodiversity indicators collected through field work
and by using satellites, PML scientists will be able to analyse the
coverage, strengths, weaknesses and data requirements in the four
European regional seas and then go on to develop and test new ones.
The aim is to develop innovative monitoring systems (for example
using remote sensing) with a balanced suite of indicators of
biodiversity that is ecologically relevant and responsive to
pressures in European regional seas. This will refine and deepen
our ability to monitor the status of marine biodiversity and comply
with European legislation.