Improved transdisciplinary science for effective ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning and conservation in European Seas

General Information

In view of growing maritime economies, societies worldwide are facing the same problem: How can one achieve blue growth without further loss of marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning? In Europe, the main governance process to provide environmental risk mitigations is Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP). Currently, however, such MSP processes lack a consistent framework and rarely integrate measures like marine protected area (MPA) networks as a means to support sustainable growth. To improve this situation, the MarinePlan project will co-develop best practice guidelines and decision support systems that recognize climate change, spatial connectivity, biodiversity attributes and other important ecosystem goods and services as key to the design of effective MPAs. The ultimate goal is to operationalize the identification of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) as part of a coherent ecosystem-based MSP for European seas.
Hereon will contribute its expertise on hydrodynamic modelling in three work packages of the MarinePlan project. Specific tasks involve the investigation of long-term hydrodynamic conditions and oceanic transport in the southern North Sea and other case study regions by means of Lagrangian particle drift simulations. The aim is to provide guidance to the description of EBSAs by assessing spatial connectivity among candidate areas for regional MPA networks.

EU-Programme Acronym and Subprogramme Area	HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-12
Project Type	Research & Innovation Action (RIA)
Contract Number	Grant Agreement 101059407
Co-ordinator	Johann Heinrich Von Thuenen-Institut (DE)

Funding for the Project (€)	Funding for Hereon (€)
3,587,827	132,187

Contact Person at Hereon

Dr. Frank-Detlef Bockelmann, Institute of Carbon Cycles, Department Biogeochemical Modeling (KCM), Phone: +49(4152)87-1881 E-mail contact

Participants

Azti Fundaziona (ES), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (ES), Department of Fisheries and Oceans (CA), ECOPATH International Iniative Acociacion (ES), IMAR - Instituto Do Mar (PT), International Estuarine & Coastal Specialists Ltd (UK), Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut (DE), Marine Institute (IE), Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (BE), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (IT), Stichting Wageningen Research (NL), Technical University of Denmark (DK), The Queen's University of Belfast (IE), Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (IT), Universität Hamburg (DE), University Of The Aegean (GR)

Last Update: 08. January 2024