32 institutions from 17 countries, including the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo (CIM), are participating in the European project FutureMARES, which aims to develop actions, strategies and solutions based on nature, aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems. Funded with more than 8 million euros by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, the Vigo institution is represented by the CIM’s Future Oceans Lab group in this project led by Professor Myriom Peck of the University of Hamburg. Specifically, researcher Elena Ojea, coordinator of the Future Oceans Lab group, together with postdoctoral researcher Juan Bueno-Pardo, will be responsible for leading the working group in charge of assessing the “climate vulnerability” of both different marine and coastal ecosystems and the communities of people who depend on them. Its purpose will be to identify the “ecosystem services” and communities in a situation of greater risk, through studies that will be carried out in different parts of Europe and Latin America.
Along with the CSIC and the ATZI Foundation, the University of Vigo is one of the three Spanish partners of a project whose “main objective is to provide nature-based adaptation and mitigation measures (NBS)”, such as sustainable fishing, restoration of marine habitats and conservation of marine protected areas. The Vigo institution will receive 187,000 of the total budget of a project that is currently holding its kick-off meeting, virtually, and will run until 2024. A project that Future Oceans Lab defines as a “great opportunity” to “expand our network of collaborators” and achieve “greater visibility and internationalization, as we aspire to be a reference group in the study of the adaptation of marine systems to climate change”.
Ecological, economic and social analysis
FutureMARES, explains Future Oceans Lab project manager Julia Ameneiro, “covers the study of marine ecosystems in an integrative way, combining the ecological and social fields”, conceiving them as “a functional system, in which ecological processes and functions interact with people”, providing them with services ranging from food and climate regulation to tourism.
In this way, it will be sought to explore “adaptation or mitigation solutions” focused on the conservation or restoration of ecosystems” in the face of threats posed, for example, by rising temperatures or rising sea levels, which imply “significant changes in marine ecosystems” with ecological and social consequences. These are, they explain, measures that “provide environmental, social and economic benefits simultaneously”, and that will be sought to be “economically and socially viable”, in addition to being adapted to the local reality to achieve greater efficiency and highlight the possibilities of NBS. This would be the case, for example, of opting for the conservation of a marsh, which “has the functionality of preventing the intrusion of the sea on the coastline and reducing the impact of rising sea levels”, instead of the construction of dikes, with which, Ameneiro recalls, “we would be losing services such as water and air regulation or fishing”. Through these studies adapted to each area, they will seek to “know the real cost and benefit of implementing the NBS in different habitats”, so that the project can result in measures that can be integrated into climate policies.
Climate vulnerability
Future Oceans Lab will lead, together with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies of the CSIC, the execution of WP5, a work package in which “we will develop the methodology for assessing the vulnerability of marine systems and coordinate its application in places such as the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea or the coasts of Chile”. The analysis of climate vulnerability, “the degree of susceptibility or inability of an ecosystem to cope with the impacts of climate change”, will be the axis of this working group, which will collaborate with different partners “to obtain climate impact scenarios and study the perceptions of communities that depend on coastal habitats”, explains Ameneiro.
“Our work will try to understand which ecosystems, resources and communities are most vulnerable and, therefore, where the intervention of the different institutions can be focused,” add the group, which with FutureMARES is expanding its line of work on vulnerability studies, continuing projects such as the Interreg-MED MPA-Engage, which is being developed by researcher Francesca Barazzetta.
Multiple points of analysis
Along with the Mediterranean, the Baltic and the coasts of Chile, the northeast Atlantic, the North Sea, the Baltic, the Bay of Biscay and the Caribbean are also part of the points where the studies of this project will be carried out. “These regions were chosen”, explains Ameneiro, due to the “previous scientific knowledge of the climatic, ecological and socio-economic characteristics”, which will allow “to test the effectiveness of NBS” when it comes to “increasing the resilience of society to the impact of climate change and ensuring that services” such as fishing or aquaculture “can provide food in the long term in a sustainable way for the environment, the economy and society”.
The crisis generated by Covid-19, however, could imply changes in the planned activities, which included “an extensive program of consultations and workshops with local agents, which have to be redesigned.”
A actividade investigadora do Future Oceans Lab conta ademais co apoio da Xunta de Galicia e a Unión Europea, a través do seu cofinanciamento ao abeiro do Programa Operativo FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020.
Source: DUVI
