Transcript The EU Network of Excellence MarBEF Marine Biodiversity and

The EU Network of Excellence
MarBEF
Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Functioning
Carlo Heip
General Coordinator
[email protected]
MarBEF
Consortium
56 member
Institutes and
36
associated
institutes
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What?
• A consortium of 56 member and 35 associated
member institutes and organizations in 24
countries
• Covering the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, the
North Sea, the Balthic Sea, the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea.
• Over 700 marine scientists involved
• Covering all coastal EU countries
Why?
• Basic knowledge is missing
– What marine biodiversity exists in Europe?
– What are the hot spots of European marine
biodiversity?
– How do they change over time?
• We need that knowledge
– To understand how the oceans work.
– To develop ecosystem based management of living
resources
– To underpin nature conservation strategies
Results: A few Highlights
• Marine Biodiversity is increasing in European
Waters
• Regional approaches are needed to support
the EC Marine and Water Framework Policy
• Over 31,000 marine species now known from
European Waters.
Marine Biodiversity is Increasing in
European Waters
• Despite increasing pressure from overfishing, habitat
destruction and pollution, there are strong indications
that marine biodiversity (species richness) on the
whole is increasing in European waters
• This is due to invading species and to a general
northward movement of marine species due to climate
change
• The long term impacts of these changes for the
stability and resilience of marine ecosystems is not
known. Their study will require better observations
and new experimental approaches.
Overexploitation leads to decreasing
numbers of top predators.
Example: Bluefin Tuna caught
in the North Sea UK 1933 (upper two)
Denmark (lower) 1946. The species
has now disappeared completely.
(MacKenzie and Myers, 2007)
Species richness
Fish Species Richness in the North Sea has strongly
increased over time
o Small southern species increase
o Large northern species decrease their range
More species in the Arctic lowers
productivity of the foodweb
• Over the last few years temperature in northern
waters has increased (fig. 1.)
• In warmer waters the plankton is more numerous
but smaller and richer in species (fig.2.)
• The increase in species richness decreases the
productivity of the food web (more energy is
needed to maintain lower trophic levels) (fig.3.)
• The highest levels of the food web (birds, seals,
polar bears) therefore decrease in abundance.
Fig. 1. Water temperatures in the Arctic are increasing (Walczowski et al. 2007)
Fig. 2. At higher temperatures more but smaller plankton species
occur.
years
4
3
2
1
-2
0
2
4
6
temperature
Fig.3. Rising biodiversity in the Arctic may threat higher
trophic levels
Lessepsian Migration has changed the
Mediterranean
• The number of species from the Red Sea
entering the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal
(Lessepsian Migration) continues to increase.
• Biological communities especially in the
Eastern Med have greatly changed
accordingly.
Left: Sparisoma cretense: southern species moving northward in the Mediterranean
Right: Rhopilema nomadica: jellyfish originating from the Red Sea, now a pest species in the Eastern
Mediterranean
(courtesy Nando Boero)
Which species matter?
• Unique experiments and analyses of biological
communities from different coastal areas covering
different habitats all over Europe have shown that the
response of ecosystems to disturbance is not uniform
• Removal of key species does not always affect stability
of the ecosystem
• The results show that effects depend on where, when
and what species is removed
• Only in the case of invading species removal resulted in
increasing stability
• Therefore the regional approach advocated in the
Water Framework and Marine Directive is fully justified
Over 31000 marine species now
known from European waters
• The European Register of Marine Species
(including only plants and animals) grew with
1,371 species since 2006. The list now totals
31,455 marine species in Europe, which makes
this the best known continent thanks to efforts of
hundreds of taxonomists and ecologists.
• More than 136 plant and animal species found
since 2006 are new to science, but in the
microbial domain the number of new ‘species’
has grown exponentially.
New species for science
• Marbefia a new genus
of copepod
(Crustaceans) from the
North Sea.