Development of sustainable tools (Database and software) for Marine Litter Data management

Entregable del proyecto CleanAtlanticEste entregable describe diversas herramientas de utilidad para la gestión de datos de basura marina

Ecosystem services provided by a non-cultured shellfish species: the common cockle Cerastoderma edule

Coastal habitats provide many important ecosystem services. The substantial role of shellfish in delivering ecosystem services is increasingly recognised, usually with a focus on cultured species, but wild-harvested bivalve species have largely been ignored. This study aimed to collate evidence and data to demonstrate the substantial role played by Europe's main wild-harvested bivalve species, the common cockle Cerastoderma edule, and to assess the ecosystem services that cockles provide. Data and information are synthesised from five countries along the Atlantic European coast with a long history of cockle fisheries. The cockle helps to modify habitat and support biodiversity, and plays a key role in the supporting services on which many of the other services depend. As well as providing food for people, cockles remove nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon from the marine environment, and have a strong cultural influence in these countries along the Atlantic coast. Preliminary economic valuation of some of these services in a European context is provided, and key knowledge gaps identified. It is concluded that the cockle has the potential to become (i) an important focus of conservation and improved sustainable management practices in coastal areas and communities, and (ii) a suitable model species to study the integration of cultural ecosystem services within the broader application of ‘ecosystem services’

A common garden experiment supports a genetic component underlying the increased resilience of common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) to the parasite Marteilia cochillia

16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table.-- This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution LicenseThe common cockle is a valuable bivalve species inhabiting the Atlantic European coasts. The parasite Marteilia cochillia has devastated cockle beds in the southern Galician (NW Spain) rias since 2012. Previous data suggested that cockles from Ría de Arousa acquired some resilience to this parasite through natural selection after consecutive annual marteiliosis outbreaks and candidate markers associated with marteiliosis resilience were identified using population genomics and transcriptomics approaches. Here, a common garden experiment was performed using a naïve stock (from Ría de Muros-Noia) and an affected stock (from Ría de Arousa) to test this hypothesis. Breeders from both stocks were used to produce seed cohorts at hatchery, which were pre-grown in a raft (outdoor nursery stage) and deployed in two shellfish beds affected by marteiliosis in Ría de Arousa (growing-out stage). In both beds, the naïve stock showed high marteiliosis prevalence and was fully depleted in a short period, while the affected stock barely showed evidence of marteiliosis. A set of 45 SNPs putatively associated with marteiliosis resilience were fitted for MassARRAY genotyping to check their role in the differential resilience detected between both stocks. Though no significant differentiation was found between the naïve and the affected stocks with neutral markers, 28 SNPs showed significant divergence between them, suggesting that these SNPs were involved in directional selection during eight generations (to the most) of marteiliosis pressure (long-term selection). Furthermore, signals of selection were also detected in the naïve stock along the marteiliosis outbreak in the growing-out stage (short-term selection) and six SNPs, all shared with the long-term evaluation, showed consistent signals of differentiation according to the infection severity. Some of these SNPs were located within immune genes pertaining to families such as proteasome, ubiquitin, tumor necrosis factor, and glutathione S-transferase. These resilience-associated markers will be useful to recover cockle production in GaliciaR.M. Coimbra was supported by a scholarship from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 202015/2020-3) of the Brazilian Government. This research was funded by the European Union through the project COCKLES within the INTERREG-AA program (EAPA_458/2016), by the Consellería do Mar da Xunta de Galicia, through the project RESMART (CIMA 21/07). This research has been carried out under the framework of the Spain's Recovery and Resilience Plan, and more specifically under the investment line no.1 of its component number 17, where the complementary RTDI plan with the autonomous regions of Spain is foreseen, with one of those being the Complementary RTDI Plan for Marine Science which includes the Marine Science Program for Galicia. The research in this paper corresponds to the Program Work Package n° 6 and activity no. 6.3.A.2 about “Genetic architecture of marteiliosis resistance in common cockle” and has been funded by the Resilience and Recovery FundsPeer reviewe

Inter‐country differences in the cultural ecosystem services provided by cockles

1. Coastal systems provide many cultural ecosystem services (CES) to humans. Fewer studies have focused solely on CES, while those comparing CES across countries are even rarer. In the case of shellfish, considerable ecosystem services focus has been placed on nutrient remediation, with relatively little on the cultural services provided, despite strong historical, cultural, social and economic links between shellfish and coastal communities. The ecosystem services provided by the common cockle, Cerastoderma edule, have recently been described, yet the cultural benefits from cockles remain mostly unknown. 2. Here, we documented the CES provided by C. edule in five maritime countries along the Atlantic coast of western Europe, classifying evidenced examples of services into an a priori framework. The high-level classes, adapted from the Millennium Assessment and the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services, were: inspirational, sense of place, spiritual & religious, aesthetic, recreation & ecotourism, cultural heritage and educational. A further 19 sub-classes were defined. We followed a narrative approach to draw out commonalities and differences among countries using a semi-quantitative analysis. 3. Examples of CES provided by cockles were found for all classes in most countries. Cockles supply important and diverse cultural benefits to humans across Atlantic Europe, making it an ideal model species to study CES in coastal areas. Most examples were in cultural heritage, highlighting the importance of this class in comparison with classes which typically receive more attention in the literature like recreation or aesthetics. We also found that the cultural associations with cockles differed among countries, including between neighbouring countries that share a strong maritime heritage. The extent to which cultural associations were linked with the present or past also differed among countries, with stronger association with the present in southern countries and with the past in the north. 4. Understanding the wider benefits of cockles could deepen the recognition of this important coastal resource, and contribute to promoting sustainable management practices, through greater engagement with local communities. This study is an important step towards better integration of CES in coastal environments and could be used as a framework to study the CES of other species or ecosystems

Manual para el registro de basura marina de fondo en muestreos realizados mediante buceo

Manual para el registro de basura marina de fondo en muestreos realizados mediante buceoEste manual presenta una metodología que pretende servir de apoyo para la identificación de basura marina de fondo en muestreos que se realicen mediante buceo

Protocolo para el muestreo de microplásticos en agua superficial con manta Avani

En este manual se detalla el protocolo de muestreo de microplásticos en agua superficial que utiliza el IEO-Vigo en las campañas de ESMARES6-C8

Protocolo estandarizado para el muestreo de microplásticos en sedimentos submareales con draga Box Corer

Manual para la toma de muestras de sedimentos submareales para la determinación de microplásticosEste manual describe de manera pormenorizada los pasos a seguir para la toma de muestras para sedimento mediante draga Box-Corer. Se detalla como recoger la muestra en cubierta, como manipularla en el laboratorio húmeda y como conservarla. Además, se dan indicaciones para controlar la posible contaminación ambiental al manipular las muestras

Tweeting about marine plastic pollution: a oneyear exploratory data analysis

Twitter, with more than 330 million monthly active users worldwide, is an invaluable source for studying environmental and social concerns. Here, we present an exploratory data analysis of a one-year (July 20- July 21) dataset of ~132K tweets containing the words ‘plastic’ or ‘microplastic’ in reference to the marine environment. Understanding what kind of users profiles are tweeting and how and when they do it, could help organizations involved in research and marine environmental awareness to adjust their communication plans. A web app called Twilitter has been created to analyze these results over time