Marine Citizen Science: Current State in Europe and New Technological Developments

Marine citizen science is emerging with promising opportunities for science, policy and public but there is still no comprehensive overview of the current state in Europe. Based on 127 projects identified for the North Sea area we estimate there might be as much as 500 marine and coastal citizen science projects running in Europe, i.e., one marine citizen science project per 85 km of coastline, with an exponential growth since 1990. Beach-based projects are more accessible and hence most popular (60% of the projects), and the mean duration of the projects is 18–20 years. Current trends, topics, organizers, aims, and types of programme in terms of participation are presented in this overview. Progress in marine citizen science is specially enabled and promoted through technological developments. Recent technological advances and best practise examples are provided here, untapping the potential of smart mobile apps, do-it-yourself (DIY) technologies, drones, and artificial intelligence (AI) web servicesVersión del edito

Strong fisheries management and governance positively impact ecosystem status

Fisheries have had major negative impacts on marine ecosystems, and effective fisheries management and governance are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries, biodiversity conservation goals and thus good ecosystem status. To date, the IndiSeas programme (Indicators for the Seas) has focussed on assessing the ecological impacts of fishing at the ecosystem scale using ecological indicators. Here, we explore fisheries Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' and relate this to ecosystem health and status. We developed a dedicated expert survey, focused at the ecosystem level, with a series of questions addressing aspects of management and governance, from an ecosystem-based perspective, using objective and evidence-based criteria. The survey was completed by ecosystem experts (managers and scientists) and results analysed using ranking and multivariate methods. Results were further examined for selected ecosystems, using expert knowledge, to explore the overall findings in greater depth. Higher scores for Management Effectiveness' and Governance Quality' were significantly and positively related to ecosystems with better ecological status. Key factors that point to success in delivering fisheries and conservation objectives were as follows: the use of reference points for management, frequent review of stock assessments, whether Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches were being accounted for and addressed, and the inclusion of stakeholders. Additionally, we found that the implementation of a long-term management plan, including economic and social dimensions of fisheries in exploited ecosystems, was a key factor in successful, sustainable fisheries management. Our results support the thesis that good ecosystem-based management and governance, sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems go together.IOC-UNESCO; EuroMarine; European FP7 MEECE research project; European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans; FRB EMIBIOS project [212085]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating changes in marine communities that provide ecosystem services through comparative assessments of community indicators

Fisheries provide critical provisioning services, especially given increasing human population. Understanding where marine communities are declining provides an indication of ecosystems of concern and highlights potential conflicts between seafood provisioning from wild fisheries and other ecosystem services. Here we use the nonparametric statistic, Kendall[U+05F3]s tau, to assess trends in biomass of exploited marine species across a range of ecosystems. The proportion of 'Non-Declining Exploited Species' (NDES) is compared among ecosystems and to three community-level indicators that provide a gauge of the ability of a marine ecosystem to function both in provisioning and as a regulating service: survey-based mean trophic level, proportion of predatory fish, and mean life span. In some ecosystems, NDES corresponds to states and temporal trajectories of the community indicators, indicating deteriorating conditions in both the exploited community and in the overall community. However differences illustrate the necessity of using multiple ecological indicators to reflect the state of the ecosystem. For each ecosystem, we discuss patterns in NDES with respect to the community-level indicators and present results in the context of ecosystem-specific drivers. We conclude that using NDES requires context-specific supporting information in order to provide guidance within a management framework.We would like to thank the IndiSeas Working Group, endorsed by IOC-UNESCO (www.ioc-unesco.org) and the European Network of Excellence Euroceans (www.eur-oceans.eu). KMK was supported by Conservation International and the Sea Around Us project, a collaboration between The University of British Columbia and The Pew Charitable Trusts. MC was partially supported by the EC Marie Curie CIG grant to BIOWEB and the Spanish Research Program Ramon y Cajal. LJS was supported through the South African Research Chair Initiative, funded through the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) and administered by the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). YJS and MTT were supported by the French project EMIBIOS (FRB, contract no. APP-SCEN-2010-II). LJS and YS were also funded by the European collaborative project MEECE – Marine Ecosystem Evolution in a Changing Environment – (FP7, Contract no. 212085). CPL was supported by Defra project MF1228 (From Physics to Fisheries) and DEVOTES (DEVelopment of innovative Tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good Environmental Status) funded by EU FP7 (grant Agreement no. 308392), www.devotes-project.eu. GIvdM was partially supported by the Norwegian Nature Index programme and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway. HO was funded was funded by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research (grant SF0180005s10). MAT was funded by a predoctoral FPI fellowship from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). MJJJ was supported by the EC Marie Curie IOF Grant, PIOF-GA-2013-628116. We acknowledge all those who conducted surveys to collect the data used in this study.Peer reviewe

The Nature Index: A General Framework for Synthesizing Knowledge on the State of Biodiversity

The magnitude and urgency of the biodiversity crisis is widely recognized within scientific and political organizations. However, a lack of integrated measures for biodiversity has greatly constrained the national and international response to the biodiversity crisis. Thus, integrated biodiversity indexes will greatly facilitate information transfer from science toward other areas of human society. The Nature Index framework samples scientific information on biodiversity from a variety of sources, synthesizes this information, and then transmits it in a simplified form to environmental managers, policymakers, and the public. The Nature Index optimizes information use by incorporating expert judgment, monitoring-based estimates, and model-based estimates. The index relies on a network of scientific experts, each of whom is responsible for one or more biodiversity indicators. The resulting set of indicators is supposed to represent the best available knowledge on the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in any given area. The value of each indicator is scaled relative to a reference state, i.e., a predicted value assessed by each expert for a hypothetical undisturbed or sustainably managed ecosystem. Scaled indicator values can be aggregated or disaggregated over different axes representing spatiotemporal dimensions or thematic groups. A range of scaling models can be applied to allow for different ways of interpreting the reference states, e.g., optimal situations or minimum sustainable levels. Statistical testing for differences in space or time can be implemented using Monte-Carlo simulations. This study presents the Nature Index framework and details its implementation in Norway. The results suggest that the framework is a functional, efficient, and pragmatic approach for gathering and synthesizing scientific knowledge on the state of biodiversity in any marine or terrestrial ecosystem and has general applicability worldwide

Sexual and aggressive interactions in a mixed species group of lobsters Homarus gammarus and H. americanus

The introduction of non-native populations can have dramatic effects on the native fauna as a result of interbreeding and aggressive interference between closely related species. This study investigates if female European lobsters Homarus gammarus would sexually interact and mate with male American lobsters Homarus americanus, recently introduced to Norwegian waters, if given the choice between the heterospecific and a conspecific male. Interactions between a mixed species pair of male lobsters and a single H. gammarus female were recorded during 1 wk periods in a large tank provided with 2 shelters. Trials included either dominant H. americanus or dominant H. gammarus males. The frequency and duration of social interactions such as aggression, shelter visits, shelter sharing, courtship and mating were analysed. Conspecific courtship occurred in 10 trials, and mating, in 5 trials. No sexual interactions occurred between species. H. gammarus females preferred to court and mate with a conspecific male irrespective of its dominance status. In addition, the H. americanus males showed no sexual response to the European females. Females visited conspecific male shelters more frequently than heterospecific male shelters. They received longer visits from the conspecific than from the heterospecific male. Conspecific pairs shared shelters more frequently and over longer periods of time than heterospecific pairs. Conspecific shelter sharing often included courtship, while heterospecific interactions were generally of aggressive nature, with lobsters fighting over shelter. The results suggest that European lobsters are able to recognize conspecific mates, perhaps by chemical signals, and that these signals serve as pre-mating barriers preventing hybridisation. © Inter-Research 2008

The Norwegian plan for integrated ecosystem-based management of the marine environment in the Norwegian Sea

A White Paper on a new integrated management plan for the Norwegian Sea was launched by the Norwegian government in May 2009. Following international guidelines for ecosystem-based management, the plan provides an overall framework for managing all human activities (mainly oil and gas industry, fishing, and shipping) in the area to ensure the continued production and function of the ecosystem. The plan is based on an assessment of the present and projected future impact of human activities and of the interactions between them, taking into account deficits in current knowledge of ecosystem state and dynamics. Areas of particular value in terms of biodiversity or biological production were identified. In each of these valuable areas, any access for substantial human activity is to be carefully managed. To monitor the overall development of the Norwegian Sea, a set of indicators with associated environmental quality objectives have been selected. The approach used builds upon experience gained from the first integrated Norwegian management plan for a marine area, the Barents Sea-Lofoten region, developed in 2002-2006. Work towards a Norwegian management plan for the North Sea, including Skagerrak, was initiated in 2009.Ecosystem approach Ecosystem-based management Integrated management Management plan Norwegian Sea