UNIPI Team Leader: Prof. Fabio Bulleri, Dipartimento di Biologia

Marine and transitional waters support a large portion of the global biodiversity. Harbouring key climate-regulating processes and habitats, they contribute to worldwide food security, in addition to other valuable economic and well-being services and resources. The EU-funded FutureMARES project will deliver new solutions to climate change challenges. This highly multidisciplinary project will investigate socially and economically viable nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Solutions will include the restoration of habitat-forming species that can buffer coastal habitats from climate change effects and improve seawater quality. Conservation actions and sustainable, ecosystem-based harvesting (capture and culture) of seafood are also a project priority. Overall, the aim is to safeguard these ecosystems’ natural capital, biodiversity and services.

Marine and transitional ecosystems provide fundamental climate regulation, food provisioning and cultural services. FutureMARES provides socially and economically viable nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate change (CC) adaptation and mitigation to safeguard these ecosystems’ natural capital, biodiversity and services.

The program advances understanding of the links between species and community traits, ecological functions and ecosystem services as impacted by CC by analysing the best available data from monitoring programs and conducting targeted experiments and beyond state-of-the-art modelling. Ensemble physical-biogeochemical projections will identify CC hotspots and refugia. Shifts in the distribution and productivity of keystone, structural and endangered species and the consequences for biodiversity will be projected within different CC-NBS scenarios to reveal potential ecological benefits, feedbacks and trade-offs. Novel, social-ecological vulnerability assessments will rank the severity of CC impacts on various ecosystem services and dependent human communities. Complementary analyses at real-world demonstration sites will inform managers and policy-makers on the economic costs and tradeoffs of NBS.

These physical, ecological, social and economic analyses will be integrated to develop three, climate-ready NBS: i) restoration of habitat-forming species acting as ‘climate rescuers’ buffering coastal habitats from negative CC effects, improving seawater quality, and sequestering carbon, ii) conservation actions explicitly considering the range of impacts of CC and other hazards on habitat suitability for biota to preserve the integrity of food webs (e.g. marine protected areas) and protect endangered species (e.g. charismatic megafauna), and iii) sustainable, ecosystem-based harvesting (capture and culture) of seafood. FutureMARES is co-developed with policy-makers and managers to ensure impactful and transformative cost-effective actions.

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET HAMBURG, Germany

Participants

• AARHUS UNIVERSITET, Denmark
• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS, Greece
• FUNDACION AZTI - AZTI FUNDAZIOA, Spain
• CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS AVANZADADOS EN ZONAS ARIDAS, Chile
• THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS, United Kingdom
• CENTRO INTERDISCIPLINAR DE INVESTIGACAO MARINHA E AMBIENTAL, Portugal
• FONDAZIONE CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEOSUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI, Italy
• AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS, Spain
• COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY, Belize
• DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL, United Kingdom
• STICHTING DELTARES, Netherlands
• DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET, Denmark
• CENTRO DE CIENCIAS DO MAR DO ALGARVE, Portugal
• HELMHOLTZ ZENTRUM FUR OZEANFORSCHUNG KIEL, Germany
• HELLENIC CENTRE FOR MARINE RESEARCH, Greece
• ICETA INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS, TECNOLOGIAS E AGROAMBIENTE DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO, Portugal
• ISRAEL OCEANOGRAPHIC AND LIMNOLOGICAL RESEARCH LIMITED, Israel
• INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT, France
• INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT, France
• MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, United Kingdom
• NORSK INSTITUTT FOR VANNFORSKNING, Norway
• PLYMOUTH MARINE LABORATORY LIMITED, United Kingdom
• CONSORZIO DI GESTIONE DELL'AREA MARINA PROTETTA DEL PROMONTORIO DI PORTOFINO, Italy
• UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom
• STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET, Sweden
• SUOMEN YMPARISTOKESKUS, Finland
• JOHANN HEINRICH VON THUENEN-INSTITUT, BUNDESFORSCHUNGSINSTITUT FUER LAENDLICHE RAEUME, WALD UND FISCHEREI, Germany
• WCMC LBG, United Kingdom
• UNIVERSITA DI PISA Italy
• UNIVERSIDAD DE VIGO, Spain
• STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH, Netherlands
• STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN, Netherlands

Start date 1 September 2020
End date 31 August 2024
Project cost € 8 555 905
Project funding € 8 555 905
UNIPI quota € 417 500
Call title H2020-LC-CLA-2019-2
Funding scheme RIA - Research and Innovation action
UNIPI role Partner