Objetivo The objectives of this programme are five fold: 1. To investigate and describe the biodiversity of maerl systems in the NE Atlantic and mediterranean Sea. 2. To investigate the structural factors causing differences in biodiversity between sites. This will involve detailed assessment of site edaphic factors, in particular the structural complexity of the habitat. 3. To investigate the interactions of the key habitat-structuring organisms. 4. To investigate the dynamics of community composition over time, especially the impact of natural disturbances. 5. To identify anthropogenic threats to, and assess the resilience of, maerl grounds. The collaboration envisaged will provide a comprehensive biogeographical coverage of sites from Scotland to Galicia in the Atlantic to Alicante and Malta in the Mediterranean, covering a substantial range of conditions under which maerl systems occur in European seas. At the completion of the programme a detailed inventory of regional biodiversity on maerl beds will be constructible. No such inventory exists at present. It is the intention to describe the range of habitat conditions at each study site. Standard protocols would be applied to definition of site edaphic feature temperature, salinity, water transparency, current velocity, maerl granulometry and silt content and porosity, megarippling, assessment of percentage live maerl, sediment pH, organic content and redox potential. Different workers have, in the past, studied the biology of maerl system using different sampling methodologies, e.g. remote sampling using grabs and corers and direct SCUBA/TV methods. Direct methods of observation offer the best chance of investigating small-scale patchiness of undisturbed systems. Key species and structural features of the maerl community will be identified for detailed study at each locality. A diversity of chosen special topics between areas will achieve a much greater in-depth understanding of the variety of physical/chemical/biological mechanisms affecting regional biodiversity. There will be considerable differences in species composition between the maerl communities in places as far apart as Millport and Malta. Flexibility will be retained between partners to exploit the circumstances of their own grounds to the full, while maintaining comparability in other studies. Thus, comparative background investigations (of population density, biomass, diversity) will be deliberately harmonized between teams to provide a university comparative framework of data. It is vital that work proceeds at all seasons of the year, to take into account cycles of reproduction, colonization and migration, and allow analyses of the impact of natural stress factors, e.g. storms. In each team's area, a perturbed and a control site will be selected for study of local impacts. The assessment of all these data will lead to the widest possible appreciation of the impacts of Man's activities [direct exploitation(Brittany, Glenan archipelago), scalloP dredging (Scotland), otter trawling (Alicante, Malta), aquaculture (Galicia, Malta), eutrophication effects (Brittany, Bay of Brest)] OII this most vulnerable ecosystem. Ámbito científico agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheriesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsagricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass Programa(s) FP4-MAST 3 - Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of marine science and technology, 1994-1998 Tema(s) 010103 - Biogeochemical and physical processes including the role of waves and currents and fluxes across the air/sea interface Convocatoria de propuestas Data not available Régimen de financiación CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinador UNIVERSITY OF LONDON Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Marine Parade KA28 0EG MILLPORT,ISLE CUMBRAE Reino Unido Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos Participantes (4) Ordenar alfabéticamente Ordenar por aportación de la UE Ampliar todo Contraer todo UNIVERSITY OF ALICANTE España Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección S/N,Campus San Vicente 03080 ALICANTE Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos Universidad de Santiago de Compostela España Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Campus Sur 15706 Santiago de Compostela Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos University of Malta Malta Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Msida Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos Université de Bretagne Occidentale Francia Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección 6,Avenue le Gorgeu 29285 Brest Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos
