Project description
Beyond the causes and consequences of the maintenance, loss and gain of biodiversity
Oceans are home to a huge number and variety of species. However, human activities, including overexploitation and pollution, are changing the marine environment. It’s important to understand how biodiversity and ecosystem functioning can be maintained. Τhe EU-funded MARBEFES project aims to bring together 23 research institutes from 15 European countries to evaluate and characterise the links between marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services and the resulting society goods and benefits in coastal communities. The surveys will be held across all study areas in a series of Broad Belt Transects from the Arctic, through the brackish Baltic, the marine North Sea coasts and Atlantic, to the subtropical Mediterranean.
Objective
The European Union and its Member States (MSs) have a fundamental need to understand how biodiversity and ecosystem functioning must be maintained to ensure that they deliver ecosystem services, goods and benefits, which in turn must be sustainably used by society. Central to this, and as the raison d’ȇtre of this call, the MSs need to value these natural and social capital aspects of ecosystems. The overall aim of MARBEFES is to determine the links between the biodiversity and functioning of coastal and marine ecosystems and the resulting ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits. In this it will achieve ecological and socio-economic valuation through a validated set of innovative tools in a distributed toolbox (TRL 6) to enhance policy and governance to secure benefits for current and future generation. We will progress substantially beyond the current state-of-the-art understanding of the causes and consequences of the maintenance, loss and gain of biodiversity and ecological and economic value and the repercussions of this for the management and governance of European seas. Involving 23 highly experienced partners, the project outputs and outcomes are based on developing and validating a set of ecological, economic and socio-cultural valuation tools using existing and new information and data in 12 Broad Belt Transect case studies. These cover the breadth of European marine biodiversity, from the Arctic to semi-tropical areas, across dominant habitats and iconic species, and from shallow to deep areas and encompass a range of socio-economic contexts. As such, and through stakeholder co-creation for policy relevance, MARBEFES shows the tools to value different natural capital resources and inform planning from financial allocations to management and with monetary and non-monetary benefits. In this, the project advances our knowledge through linking marine biodiversity and its ecological structure and functioning to ecological and economic valuation.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
81 712 Sopot
Poland
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Participants (19)
41071 Sevilla
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9007 TROMSO
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4706VB Roosendaal
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
LT-92294 KLAIPEDA
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51005 Tartu
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37008 Salamanca
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00185 Roma
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4 Dublin
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024053 Bucharest
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39005 Santander
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Legal entity other than a subcontractor which is affiliated or legally linked to a participant. The entity carries out work under the conditions laid down in the Grant Agreement, supplies goods or provides services for the action, but did not sign the Grant Agreement. A third party abides by the rules applicable to its related participant under the Grant Agreement with regard to eligibility of costs and control of expenditure.
39011 Santander
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28006 Madrid
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27570 Bremerhaven
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38122 Trento
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20500 Abo
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19013 Attikia Anavissos
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8400 OOSTENDE
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
97233 Schoelcher
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
48940 Leioa
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Partners (3)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
SW1P 4DF LONDON
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
NR4 7TJ Norwich
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
HU17 5LQ Beverley
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