Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REDRESS (Restoration of deep-sea habitats to rebuild European Seas)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-02-01 bis 2025-07-31
Global changes and multiple anthropogenic stressors are transforming European seas more than other regional seas. Direct and indirect human pressures on marine ecosystems are expected to further increase in the next decades, magnifying the loss of marine biodiversity and ecosystem services, including in the deep sea. Considering the deep sea’s critical role in the functioning and buffering of planetary systems, the loss of deep-sea habitats will have severe impacts on the whole planet, especially in CO2 storage.
REDRESS aims to demonstrate the feasibility, sustainability, and value of deep-sea ecosystem restoration and provide public authorities with solutions to plan and upscale restoration operations.
Specifically, REDRESS will address interconnected actions:
1. fine-scale mapping of degraded marine habitats at EU scale to establish a baseline to develop a roadmap towards the prioritization of areas and activities most in need of urgent restoration interventions;
2. restoration interventions in deep-sea habitats to reverse biodiversity decline;
3. capitalize on restoration efforts from prior research experience to assess the restoration effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services;
4. apply the best (and cost-efficient) technological and nature-based approaches for the mid- and long-term monitoring of restoration success in different deep-sea habitats;
5. identify monitoring indicators and targets to measure large-scale restoration success in terms of ecosystem service benefits and trade-offs;
6. provide of the impacts of cost for deep-sea restoration at EU level;
7. contribute to the implementation of Nature-Based solutions, already developed in previous EU-funded projects;
8. identify public-private partnerships, cross-sectoral collaborations and forms of participation in marine restoration governance arrangements;
9. promote upscaling restoration actions, through stakeholder engagement and identifying the potential for innovative blueprints solutions to accelerate investment in marine restoration;
10. transfer the knowledge to promote new businesses (SME) in marine restoration.
REDRESS aims to demonstrate the feasibility, sustainability, and value of deep-sea ecosystem restoration and provide public authorities with solutions to plan and upscale restoration operations.
Specifically, REDRESS will address interconnected actions:
1. fine-scale mapping of degraded marine habitats at EU scale to establish a baseline to develop a roadmap towards the prioritization of areas and activities most in need of urgent restoration interventions;
2. restoration interventions in deep-sea habitats to reverse biodiversity decline;
3. capitalize on restoration efforts from prior research experience to assess the restoration effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services;
4. apply the best (and cost-efficient) technological and nature-based approaches for the mid- and long-term monitoring of restoration success in different deep-sea habitats;
5. identify monitoring indicators and targets to measure large-scale restoration success in terms of ecosystem service benefits and trade-offs;
6. provide of the impacts of cost for deep-sea restoration at EU level;
7. contribute to the implementation of Nature-Based solutions, already developed in previous EU-funded projects;
8. identify public-private partnerships, cross-sectoral collaborations and forms of participation in marine restoration governance arrangements;
9. promote upscaling restoration actions, through stakeholder engagement and identifying the potential for innovative blueprints solutions to accelerate investment in marine restoration;
10. transfer the knowledge to promote new businesses (SME) in marine restoration.
The consortium dedicated efforts to:
i) start all tasks scheduled from Month 1, including the launch of the REDRESS website and social media (https://redress-project.eu/)(öffnet in neuem Fenster);
ii) arrange, plan and carry out all actions envisaged in all WPs during the first 18 months of the project;
iii) start restoration interventions in different areas selected along the European Seas;
iv) discuss, with internal working groups for each WP, the proper actions to make available deliverables and to achieve milestones of the WPs in due time;
v) maximize the impact of the project outputs in term of communication and dissemination activities;
vi) publish scientific papers;
vii) ensure the management of the project according to the Gran Agreement and
viii) launch and finalize two project amendments.
WPs' Highlights:
WP1: made available the REDRESS sharing point where partners and the public can visualize and access the collected spatial data during the project and a synthesis of the past and current knowledge on deep-sea habitats’ degradation.
WP2: conducted pre-survey, starts new restoration interventions with the deployment of eco-reefs, ARMS and cold-water fragments using the badminton approach and monitor restoration interventions in different areas along the European Seas. Overall, 76 days of cruises shared with WP3 have been conducted in the first 18M.
WP3: explored and collected all information on the monitoring approaches and technological solutions available among partners to create a comprehensive inventory for the areas of intervention identified in WP2.
WP4: worked to collect all available data from past deep-sea ecosystem restoration interventions to evaluate natural capital accounting in different habitat types and to develop the comprehensive financing blueprint for deep-sea restoration.
WP5: collected data and information that will be useful to define governance structure and processes to support deep-sea restoration interventions that will be included in the first deliverable and milestone expected in the second year of the project.
WP6: spent efforts to maximize the impact of the project outputs to the largest audience.
WP7: was fully dedicated to the management of the project.
During this reporting period, two project amendments AMD-101135492-3 (requested by the Consortium) and AMD-101135492-12 (requested by EU) have been finalized.
i) start all tasks scheduled from Month 1, including the launch of the REDRESS website and social media (https://redress-project.eu/)(öffnet in neuem Fenster);
ii) arrange, plan and carry out all actions envisaged in all WPs during the first 18 months of the project;
iii) start restoration interventions in different areas selected along the European Seas;
iv) discuss, with internal working groups for each WP, the proper actions to make available deliverables and to achieve milestones of the WPs in due time;
v) maximize the impact of the project outputs in term of communication and dissemination activities;
vi) publish scientific papers;
vii) ensure the management of the project according to the Gran Agreement and
viii) launch and finalize two project amendments.
WPs' Highlights:
WP1: made available the REDRESS sharing point where partners and the public can visualize and access the collected spatial data during the project and a synthesis of the past and current knowledge on deep-sea habitats’ degradation.
WP2: conducted pre-survey, starts new restoration interventions with the deployment of eco-reefs, ARMS and cold-water fragments using the badminton approach and monitor restoration interventions in different areas along the European Seas. Overall, 76 days of cruises shared with WP3 have been conducted in the first 18M.
WP3: explored and collected all information on the monitoring approaches and technological solutions available among partners to create a comprehensive inventory for the areas of intervention identified in WP2.
WP4: worked to collect all available data from past deep-sea ecosystem restoration interventions to evaluate natural capital accounting in different habitat types and to develop the comprehensive financing blueprint for deep-sea restoration.
WP5: collected data and information that will be useful to define governance structure and processes to support deep-sea restoration interventions that will be included in the first deliverable and milestone expected in the second year of the project.
WP6: spent efforts to maximize the impact of the project outputs to the largest audience.
WP7: was fully dedicated to the management of the project.
During this reporting period, two project amendments AMD-101135492-3 (requested by the Consortium) and AMD-101135492-12 (requested by EU) have been finalized.
The progress of the activities is in line with the Gantt chart of each WP. All deliverables and milestones expected in this reporting period have been submitted and achieved, respectively. All WPs are working with the aims to fulfil the objectives reported in the Grant Agreement. Major results achieved are the number of restoration interventions conducted along the EU Seas from Iceland to Azores in the Atlantic, from the Catalan margin and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the cost off Israel in the Mediterranean. Overall, 76 days spent by the partners in field work both for the application of restoration solutions and carried out the monitoring of the interventions (WP2 and WP3). WP6 on the communication and dissemination activities, spent efforts to maximize the impact of the project outputs to the largest audience opening the REDRESS website and social media (https://redress-project.eu/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Moreover 3 newsletters (https://redress-project.eu/newsletter/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) have been released and the coordinator participated to 2 webinars (https://redress-project.eu/webinar/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)) to present the multiple aspects of the project. REDRESS organizes 1 summer school for students and practitioners to test different innovative solutions for monitoring the restoration interventions (https://redress-project.eu/summerschool-2024-fiskebackskil-sweden/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). All members of the REDRESS consortium participated to national and international conference/events arranging also special sessions, including projects networking (https://redress-project.eu/news/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). REDRESS has been invited to the Joint Kick-Off Event Project Cluster Restore & Protect Marine Biodiversity & Project Cluster Reducing Bycatch, 13 & 14 March 2025, Brussels by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) and to One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice (France) in the framework of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. All scientific papers are stored in the REDRESS Zenodo repository and the OpenAir publication link (https://redress-project.eu/redress-resources/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)