The need for understanding impacts on the marine ecosystem in the light of ocean dynamics is crucial for monitoring ocean health. However, assessing environmental health remains challenging due to the complexity of marine systems. The Ocean is governed by physical, biogeochemical, and biological processes. Therefore, nonlinearities, multiple interconnections, and the absence of comprehensive models hinder our understanding of ecosystem dynamics. To ensure sustainability of marine resources and achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) of European seas, the European Union introduced the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), which provides a coordinated approach for EU Member States, promoting a precautionary framework to prevent irreversible changes. The Directive employs 11 descriptors that outline ecosystem features and help define monitoring strategies. However, ecosystem evolution cannot be fully understood 5 through purely linear approaches and threshold-based assessments, which have been proved to be often ineffective and unreliable. Innovative observation strategies for assessing the marine ecosystem shall adopt process-based approaches that allow identifying significant changes of biodiversity within the frame of ocean dynamics at different scales.
Scientific efforts have been aimed to refine GES definitions and establish robust metrics for assessing environmental health. The JPI-Oceans initiative “Science for GES” (S4GES) implemented a Joint Research Cruise aboard the R/V Belgica in 2022. During this S4GES cruise, an innovative monitoring strategy was tested, integrating physical, chemical, and biological data. The methodology focused on a process-based sampling strategy, ensuring efficient and effective observational activities aligned with MSFD objectives. By pursuing a similar approach, the 2024 oceanographic cruise BIOTREC-Tara aboard the CNR R/V Gaia Blu aimed to explore coastal ecosystems and their connectivity with offshore waters. This initiative employed a trans-disciplinary, multi-platform, and multi-sensor sampling approach, investigating coastal biodiversity within the frame of coastal plume and cross-shore filament dynamics. Both S4GES and BIOTREC-Tara cruises established a foundation for integrated assessments of planktonic and pelagic communities and marine biogeochemical components, reducing complexity in ecological evaluations and, by “riding” oceanographic processes, focused on the intricate interactions between oceanic life and fluid-dynamics. Subsets of data and samples from these surveys are yet to be analysed/processed and by consequence findings are not yet fully interpreted.
By exploiting data and samples from both S4GES and BIOTREC-Tara cruises, and implementing new cruises, PAGES will contribute to a more comprehensive and reliable assessment of marine ecosystem health. PAGES will introduce an integrated, process-based approach to enhance MSFD monitoring strategies by diagnosing biodiversity within specific ocean dynamics. Providing proof-of-concepts, PAGES aims to influence national MSFD observation frameworks, shifting from conventional sampling to process-driven monitoring. PAGES will refine baselines and provide recommendations for future iterations and more effective applications of the proposed novel approach, including the implementation in future surveys for ground truthing and/or refinement of protocols. PAGES will demonstrate how understanding environmental dynamics can simplify complexity by revealing emergent ecosystem patterns and thus contributing to a more effective, data-driven approach for assessing marine environmental status. Just like a book, a summary of the marine status can be reached by reading all its PAGES!
Dr Federico Falcini, National Research Council of Italy, Institute Marine Science, CNR-ISMAR
federico.falcini@cnr.it
Partners:
- Prof Dr Isa Schön, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
- Dr. Luca Mirimin, Atlantic Technological University (ATU)
- Prof Aldo Drago, Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology (MCAST)
Associated Partners:
- Iole Di Capua, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN)
- Dr. Paolo Henrique Rezende Calil, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon GmbH (HEREON)
- Dr. Milena Menna, National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS)
- Research Director Nathalie Niquil, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)