MarBioME – Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in Europe

Overview and assessment of the current state of Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in the European Union and adjacent marine waters

MarBioME aims to provide a review and appraisal of the current status of the Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in the European Union (EU) and adjacent waters (including actors, roles, infrastructures and methodologies).  The review will be conducted from the perspective of supporting the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive as well as other relevant EU legislation on marine biodiversity.

In the context of the European Green Deal, the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 presents the specific objective of protecting and restoring marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Achieving this objective requires representative biodiversity data to inform policies and assess targets. Therefore, Member States are implementing monitoring programmes and collaborating at the regional and EU level to ensure that monitoring methods are consistent to facilitate comparability of monitoring results and ensure that transboundary impacts and features are considered.

For this study, marine biodiversity monitoring is understood in a wide sense as suggested by Zampoukas et al. 2014 to encompass:

“all substantive arrangements for carrying out monitoring, including general guidance with cross-cutting concepts, monitoring strategies, monitoring guidelines, data reporting and data handling arrangements. Monitoring programs include several scheduled and coordinated activities to provide the data needed for the ongoing assessment of environmental status and related environmental targets”, using sea surveys, remote sensing (i.e., teledetection), ferry boxes, data mining, or any other way of obtaining marine information on a routine or specific basis.”

The review will cover the following topics:

Task 1. Describing and mapping marine biodiversity monitoring

Deliverable 1: Overview of definitions of approaches to marine biodiversity monitoring, the policy and legal frameworks requiring marine biodiversity monitoring/data, directory of the current state of implementation of marine monitoring in the EU and of its organisational and technical setups, mapping of actors involved in marine biodiversity monitoring. The data will be organised in a searchable spreadsheet that will be technically defined based on the complexity of the results.

Task 2. Analysis of the coverage of marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU

Deliverable 2: Analysis of the spatial and temporal monitoring coverage of marine species and habitats in the EU. The information will be organised in a searchable spreadsheet that will be technically defined based on the complexity of the results and, wherever possible, will be georeferenced for production of actual maps, also provided. The deliverable will also include a separate Excel sheet or compatible format listing the species and habitats analysed accompanied by an executive summary.

Task 3. Overview and compilation of marine biodiversity monitoring methodologies currently employed/emerging in the European Union

Deliverable 3: Overview of Marine Biodiversity monitoring methodologies currently employed or emerging in the EU, including methodologies with participatory approaches. The data will be organised also in an Excel sheet or equivalent format and electronic versions of the methodologies will be handed over to the Contracting Authority.

Task 4. Overview of data collection frameworks for Marine Biodiversity monitoring in the European Union.

Deliverable 4: Description of marine biodiversity data collection frameworks in the EU and beyond, including quantitative data about these data collection frameworks. The data will be organised in an Excel sheet or compatible format.

Task 5. Overview of research on marine biodiversity monitoring

Deliverable 5: Overview of research projects on marine biodiversity monitoring with recommendations on the integration of the projects and their outcomes in a future comprehensive EU wide marine biodiversity monitoring system. List of research gaps in marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU. The information will also be organised in an Excel sheet or compatible format.

Task 6. Analysis of gaps in the current marine biodiversity monitoring in the European Union with the view to achieve a comprehensive and coherent EU wide marine biodiversity monitoring.

Deliverable 6: Comprehensive analysis, identification and quantification of gaps in the current marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU, including background information and evidence supporting the analysis and its results. The contractor team will produce a report describing the gaps in the current marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU with maps, plots and tables (in Excel or compatible format) providing the overview of those gaps, their quantification, together with evidence supporting the analysis and its results.

Task 7. Analysis and identification of research gaps in marine biodiversity monitoring in the European Union.

Deliverable 7.1: Comprehensive analysis and identification of research gaps in the current marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU, in the form of a report and a table overview (in an Excel sheet or other compatible format), identifying the research gaps with the most important impact in terms of coverage and granularity of marine biodiversity monitoring in the EU.

Deliverable 7.2: Bibliography of the full report in a format agreed upfront with the Contracting Authority.

This review will be using the framework and tools developed by: H2020 EuroSea – a research and innovation project to improve the European ocean observing and forecasting system in a global context, delivering ocean observations and forecasts to advance scientific knowledge about ocean climate, marine ecosystems and their vulnerability to human impacts and to demonstrate the importance of the ocean to an economically viable and healthy society;  and EuropaBON – a collaborative research innovation action that is designing a European biodiversity monitoring system. In addition, all the information collected in this review will be fed to the EuropaBON initiative, which also covers terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity monitoring.

The AIR Centre hosts the Secretariat of the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) and together they coordinate the MarBioME study.

Contacts:
Joana Soares
Executive Secretary – Marine Biodiversity Observation Network | Project Officer – Atlantic International Research Centre
Email: joana.soares@aircentre.org
Mobile: +351 914 315 341

MarBioME is funded under a EC Service Contract (RTD-2021-MV-11 LC-01748345),  and that the opinions expressed are those of the contractor only and do not represent the contracting authority’s official position.

MarBioME Overview and assessment of the current state of Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in the European Union and adjacent marine waters

Publication metadata MarBioME (Marine Biodiversity Monitoring study in Europe) provides an extensive overview and appraisal of the status of Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in the European Union (EU) and adjacent waters (including actors, roles, infrastructures and methodologies). The review was conducted to support the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and other relevant EU legislation on marine biodiversity and is of interest to a vast community of scientists and public authorities The publication falls under Studies and reports.

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