Future marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research issues
The European Network of Excellence on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF) has, over the past five years of its existence, moulded a scientific community that has never been so conceptually and operationally united and productive. However, marine science is still developing and we still understand the ocean less than the terrestrial environment. For us, the oceans are foreign habitats which we may enter but not yet inhabit.
MarBEF scientists have focused on and identified many critical marine biodiversity issues, which are now much clearer than before, but MARBEF has also revealed areas of weakness that require concentrated effort. These are as follows:
- The impacts of global climate change
- Comprehensive datasets
- Synergy of Anthropogenic impacts to global warming
Impacts of global climate change
Although there is now strong evidence for changes in the global climate, the medium term and long-term effects on the marine environment are still open to debate. Marine systems, from polar ice to coral reefs are charismatic systems which are highly vulnerable to temperature, sea-level and storm frequency changes.
Evidence of migrational responses to climate are accumulating and act as an early warning of the nature of community alteration in the face of global change scenarios. Studies of modifications to ecosystem variation and functionality resulting from climate change must remain of the highest priority over the coming ten years. Some of these studies require long-term databases that are now recognised as being highly valuable and important to maintain.
Global questions require
comprehensive datasets
Many current topics in marine biodiversity
research are taking place on very large spatial
scales and over long-term periods. These topics
include baseline assessments in the marine
realm, for assessing impacts of climate change
on marine biodiversity, and studying the
mechanisms by which alien species are
introduced. Therefore, MarBEF recognised that
its scientists would require analyses on an allencompassing
scale and it funded the LargeNET
project.
LargeNET collected and integrated a large
amount of data, comprising pelagic, rockyshore
and soft-bottom benthos data from
across Europe. This data established a baseline
for current biodiversity analyses and future
investigations within a changing world. This
scale of data collection is essential to provide
the necessary understanding for anticipating
the consequences of environmental variations
on biodiversity, such as the changing
distribution patterns of macroalagal species.
For example, the database has been employed
to assess the current biodiversity status and
future changes in marine communities through
the evaluation of techniques for the
measurement of species richness.