The EU Network of Excellence MarBEF Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

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The EU Network of Excellence MarBEFMarine
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

• Carlo Heip
• General Coordinator
• c.heip_at_nioo.knaw.nl

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MarBEFConsortium

• 56 member
• Institutes and 36 associated institutes

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What?

• A consortium of 56 member and 35 associated
  member institutes and organizations in 24
  countries
• Covering the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, the North
  Sea, the Balthic Sea, the Mediterranean and the
  Black Sea.
• Over 700 marine scientists involved
• Covering all coastal EU countries

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Why?

• Basic knowledge is missing
• What marine biodiversity exists in Europe?
• What are the hot spots of European marine
  biodiversity?
• How do they change over time?
• We need that knowledge
• To understand how the oceans work.
• To develop ecosystem based management of living
  resources
• To underpin nature conservation strategies

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Results A few Highlights

• Marine Biodiversity is increasing in European
  Waters
• Regional approaches are needed to support the EC
  Marine and Water Framework Policy
• Over 31,000 marine species now known from
  European Waters.

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Marine Biodiversity is Increasing in European
Waters

• Despite increasing pressure from overfishing,
  habitat destruction and pollution, there are
  strong indications that marine biodiversity
  (species richness) on the whole is increasing in
  European waters
• This is due to invading species and to a general
  northward movement of marine species due to
  climate change
• The long term impacts of these changes for the
  stability and resilience of marine ecosystems is
  not known. Their study will require better
  observations and new experimental approaches.

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Overexploitation leads to decreasing numbers of
top predators. Example Bluefin Tuna caught in
the North Sea UK 1933 (upper two) Denmark (lower)
1946. The species has now disappeared
completely. (MacKenzie and Myers, 2007)
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More species in the Arctic lowers productivity of
the foodweb

• Over the last few years temperature in northern
  waters has increased (fig. 1.)
• In warmer waters the plankton is more numerous
  but smaller and richer in species (fig.2.)
• The increase in species richness decreases the
  productivity of the food web (more energy is
  needed to maintain lower trophic levels) (fig.3.)
• The highest levels of the food web (birds, seals,
  polar bears) therefore decrease in abundance.

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Fig. 1. Water temperatures in the Arctic are
increasing (Walczowski et al. 2007)
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Fig. 2. At higher temperatures more but smaller
plankton species occur.
years
4 3 2 1
temperature
-2 0 2 4 6
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Fig.3. Rising biodiversity in the Arctic may
threat higher trophic levels
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Lessepsian Migration has changed the Mediterranean

• The number of species from the Red Sea entering
  the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (Lessepsian
  Migration) continues to increase.
• Biological communities especially in the Eastern
  Med have greatly changed accordingly.

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Left Sparisoma cretense southern species
moving northward in the MediterraneanRight
Rhopilema nomadica jellyfish originating from
the Red Sea, now a pest species in the Eastern
Mediterranean(courtesy Nando Boero)
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Which species matter?

• Unique experiments and analyses of biological
  communities from different coastal areas covering
  different habitats all over Europe have shown
  that the response of ecosystems to disturbance is
  not uniform
• Removal of key species does not always affect
  stability of the ecosystem
• The results show that effects depend on where,
  when and what species is removed
• Only in the case of invading species removal
  resulted in increasing stability
• Therefore the regional approach advocated in the
  Water Framework and Marine Directive is fully
  justified

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Over 31000 marine species now known from European
waters

• The European Register of Marine Species
  (including only plants and animals) grew with
  1,371 species since 2006. The list now totals
  31,455 marine species in Europe, which makes this
  the best known continent thanks to efforts of
  hundreds of taxonomists and ecologists.
• More than 136 plant and animal species found
  since 2006 are new to science, but in the
  microbial domain the number of new species has
  grown exponentially.

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New species for science

• Marbefia a new genus of copepod
  (Crustaceans) from the North Sea.