Proiecte
MARBEFES: MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services
| Responsabil: | Dr. Mihaela Mureșan, CSII |
| Coordonator: | The Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences - IO PAN (Poland) |
| Beneficiar: | GeoEcoMar |
| Finanțator: | European Commission |
| Schema de finanțare: | HORIZON Europe |
| Durata: | 48 months |
| Data începerii: | 01.09.2022 |
| Data finalizării: | 31.08.2026 |
MARBEFES: MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services
The MARBEFES project (Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services) promotes an integrative approach to marine biodiversity, treating it as a continuous and interconnected system across space and time, beyond conventional boundaries between estuary, coast, and offshore areas. From this perspective, the project seeks a deep understanding of ecosystem dynamics and how they respond to global pressures. The research encompasses 12 Broad Belt Transects, covering the four major marine regions of the European Union – the Arctic, Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and Mediterranean – aiming to capture biodiversity and ecological phenomena along the river-to-ocean gradient. This structure enables comparative analysis of ecosystem responses to various stressors and highlights the regional variability of biodiversity changes.
MARBEFES contributes to strengthening the scientific foundation necessary for protecting marine biodiversity and promoting sustainable use.
- Establishing causal relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the ecosystem services essential to society, using a multidisciplinary framework that integrates natural, economic, social, and human sciences.
- Correlating the cultural value, which is particularly emphasised, with the ecological significance, underlining that nature has intrinsic value, independent of its usefulness to humans and its financial value. A relevant example is “blue carbon” – the role of marine ecosystems in carbon sequestration – which represents a vital ecosystem service, with both ecological and climate regulation importance.
- Project activities are guided by the “Double Diamond” model, which facilitates the development and testing of innovative solutions for sustainable governance policies.
- MARBEFES operates through co-creation and multi-actor collaboration, involving non-specialist participants in the decision-making process to generate practical and widely applicable results. This iterative, transdisciplinary approach encourages mutual learning across fields and provides the flexibility to adapt methods and outcomes as new insights emerge, making the entire process both effective and cost-efficient.