DEVOTES
Development of innovative tools for understanding marine biodiversity and assessing good environmental status
The overall goal of DEVOTES is to better understand the relationships between pressures from human activities and climatic influences and their effects on marine ecosystems, including biological diversity, in order to support the ecosystem based management and fully achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) of marine waters.
The outcomes of DEVOTES will contribute towards fulfilling knowledge gaps and existing needs in the assessement of environmental status, within the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, in an harmonized way across the Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Further information: www.devotes-project.eu
Who is involved?
DEVOTES involves 23 research centres from EU and non-Eu countries (e.g. Ukrania, Saudi Arabia,…) as well as observers from USA.
DEVOTES project will build a network with key stakeholders: scientists, environmental agencies, decision making authorities and Small-Medium Enterprise (SMEs) interested in marine monitoring and biodiversity.
A panel of independent scientists form the Advisory Board (AB) which will provide strategic guidance and support the the partnership to ensure that the results meet the objectives of the project.
A Steering Commitee composed by Project Coordinator, Project Manager and Work Packages’ leaders will be responsible for all practical decision making, strategic planning and implementation.
Objectives
- Improve our understanding of the impact of human activities and climate change on marine biodiversity.
- Implement cost-effective indicators, monitoring and assessment strategies, which should enable uniform applicability across EU Regional Seas.
- Test relevant EC indicators (2010) and develop new, innovative ones to assess biodiversity in a harmonized way throughout the 4 regional seas.
- Develop, test and validate innovative integrative modelling and monitoring tools to improve our understanding of ecosystem and biodiversity changes, for integration into a unique and holistic assessment.
- Propose and disseminate strategies and measures for ecosystems’ adaptive management, including the active role of industry and relevant stakeholders.
Partners
- AZTI – Spain. Coordinator
- Norsk institutt for luftforskning (NILU) – Norway
- Suomen ymparistokeskus (SYKE) – Finland
- Aarhus Universitet (AU) – Denmark
- University of Hull (UHULL) – United Kingdom
- The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (CEFAS) – United Kingdom
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) – United Kingdom
- Instituto do Mar (IMAR) – Portugal
- Institute Of Oceanology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS) – Bulgaria
- Joint Research Centre (JRC) – European Commission
- Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) – Greece
- Klaipedos Universitetas (KUCORPI) – Lithuania
- Akvaplan-niva AS (APN) – Norway
- Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del MAre (CONISMA) – Italy
- Stichting Koninklijk Nederlands instituut voor Zeeonderzoek (NIOZ) – Netherlands
- Agencia estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) – Spain
- Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi (DEU) – Turkey
- Marine Hydrophysical Institute – Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences (MHI-NASU) -Ukraine
- MariLim Gesellschaft für Gewasseruntersuchung mbH (MARLIM) – Germany
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)- France
- OceanDTM – United Kingdom
- Ecoreach srl (ECOREACH) – Italy
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) – Saudi Arabia
- EPA and NOAA from USA are involved as observers
