Lead institution:
CNRS, UMR 9190 – Center for MARine Biodiversity, Exploitation & Conservation (MARBEC)
Planning sustainable strategies for development requires to understand the distribution of marine biodiversity and how its variations impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species.
Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes all the lifetime movements of marine organisms, and the resulting fluxes (of matter, genes, energy) between habitat patches. As such, it determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of marine populations, species and assemblages, and the fate of ecosystems, at sea but also at the land-sea interface.
Gathering effective knowledge on MFC is therefore key improve predictions of environmental change impacts and help refine management and conservation strategies for the Seas. This is all the more urgent as our oceans face increasingly rapid changes and unprecedented biodiversity loss due to multiple and overlapping threats.
To this aim, we formed a worldwide consortium, already gathering >300 scientists and stakeholders from 41 countries. In the coming years, its members will share their complementary skills and multidisciplinary expertise, in order to advance concepts and integrate methods in the emerging field of MFC research and promote awareness about the central role of MFC knowledge for preserving marine biodiversity and ecosystem services.
See the Action website at: www.sea-unicorn.com
This Project is hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme Marine Life 2030
Start Date: 22/09/2020
End Date: 21/09/2024
Contact: Dr Audrey Darnaude: audrey.darnaude@cnrs.fr