There is a considerable knowledge gap regarding specific aspects of marine forests’ ecology in Portugal. With that in mind, Activity 1 was designed for partners to establish a more comprehensive baseline of quantitative data to determine to what extent marine forests’ functions and services are changing in space and time. Primary productivity, associated biodiversity, blue carbon storage and sequestration potential, and coastal protection capacity will be assessed through a series of methodologies developed for each function.
Being genetic biodiversity one of the outstanding factors that influences marine forests’ natural responses to environmental changes, an assessment of the genetic biodiversity present in the populations from southern Portugal to Norway will also be performed.
Innovation is also a key quality of this Activity. Mapping intertidal and shallow subtidal forests and temperature assessments will be done using drones as they function as comprehensive low cost and time-efficient solutions for collecting high-resolution data.
All information gathered at the beginning of the project will be collected again after recovery and/or restoration actions to evaluate variations in the seaweed coverage and estimate the effectiveness of the applied measures.
In situ assessment of primary productivity in temperate benthic communities– a novel methodology applied to kelp forests and artificial reefs
Bianca Reis, João N Franco, Hugo S Meyer, Oscar B Gómez, Friederike Peiffer, Isabel S Pinto, Francisco Arenas
Published: 2023
Source: 2023 International Temperate Reefs Symposium
Rapid tropicalization evidence of subtidal seaweed assemblages along a coastal transitional zone
Jonas de Azevedo; João N. Franco; Cândida G. Vale; Marco F. L. Lemos; Francisco Arenas
Published: 2023
Source: Scientific Reports
New Methodology for Intertidal Seaweed Biomass Estimation Using Multispectral Data Obtained with Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles
Débora Borges; Lia Duarte; Isabel Costa; Ana Bio; Joelen Silva; Isabel Sousa Pinto; José Alberto Gonçalves
Published: 2023
Source: Remote Sensing
With the objective of understanding the environmental sensitivity of marine forest species to stress caused by climate change, high-resolution regional projections with climate data for the Portuguese coastline will be developed using statistical downscaling and bias correction. One of the regional trends being assessed will be the changes in the upwelling. The complexity of this phenomenon makes it a key influence in subtidal ecological processes, however, scientists still do not know the effects of thermal variability in the populations exposed and/or protected from heat stress.
By implementing a simple yet robust and accurate logger network, partners in this activity will be able to collect valuable in-situ data on temperature variations nearshore. To complement these data, an experimental setup will be used to study how the different target species respond to physical stressors like increased sea temperature. With the results of these studies, partners expect to understand better the biological responses of marine forest species to climate stressors, how it influences their distribution, and to identify future potential areas in Portugal where the most climate change resilient populations shift to and what their genotypes are
What if the upwelling weakens? Effects of rising temperature and nutrient depletion on coastal assemblages
Axel Chabrerie; Francisco Arenas
Published: 2024
Source: Oecologia
Warning of warming limpets: sea temperature effects upon intertidal rocky assemblages
Diana Freitas; Francisco Arenas; Cândida Gomes Vale; Isabel Sousa Pinto; Débora Borges
Published: 2023
Source: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
Assessing species’ sensitivity and adaptative capacity under climate change exposure is currently considered a good strategy to increase robustness and confidence in ecological models to predict distributions to future environmental conditions. Feeding on the data collected in Activity 1 and Activity 2, Trait-based vulnerability assessment and mechanistic models are the two methodologies that will be used in this activity. These results will be particularly important to consolidate the information gathered in the previous Activities on what are the potential hotspots and ideal refuges to implement the nature-based solutions planned for Activity 4.
Alongside this modeling, partners are expected to assess the vulnerability of marine forests’ ecosystem services to climate change. It will be assessed in both Portugal and Norway by establishing a set of indicators that will measure the biological response of marine populations, how the services respond to the stressors, the dependence of the regional economy on these services, and what it is their capacity to offset potential impacts of climate change in coastal communities.
Forecasting distributional shifts of Patella spp. in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, under climate change
Diana Freitas; Débora Borges; Francisco Arenas; Isabel Sousa Pinto; Cândida Gomes Vale
Published: 2023
Source: Marine Environmental Research
Assessing species’ sensitivity and adaptative capacity under climate change exposure is currently considered a good strategy to increase robustness and confidence in ecological models to predict distributions to future environmental conditions. Feeding on the data collected in Activity 1 and Activity 2, Trait-based vulnerability assessment and mechanistic models are the two methodologies that will be used in this activity. These results will be particularly important to consolidate the information gathered in the previous Activities on what are the potential hotspots and ideal refuges to implement the nature-based solutions planned for Activity 4.
Alongside this modeling, partners are expected to assess the vulnerability of marine forests’ ecosystem services to climate change. It will be assessed in both Portugal and Norway by establishing a set of indicators that will measure the biological response of marine populations, how the services respond to the stressors, the dependence of the regional economy on these services, and what it is their capacity to offset potential impacts of climate change in coastal communities.
Marine forests provide various ecosystem services and benefits to society, and implementing conservation and restoration actions will undoubtedly improve the scale of service provision as well as its benefits.
Since large-scale restoration actions are still in their infancy, it is important to understand what the direct and indirect social costs of implementing such actions. Using a previously tested methodology, this activity will replicate what was done in Norway. It will focus on the northern region of continental Portugal and will evaluate the benefits of the recovery of juvenile fish and biodiversity, evaluate the value of carbon storage in restored kelp forests, and will estimate the direct and indirect social costs associated with the conservation and restoration of marine forests in Portugal.
While using the different activities’ outputs, partners will engage with policymakers and key stakeholders to address the real needs at local and national levels. Adaptive management solutions, aligned with the Marine Framework Directive, Natura 2000 sites, and other protected areas, scenarios will be co-developed, hoping to create a real and feasible plan to include a climate-adapted nature-based solution in national marine spatial planning.
Active restoration techniques have been proposed under different scenarios as a reliable nature-based solution to restore and protect degraded marine forests. Under this activity, techniques like the green gravel and small-scale seaweed/kelp farms will be tested over areas previously identified with good restoration potential. After successful restoration, the ecosystem services will be assessed and compared to control areas without kelp.
Another potential method for a faster recovery of marine forests is the harvesting of their grazers like, for example, sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus). If a good bio-economic model is applied, sustainable exploitation of the predators can be implemented. Using the model already applied by Urchinomics (a company in Norway), partners in Activity 4 will investigate the untapped potential for sustainable exploitation of P. lividus considering the different future scenarios of climate change in Portugal.
In the end, the work developed here will be used to create policy recommendations on conserving and restoring marine forests (Activities 5 and 6).
Introduction Video
Blueforesting Roll-Up
Blueforesting Flyer
