Marine Coastal Ecosystems Biodiversity and Services in a Changing World (MaCoBioS)

As the most complex feature of our planet, biodiversity provides us with a range of ecosystem services upon which we depend, such as food, freshwater, pollination and protection against floods. But it’s also in crisis. Knowledge on interrelations between climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem services is key to preserving ecosystems and fully integrating environmental requirements into policymaking.

Considering marine coastal ecosystems (MCEs), which are European priority habitats, the EU-funded MaCoBioS project will investigate, through a multidisciplinary team of experts, the impact of climate change on the most important MCEs, such as seagrass beds, coral reefs, mangroves, coralligenous and calcareous bio-concretion assemblages, salt marshes and kelp forests. It will develop empirical models on interactions between climate change, biodiversity and functions and services of marine coastal ecosystems. MaCoBioS will also work to establish a framework to assess vulnerabilities and it will evaluate the effectiveness of nature-based solutions. The findings will assist in EU strategies on MCEs, biodiversity and climate change.

ECCA 2021 - Climate Adaptation solutions video - MaCoBios