The EuroMarine Research &

Education Vision

Euromarine General Assembly, Bremen 17-19 January 2

MGE

MARBEF

Omics
Marine
resources and
Biodiversity
MARBEF and
tools for marine
Ecosystem
organisms and
Functioning
marine
ecosystems
EUR-OCEANS

From Genes to

Building
Scenarios for
marine
ecosystems
under
anthropogenic
and Natural
forcings/
Biogeochemical
Ecosystems

cycles

in a changing Ocea

Climate change, Acidification, Anthropogenic impact, invasive species,

Habitat
disruption, Open Oceans, coastal systems, interface earth/sea

METHODOLOGY FOR A COMMON EUROMARINE RESARCH VISION

3 days workshop in July 2011 in Roscoff
~ 30 scientists from the 3 NoEs
Distributed in 3 working groups integrate and help cross-fertilizing

G1: Understanding Marine Ecosystems for Healthy Oceans

WG2: Building Scenarios for Changing Oceans

3: Marine Science as a provider of new concepts and as a driver for innov

Draft strategic document

2nd workshop in Ste, France in February 2012

Research Challenges
EXPLORING MARINE DIVERSITY FOR PROVIDING NEW
CONCEPTS AND FOR DRIVING INNOVATION
IMPROVING UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL
CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEM
FUNCTIONNING AND NATURAL CAPITAL

DERSTANDING AND RESTORING ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING AND H

BUILDING SCENARIOS FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEMS
UNDER CHANGING OCEANS

EXPLORING MARINE DIVERSITY FOR PROVIDING NEW CONCEPTS

AND FOR DRIVING INNOVATION 1/2

Develop forefront knowledge

Evolutionary Biology,
Developmental biology, Cell
biology, Neurobiology,
Environmental Biology
System Biology, Modelling
Eukaryotic tree of life (Baldauf 2003)

Improve understanding of :
Major biological and biogeochemical processes in coastal seas
& oceans (Omics)
Complexities of biological interactions in the marine
environment
Regulatory mechanisms operating from molecular to
ecosystems
Develop
new (epigenetics)
biological models and promote the
development of ecologically-relevant models (phenotypic

EXPLORING MARINE DIVERSITY FOR PROVIDING NEW CONCEPTS

AND FOR DRIVING INNOVATION 2/2

Facilitate Innovation

Blue Biotechnology
Horizon 2020
priorities

Food (e.g.
sustainable
aquaculture)
Energy (e.g biofuel,
biogaz)
Health (e.g novel
drugs)
Environment (e.g non
toxic antifouling)
Industrial products
and processes (e.g
biocatalysts,
bipolymers)

IMPROVING UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

AND ITS IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONNING AND
NATURAL CAPITAL
Understanding the capacity of marine ecosystems to deliver
goods and services to society and quantify anthropogenic
impacts
Elucidate the links between marine diversity, ecosystem function and
provision of ecosystems goods and services
Quantify and model the capacity of marine ecosystems to deliver goods
and services

Understanding the combined effects of global change (acidification,

global warming, sea level rise, hypoxia etc..) and anthropogenic
perturbations (deep sea mining, gaz exploitation, invasions, fishing,
aquaculture) on marine biodiversity and marine ecosystems
services
Understand the impact of different human activities and
environmental change on marine ecosystems in socio-economic
terms
Support Marine planning, define and prioritise management mechanisms
and policy strategies

UNDERSTANDING AND RESTORING ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING AND HEALT

How to value ecosystem Health?
Define Ecosystem health: (modeling, indicators)
Define the capacity of marine organisms to adapt to environmental
and anthropogenic changes over spatial and temporal scales
use of Omics approaches on ecological-relevant models
Define the role of viral and microbial ecology in ecosystem
functioning and health
Define the potential role of marine biodiversity in providing
resilience in the provision of ecosystem services

tion of the ecosystem health concept in ecosystem conservation and res

o keep marine ecosystem healthy? How to restore damaged marine ecosystems?
estore depleted resources?

opment of Marine Ecological Engineering

opment of Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA)
opment of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries and Aquaculture

uration of damaged marine ecosystems

FOR BASIC RESEARCH, SURVEY & MONITORING AND INTEGRATIVE APPR

LDING SCENARIOS FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEMS UNDER CHANGING OCEAN

A set of coherent, plausible stories designed to address complex
questions about our uncertain future
Combine disciplines to address complex questions
- Evaluation of processes within the genes to ecosystems
continuum
- Use Physiology and Omics approaches for model building
- Develop system biology approaches for parametrisation (data
and metrics)
Use of indicators as predictors of responses of species and
communities to environmental changes includes an understanding of
the underlying biological concepts and evolutionary adaptation and
Define and Implement a strategy for the next generation ocean
plasticity as variables and limits for models
models
Develop marine ecosystem/ecoscope data bases
Develop a strategy to validate, test, compare and combine different
models
Develop a unified community marine biochemical/ecosystem Framework
by understanding key processes
DEFINE A COMMON AND INTEGRATED MODELLING FRAMEWORK

BUILDING SCENARIOS FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEMS UNDER

CHANGING OCEANS (2/2)
Develop and use Narrative scenarios to link scientific issues and
to inform Marine resource management and Public
Narratives scenarios make use of a variety of knowledge sources in order to
explore potential ecological futures by telling stories about events that could
happen in the future (50-100 years) and what their potential consequences on
ecosystems and society may be (see IPCC ):
Different socio-economic trends different scenarios

Provide a European Marine Focal Point and Resource Centre for

IPBES
IntergovernmentalSciencePolicyPlatformonBiodiversityandEcosystem
Services
An IPCC for biodiversity: Single, credible, recognized and independent
international scientific expertise in the field of biodiversity , created on
June 2010 www.ipbes.net
Euromarine consortium will take a leading role in contributing to the
IPBES initiative to build scenarios for marine ecosystems in the context
of Global Change as an advisory panel of expertise

On multi-sectorial programs relevant to narrative guided future state

projections
For guiding research input into higher stakeholders/advisory bodies

Time
scale

- Concepts, experiments,
BUILDING SCENARIOS
observations, socioeconomics
- Omics, Physiology,
Evolutionary ecology,
Marine diversity,
Models
Biogeochemistry
Genes-CellsKnowledge
Ecosystems
evaluation

New cross
disciplinary
process models

FOR MARINE ECOSYSTEMS: a summ

Projections
Repositery

1st generation

Freeze existing
models
development
Next model framework

evaluation

Freeze new
models
development

Narrativ
e
scenario
s

1st
ensemble
generation
projections

Stakeholders

2nd generation
2nd
ensemble
generation
projections

LETS TRY TO SUMMARIZE A BIT.

Develop knowledge Understand, modeling

ew concepts in Biology and Ecology

Conserve, restore,
plan and manage
Build Scenarios
OMICS

Innovation

IMPLEMENTATION of the VISION 1/2

Strengths:
Critical mass,
high level of expertise,
visibility, willingness, organization, unity

Weaknesses:
Suboptimal communication among broad disciplinary domains
Insufficient number of cross-disciplinary links to education
necessary to address larger system-based questions.
Difficulty in maintaining long-term collaboration due to funding
cycles and fragmented nature of funding calls that may exclude
key areas
Current lack of validated models that can inform the IPBES

IMPLEMENTATION of the VISION 2/2

Threats:
The current trend towards short-term economic gains at the
expense of fundamental research that feeds the long-term,
innovation pipeline.

Needs:
Improved communication tools for raising public awareness and
influence policy decision making
Development and implementation of a long-term integrative
framework for responding to the challenges of the ocean in a
global change context
Integrated training of the next generation of marine scientists

Educational
Challenges
Collaborative research is

the future
Restructure
graduate programmes that will better integrate species
and process approaches in order to implement a
genuine systems approach
Create the distributed infrastructure necessary among universities
and institutes that will allow next-generation scientists to
particpate and be rewarded in interdisciplinary projects
Link fundamental research to societal priority areas (food, energy,
environment, health, industry) --BUT recognize that fundamental
research is essential to the applied-pipeline
Develop a team science approach by embracing skills and concepts
from other disciplines
Foster appreciation, linkages and respect between fundamental
and applied research trajectories.
Develop communication skills that will improve networking among

What does the educational landscape

need to be?
Fromcompartmentalized

Todistributedandintegrated

Educational
Challenges
Restructure graduate

BSc-MScPhD

programmes that will better

integrate organismal and process approaches in
order to implement a genuine systems approach
Traditional streaming

Oceanograph
y
Blue water
Physical
Chemical
Biological
Ecosystem
approach
Climate
Speciality
domains
e.g., water
column
Deep sea,

Marine Ecology/Biology
Fisheries +
Biodiversit
Aquaculture
y
Blue water +
Coastal
Ecosystem
coastal
Systematics
Community
approach
Biogeography
ecology
Ecosystem
BEF
BEF
end-toConservation
Population
Invasive species end
ecology
Population
Pollution
Evolutionary
Speciality
dynamics &
Economic
Ecology
domains, e.g.,
Global
valuation
Genetics/Genomi
coral reefs, kelp
change
Policy
cs
forests, rocky
Ecosystem
shores, soft
Services

Example result from traditional

streaming
How
does the open ocean ecosystem
function?

Ecosystem approach
of the
drivers:oceanographers,
Nutrient cycling,
biogeochemists

Process
energy flow,
foodweb dynamics, light, temperature and other
Community approach
of
physical factors; organisms
themselves
often
coastal marine
conceived as a compartment,
e.g., primary
biologists from
producers.
ecological theory
perspective

Species interactions: competition, predation,

Population geneticist,
phenology, succession,
life cycle, bloom
single-species
dynamics and other
biotic factors; physical
approach
processes often
overlooked;
e.g., key static quality,
Artificial
compartmentalization,
little possibility
for interaction
and synthesis
phytopanktonwith
species
not initially
appreciated
for their differential functionality.

Proposed streaming
Develop a network process question.
Integration of species-process approaches to understand
ecosystem functions
Understanding complexity as it applies to marine ecosystems
Combining models with ecological theory, etc.

Description, function, experiment, model

Spatial-temporal scaling issues
Level: genes, individuals, populations, communities, ecosystems
Tools: ship based, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology,
molecular biology, systematics, modelling

Educational
Challenges

Develop team science by embracing

skills and concepts from other
disciplines (within and outside of
science)
Restructuring the
educational landscape of
marine sciences

Sr.
Scientist
Post-doc
PhD

BSC

MSc

Specialist in 2 fields and basic competency in 1-2

others
At least one cross-competency outside of science

Educational
Create the distributed infrastructure
Challenges

necessary among universities and institutes

that will allow next-generation scientists to
participate in interdisciplinary projects

Example
EMBRC and ASSEMBLE programmes are
a first step
European PhD program in
Marine Sciences via
Genomics Technologies
Erasmus Mundus or Marie
Informatics
Curie Programmes (2014+)
High performance Culture
facilities
Environment (systems ecology,
Mesocosms
modelling, conservation, building
Specialized instrumentation
scenarios)
Culture and tissue banks
Food (sustainable ecosystemClimate modelling
based fisheries, aquaculture)
Energy (biofuels)
Health (blue medicine)
Industry (blue biotech, omics)

Educational
Challenges
Develop communication skills that will
improve networking among disciplines and
cultures
Foster appreciation, linkages and respect between
fundamental and applied research trajectories
Mobility programmes for PhDs, Post-docs, Technicians, Sr.
Researchers for cross training in specific competencies
Via: Euromarine Fellowships administered by
POGO-SCOR 2012-2013. Call in April.

PLEMENTATION of the educational vision

Strengths:
-Critical mass, high level of expertise, visibility, willingness, organisation,
unity
-Euromarine consortium represents ~75% of marine science degree
programs in Europe
Weaknesses:
-Practicalities of how to coordinate funding, quality assurance which
encounter many legal obstacles in different countries
Threats:
-Funding cuts for fundamental research that directly affects education
-Instability of funding mechanisms between universities and
EU, i.e., ball in your court

Needs:
-Greater flexibility among universities to develop joint-degree
programmes
-Stronger quantitative backgrounds
-Long term EU support to develop a multi-stream PhD programme in

What Euromarine (WP6) is doing:

-Review of BSc, MSc and PhD curricula
-Development of active database resource for degree and training
programs in marine sciences
-Development of pro-active curriculum trajectories
-Establishment of multi-level mobility programs for specific
competency training
-Will apply for a European PhD program with at least three streams
(ITN or EM) in 2013

Input we would like to have from

you?
-What can your institution offer?
-What ideas do you have ?
-Are there additional strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats that should be considered?

THANK YOU