Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EcoScope (Ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems)
Période du rapport: 2021-09-01 au 2023-02-28
EcoScope Project will develop an interoperable platform and a robust decision-making toolbox, available through a single public portal, to promote an efficient, ecosystem-based approach to the management of fisheries. EcoScope will be guided by the needs of policy makers and scientific advisory bodies, and address ecosystem degradation and the anthropogenic impact that are causing fisheries to be unsustainably exploited across European Seas.
The EcoScope Platform will organise and homogenise climatic, oceanographic, biogeochemical, biological and fisheries datasets for European Seas to a common standard type and format that will be available to the users through interactive mapping layers.
The EcoScope Toolbox, a marine ecosystem scoring system, will host the output of ecosystem models, socio-economic indicators, fisheries and ecosystem assessment tools that can be used to examine and develop fisheries management and marine policy scenarios as well as maritime spatial planning simulations. Novel assessment methods for data-poor fisheries, including non-commercial species, as well as for biodiversity and the conservation status of protected megafauna, will be used to assess the status of all ecosystem components across European Seas for evaluating the environmental, anthropogenic and climatic impact on ecosystems and fisheries.
Various groups of end-users and stakeholders will be involved in the design, development and operation of both the platform and the toolbox as well as in the scenarios of ecosystem models that will incorporate methods for dealing with uncertainty and deep uncertainty.
A series of sophisticated capacity building tools, such as online courses, documentary films, webinars and games, will be available to stakeholders through the EcoScope Academy.
By filling knowledge gaps and developing new methods and tools, the EcoScope project will provide an effective toolbox to decision makers and end-users that will be adaptive to their capacity, needs and data availability. Thus, it will promote efficient, holistic, sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management that will aid towards restoring fisheries sustainability and ensuring balance between food security and healthy seas.
The EcoScope Platform will organise and homogenise climatic, oceanographic, biogeochemical, biological and fisheries datasets for European Seas to a common standard type and format that will be available to the users through interactive mapping layers.
The EcoScope Toolbox, a marine ecosystem scoring system, will host the output of ecosystem models, socio-economic indicators, fisheries and ecosystem assessment tools that can be used to examine and develop fisheries management and marine policy scenarios as well as maritime spatial planning simulations. Novel assessment methods for data-poor fisheries, including non-commercial species, as well as for biodiversity and the conservation status of protected megafauna, will be used to assess the status of all ecosystem components across European Seas for evaluating the environmental, anthropogenic and climatic impact on ecosystems and fisheries.
Various groups of end-users and stakeholders will be involved in the design, development and operation of both the platform and the toolbox as well as in the scenarios of ecosystem models that will incorporate methods for dealing with uncertainty and deep uncertainty.
A series of sophisticated capacity building tools, such as online courses, documentary films, webinars and games, will be available to stakeholders through the EcoScope Academy.
By filling knowledge gaps and developing new methods and tools, the EcoScope project will provide an effective toolbox to decision makers and end-users that will be adaptive to their capacity, needs and data availability. Thus, it will promote efficient, holistic, sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management that will aid towards restoring fisheries sustainability and ensuring balance between food security and healthy seas.
During the first reporting period the EcoScope consortium:
• Reviewed all available biological, fisheries, and ecosystem data from international and national sources per case study area. Gaps in knowledge were identified and survey data for non-commercial species and other organisms will be used for assessing their status. The available datasets on charismatic megafauna (seabirds, marine mammals and reptiles) were used for energyscapes analysis and for ecosystem status assessments and later for ecosystem models.
• Collected data from several external databases that were standardized, georeferenced and harmonized to be ready for their incorporation in the back-end of the EcoScope Platform. These data included environmental parameters collected from Earth Observation systems, online models, satellite data, in-situ systems, citizen scientist networks, etc. These databases contain meteorological, climate, oceanographic, human-impact and socio-economic parameters and indicators for all EcoScope study areas. In parallel, data from biological and fishery databases, including parameters on biomass, catches and discards, marine mammal distribution, biodiversity, fish and invertebrate species distributions and fishing effort were combined with the above abiotic parameters. After homogenization data in netCDF formats the files were stored into a common back-end database ready to be injected to the EcoScope Platform.
• Identified sets of environmental, geophysical, and other marine-related data suitable for conducting marine ecological and ecosystem modelling were identified from open data and from public open-access repositories. These data included forecasts for 2050 and 2100 under different greenhouse gas emissions. All data underwent re-processing and harmonization to consistently align them in time and space and prepare them for usage in ecological niche models and Ecopath with Ecosim models.
• Collected the catch/landings and CPUE/abundance/biomass data for all case study areas for all commercial stocks. The stock status and fishing pressure applied on them was assessed using the CMSY++ method that allows assessments at the species, multispecies and functional group level even when only catch data are available.
• Completed preparation of the fisheries edition of the Maritime Spatial Planning simulation platform in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Developed a methodological proposal for the questionnaire content and sampling that will include detailed socio-economic questions on perceptions, preferences and expectations of the public for current and Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in Europe; state-of-the art stated preference modules; questions to gauge the effects of the marine ecosystems on wellbeing and life-satisfaction; and Likert-scale questions to rank various perceptions relating to EBFM and policy.
• Created a stakeholder management that covers a wide array of topics and led to a a thorough analysis of the relevant policy landscape, e-tools, as well as an account of stakeholder needs which EcoScope could help address.
• Developed and decided upon a project-specific innovation approach and process, as well as templates and tools that will be utilised throughout the work of this package. This includes business planning templates, business model canvases and other tools and support to execute the work.
• Created a communication toolbox providing a suite of promotional and technical branding assets. Launched a website serving as an attractive showcase for the project and a vehicle for the effective communication of the latest project news, events and products and services available, with a dedicated section for Stakeholders.
• Published 12 manuscripts in international peer-reviewed journals on the results of the project and an addition of other 8 manuscripts have been submitted.
• Reviewed all available biological, fisheries, and ecosystem data from international and national sources per case study area. Gaps in knowledge were identified and survey data for non-commercial species and other organisms will be used for assessing their status. The available datasets on charismatic megafauna (seabirds, marine mammals and reptiles) were used for energyscapes analysis and for ecosystem status assessments and later for ecosystem models.
• Collected data from several external databases that were standardized, georeferenced and harmonized to be ready for their incorporation in the back-end of the EcoScope Platform. These data included environmental parameters collected from Earth Observation systems, online models, satellite data, in-situ systems, citizen scientist networks, etc. These databases contain meteorological, climate, oceanographic, human-impact and socio-economic parameters and indicators for all EcoScope study areas. In parallel, data from biological and fishery databases, including parameters on biomass, catches and discards, marine mammal distribution, biodiversity, fish and invertebrate species distributions and fishing effort were combined with the above abiotic parameters. After homogenization data in netCDF formats the files were stored into a common back-end database ready to be injected to the EcoScope Platform.
• Identified sets of environmental, geophysical, and other marine-related data suitable for conducting marine ecological and ecosystem modelling were identified from open data and from public open-access repositories. These data included forecasts for 2050 and 2100 under different greenhouse gas emissions. All data underwent re-processing and harmonization to consistently align them in time and space and prepare them for usage in ecological niche models and Ecopath with Ecosim models.
• Collected the catch/landings and CPUE/abundance/biomass data for all case study areas for all commercial stocks. The stock status and fishing pressure applied on them was assessed using the CMSY++ method that allows assessments at the species, multispecies and functional group level even when only catch data are available.
• Completed preparation of the fisheries edition of the Maritime Spatial Planning simulation platform in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• Developed a methodological proposal for the questionnaire content and sampling that will include detailed socio-economic questions on perceptions, preferences and expectations of the public for current and Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management in Europe; state-of-the art stated preference modules; questions to gauge the effects of the marine ecosystems on wellbeing and life-satisfaction; and Likert-scale questions to rank various perceptions relating to EBFM and policy.
• Created a stakeholder management that covers a wide array of topics and led to a a thorough analysis of the relevant policy landscape, e-tools, as well as an account of stakeholder needs which EcoScope could help address.
• Developed and decided upon a project-specific innovation approach and process, as well as templates and tools that will be utilised throughout the work of this package. This includes business planning templates, business model canvases and other tools and support to execute the work.
• Created a communication toolbox providing a suite of promotional and technical branding assets. Launched a website serving as an attractive showcase for the project and a vehicle for the effective communication of the latest project news, events and products and services available, with a dedicated section for Stakeholders.
• Published 12 manuscripts in international peer-reviewed journals on the results of the project and an addition of other 8 manuscripts have been submitted.
The EcoScope consortium has
• Collected and harmonised appropriately all datasets regarding all European seas and developed a beta version of the EcoScope Platform.
• Collected and published all climate change scenarios and fishing effort data.
• Created species distribution maps in several climate change scenarios.
• Assessed the previous and current status of marine ecosystems and fisheries in eight case study areas across Europe using novel methods
• Developed ecosystem models incorporating uncertainty and deep uncertainty in order to implement specific tailor-made management scenarios based on stakeholder input and needs.
• Developed questionnaire assessing societal expectations and economic value
• Held a Foresight Workshop with key Stakeholders that enabled to build scenarios and establish indicators based on actual user needs
• Shared the knowledge created by publishing the first introductory chapter of EcoScope Academy.
In short, during its first implementation period, the EcoScope consortium has laid the basis for addressing ecosystem degradation, anthropogenic impacts and unsustainable fisheries by making significant progress in the development of its key outputs while engaging key stakeholders and users.
• Collected and harmonised appropriately all datasets regarding all European seas and developed a beta version of the EcoScope Platform.
• Collected and published all climate change scenarios and fishing effort data.
• Created species distribution maps in several climate change scenarios.
• Assessed the previous and current status of marine ecosystems and fisheries in eight case study areas across Europe using novel methods
• Developed ecosystem models incorporating uncertainty and deep uncertainty in order to implement specific tailor-made management scenarios based on stakeholder input and needs.
• Developed questionnaire assessing societal expectations and economic value
• Held a Foresight Workshop with key Stakeholders that enabled to build scenarios and establish indicators based on actual user needs
• Shared the knowledge created by publishing the first introductory chapter of EcoScope Academy.
In short, during its first implementation period, the EcoScope consortium has laid the basis for addressing ecosystem degradation, anthropogenic impacts and unsustainable fisheries by making significant progress in the development of its key outputs while engaging key stakeholders and users.