Annual Highlights

RELEVANT ACTIVITIES

THE CEAB PARTICIPATED IN A EUROPEAN NETWORK AGAINST INVASIVE MOSQUITOES

Dr Frederic Bartumeus, ICREA researcher at CEAB-CSIC and director of Mosquito Alert, took part in an international workshop on the coordination of surveillance systems in Europe, where they were working on a new network of European sentinel centres (COST Action AIM-Aedes Invasive Mosquitoes program). The main aim was combating the spread of invasive mosquitoes of the species of Aedes and the diseases they can transmit, such as dengue, zica and chikungunya. surveillance programs of invasive species. Participants addressed the problems caused by these species, as well as the available tools to combat them, including the Mosquito Alert citizen science program.

COST AIM brought together experts in entomology, epidemiology, ecology and public health to develop coordinated

DR RAFAEL SARDÁ (CEAB-CSIC) PARTICIPATED IN COP25 (CEOE) - “BUSINESS ACTION FOR THE CLIMATE”, MADRID.

Dr Sardá participated last Friday in an event of the green pavilion of the COP25 (CEOE) - “Business Action for the Climate”, with a speech on deepening the critical but hopeful gaze expressed in a recent article published on ESADE’s Do Better platform. Dr Sardá showed Climate Change as an already visible reality implying three basic aspects of the change: 1) Global (there is no place on the planet where it is not observed), 2) Persistent (it has come to stay and will accompany us for decades), and 3) Uncertainty (it generates a lot of doubts, as we have never experienced anything like it before). Dr Sardá insisted in the fact that, if we do not act to remedy it, we can put humanity close to collapsing. In turn, if we act, we can build a new and better future. The main conclusion is that Climate Change will expose us to great risks, but will also gave us the opportunity to establish a global social collaboration network searching for common goals and this must also be perceived as an intrinsic value in itself.

MANUEL MALDONADO (CEAB-CSIC) PARTICIPATED AS INVITED EXPERT IN A CONFERENCE ORGANIZED AT THE FAO-UN HEADQUARTERS IN ROME.

The MEETING intended to share the latest knowledge on the sustainability of deep-sea fisheries and the conservation of biodiversity in the deep ocean, with the aim of sharing the latest knowledge on these two topics with particular emphasis in marine areas outside the coastal jurisdictions (known as ABNJ = Areas Beyond National Jurisdistion). Dr Maldonado presented his work as a leader of the “Ecosystem function, services and good” group within the European Project H2020 “Sponges Deep-sea Sponge Grounds Ecosystems of the North Atlantic: an integrated approach towards their preservation and sustainable exploitation.”

ON OCTOBER 3 AND 4, 2019, THE CEAB ORGANIZED THE 1ST ΣPHD ECOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM

This symposium aimed to bring together doctoral students from any ecological discipline. It offered a great opportunity to doctoral students from a Catalan research centres to share experiences on their work on ecology, but also on their oral presentation skills. The symposium also offered space for contacting and socializing with other students and senior researchers.

BLUE CARBON ECOSYSTEMS MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE ANDALUSIAN CLIMATE LAW AND SPEAK OUT IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

In 15 January 2019, the new “Andalusian Law for the Climate: Measures for the mitigation of the global change and for a transition to a new energetic model”, entered into force. Based on the first regional-wide Blue Carbon inventories estimated by the Group of Aquatic Macrophyte Ecology of the CEAB, the EU project LIFE Blue Natura (LIFE14CCM/ES/000957) has accomplished an unprecedented milestone by bringing science to the Andalusian Parliament and to the Andalusian laws. For the first time in Europe, the CO2 equivalents stored by the coastal vegetation, saltmarshes and seagrass meadows, are susceptible for carbon credit trading through emission compensation projects. In the Article 37, item 2, the Law establishes: “It will be considered carbon emissions offset projects, all those dealing with the aforestation, reforestation, restoration, and conservation of the extant forests and wooded lands, and littoral ecosystems, those dealing with the conservation or restoration of wetlands, seagrass meadows and analogous areas ...” The Law therefore opens the possibility, for the first time, for any company to compensate its CO2 emissions by conducting actions leading to the promotion or the conservation of the saltmarshes and seagrass meadows of Andalusia. The project LIFE Blue Natura is coming to an end in 2020, and has already developed most of the instruments required to bring the CO2 stored by these ecosystems to the voluntary carbon markets. This milestone did not go unnoticed by the European Parliament who organized a special session on Blue Carbon to discuss the results of the EU project LIFE Blue Natura. These were the conclusions published by the two Members of the EU Parliament hosting the event: “Destroying BC ecosystems contributes to the release of CO2 they absorbed for years or centuries. Although the role of Blue Carbon ecosystems is well recognized by scientists, a gap analysis is needed to identify research and financial needs, as well as to identify priorities and the way to transfer knowledge across sectors. With reference to the latter, the LIFE Blue Natura project serves as an example to examine the missing knowledge, moreover as a pilot to transfer the experience to the wider region”. This achievement will strongly benefit the better conservation of our coastal ecosystems, their capacity of capturing and storing the excess of atmospheric CO2 and the multiple other invaluable ecosystem services they provide.

FIRST HANDS-ON INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON BLUE CARBON

From the 28th to the 30th of October 2019, the Group pf Aquatic Macrophyte Ecology (GAME) of the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes, organized a hands-on course for the estimation of organic carbon stocks and fluxes associated to the sinks formed by vegetated coastal ecosystems known as Blue Carbon: mangrove forests, saltmarshes and seagrass meadows. The course focused on the necessary technical knowledge to estimate the size and rate of growth of the carbon sink associated to blue carbon ecosystems, including (i) sampling design, (ii) field works, (iii) laboratory works, and (iv) numerical procedures. Attention was also paid to how the organic carbon stocks captured by blue carbon ecosystems can be utilized to promote conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems through conservation projects that can be monetized in the voluntary carbon markets. The course resulted in a success beyond expectations, and was ‘sold out’ in 3 days after opening the call highlighting course was needed and timely. It was blessed with the attendance of 19 participants from all over the world: Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, and Tunisia (see annex). The profile of these attendees was quite diverse, including government responsibles, NGOs (United Nations), hydraulic engineers, biologists, PhD students, postdocs, early career scientists, professors, as well as senior scientists. They all credited a high interest in learning the Blue Carbon techniques for implementation in their laboratories, strategies or careers. This initiative was sponsored by the EU project Life Blue Natura (LIFE14CCM/ES/000957).

PUBLICATIONS IN HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALS

BLUE CARBON HABITATS LOSS IN AUSTRALIA COULD REPRESENT UP TO 21% OF THE CO2 EMISSIONS FROM LAND USE CHANGE

Nature Communications 10(1-2) : 4313.

Australia holds the largest extensions of seagrasses in the entire world and presents also a wealth of tidal marshes and mangrove forests. During the last decade it has been shown that these ecosystems, also known as Blue Carbon, can help in ameliorating the global warming by retaining vast amounts of organic carbon they have been accumulating over hundreds to thousands of years. In this study, Dr. Oscar Serrano from the Group of Aquatic Macrophyte Ecology, leads the largest effort ever made to inventory the stocks and fluxes of CO2 equivalents from the atmosphere to these natural biospheric carbon sinks. It has been found that all three members of the Blue Carbon store up to 11% of all the carbon stored in the world’s coastal vegetated ecosystems. A potential CO2 release back to the atmosphere due to current VCE losses are estimated at 2.1–3.1 Tg CO2-e yr-1. It is strongly advised that this large amount should be protected through carbon offset projects to redound in the conservation of the ecosystems at the time the resource is monetized in the carbon markets.

CALCIFICATION IN SEAGRASS MEADOWS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO BUFFER SEA-LEVEL RISE WITHOUT UNDERMINING THEIR ROLE AS CO2 SINKS

Nature Communications 10 : 1106

Calcium carbonates (CaCO3) often accumulate in mangrove and seagrass sediments. As CaCO3 production emits CO2, there is concern that this may partially offset the role of Blue Carbon ecosystems as CO2 sinks through the burial of organic carbon (Corg). In this world-wide study, Dr. Oscar Serrano, Prof. Paul Lavery, and Dr. Miguel A. Mateo, from the Group of Aquatic Macrophyte Ecology, contribute to a global collection of data on inorganic carbon burial rates (Cinorg, 12% of CaCO3 mass) that revealed global rates of 0.8 Tg Cinorg yr−1 and 15–62 Tg Cinorg yr−1 in mangrove and seagrass ecosystems, respectively. In seagrasses, CaCO3 burial may correspond to an offset of 30% of the net CO2 sequestration. However, a mass balance assessment highlighted that the Cinorg burial is mainly supported by inputs from adjacent ecosystems rather than by local calcification, and that Blue Carbon ecosystems are sites of net CaCO3 dissolution. Hence, CaCO3 burial in Blue Carbon ecosystems contribute to seabed elevation and therefore buffers sea-level rise, without undermining their role as CO2 sinks.

Nature Communications 10 : 3356

Marine angiosperm meadows are globally threatened. In this paper we collect assessments of changes from 1869 to 2016 in Europe to show that 1/3 of the meadow area has been lost, with maximum losses in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, loss rates have decreased substantially for all species. Our results show that the decline is not the generalized state and that trends’ slowdown and reversal are possible, together with the recovery of the services they provide.

TEMPERATURE PATTERNS AND MECHANISMS INFLUENCING CORAL BLEACHING DURING THE 2016 EL NIÑO

Nature Climate Change 9 : 845-851

This study analyses coral bleaching globally and reveals that maximum temperature is not the only one responsible. Bleaching causes are much more complex than previously thought, with a number of mechanisms involved including local stressors, which determine the regional response. Management actions to alleviate these episodes must therefore be applied at the local level.

SOCIAL–ENVIRONMENTAL DRIVERS INFORM STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF CORAL REEFS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

Nature Ecology and Evolution 3 : 1341-1350

We evaluate the effect of multiple environmental, climatic and social factors on the composition of tropical coral communities. We also identify three coral reef management strategies based on their health status, distinguishing those in good conditions, with high coral coverage (17%), those that need to reduce pressure to improve (50%) and, finally those very degraded where an extreme of reduction of pressures is required (28%).