Regime shifts and fouling of marine macrophytes: overview of current status, knowledge gaps and research needs

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

TURFALGAE

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2017

End date

12/31/2017

Budget

12,300 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

With support from RCN (The Research Council of Norway) and Norwegian Blue forests Network (NBFN), NIVA arranged an international workshop on turf algae and the threat they pose towards kelp and seagrasses. The aim of the workshop was to gather national and international leading scientists, as well as Norwegian managers, to assess current status of knowledge globally, and to identify research needs with respect to regime shifts from these blue forests to less complex turf algae systems. Blue forests are facing multiple stressors from climate change and human population growth, and the recent large-scale loss of these important ecosystems due to such shifts has become a global concern. In particular we wanted to highlight the research needs to improve knowledge of the ongoing regime shifts and fouling of macrophytes in Norwegian coastal waters. The workshop involved sharing of data, knowledge and methodology between 19 participants from 7 countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Portugal, Australia, Canada). Current state of knowledge; globally and within different countries; was achieved through the invited participant?s presentations. Through invited presentations we also got an overview of available methods, tools, and analytical approaches that can be used to address the knowledge gaps identified. The main research questions, and how these can be addressed (review, field experiments, field studies) was discussed. Based on the presentations and discussion, a NIVA-led application, ?TURFALGAE?, was submitted to RCN?s research program MARINFORSK, in September 2017.