PACKMEDS - Dynamics of semi-enclosed marine ecosystems: the integrated effects of changes in sediment and nutrient inputs from land

Initiators: Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli (USA), Jerry Melillo (USA), Bjorn Sundby (Canada), Edward R. Urban Jr (USA)

A large part of the human populations living in coastal zones are bordering semi-enclosed seas, and depend for a large part on resources from these adjacent seas. At the same time, semi-enclosed marine systems are heavily impacted by the whole range of human activities. While there have been significant scientific advances to understand how humans modify the complex dynamics and biogeochemical cycling at work in semi-enclosed marine systems, a synthesis and review of this knowledge in an integrated manner was lacking.

The PACKMEDS Rapid Assessment Process project focused on the dynamics of semi-enclosed marine ecosystems, especially the integrated effects of changes in sediment and nutrient inputs from land, in the context of ocean physics and biogeochemistry in order to identify the major gaps in our understanding, and highlight the most urgent priorities both for further research and for a more sound management of the coastal zones.

IUGG (and IAPSO) and SCOR joined SCOPE to explore potential powerful linkages between the terrestrial and marine research communities, examining how the structure and dynamics of semi-enclosed seas are controlled by complex interactions among physical and biogeochemical processes, including the added complexity of land-water interactions.

The project brought together natural and social scientists, and policy planners in a RAP workshop held in Delmenhorst, Germany in April 2007. It was organized around a set of case studies of regional seas, covering the nature and magnitude of inputs to the semi-enclosed seas and their causes (e.g., land-cover changes, industrial inputs), the interactions between these inputs and the physics of these systems that affect their biology, and the consequences of these effects on water-column exchanges with the atmosphere and the sediments.

In addition to the case study background chapters, the volume resulting from the project incldues the four cross-cut discussion group chapters: Vulnerability of Semi-Enclosed Marine Systems to Environmental Disturbances; Threshold Effects In Semi-Enclosed Seas; Governance and Management of Ecosystem Services in Semi-Enclosed Marine Systems; and Managing Semi-enclosed Marine Systems – new tools for integrating information. It will be published in the SCOPE Series by Island Press in late 2008. Results of the project will also be published in the UNESCO-SCOPE-UNEP Policy Briefs Series in July-August 2008.

Last up-dated May 2008