SUBJECT: RE: How will we know when the end is nigh?
AUTHOR: Christos Arvanitidis & Anastasios Eleftheriou (MARBENA moderators)
DATE: 16th April 2003

KEYWORDS: Marine Biodiversity, EU policies.

SUMMARY: Marine scientists may feel that they cannot adequately address the question of how the loss of biodiversity can be halted by 2010, based on the present level of knowledge. However, radical changes in EU policy may have more powerf to solve this problem than knowledge alone.


During the last week the MARBENA e-Conference was running as a separate Conference, with one of the sessions entitled "the unknown". In the summary of the session (http://www.vliz.be/marbena/summaries.htm ) one can find listed a number of serious gaps in our knowledge on Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity, which is not the only example, ranging from gaps in biodiversity distribution at any spatial and temporal scale to relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and inefficiencies resulting from the absence of coupled classical and modern taxonomical tools. Consequently, the picture seems to be rather worse in the marine than in the terrestrial ecosystems.

There are, however, a number of features of Marine Biodiversity that differentiate it from Terrestrial Biodiversity and hinder our efforts to understand and consequently to conserve and evaluate the marine systems:
1. Diversity at higher taxonomic levels is much greater in the sea (fourteen "endemic" marine phyla, compared to one terrestrial).
2. A greater variety of species at a higher trophic level are commercially exploited in the sea.
3. The marine physical environment is totally different from the terrestrial physical environment.
4. Dispersal of species may occur over much broader ranges than on land.
5. The main primary producers are very small sized and often mobile in the sea.
6. The standing stock of grazers is higher than that of primary producers in the sea.
7. Ocean productivity is on average lower than land productivity.
8. High level carnivores often play key roles in structuring marine biodiversity.
9. Marine biodiversity is the most exposed to pollution.

Our understanding of marine biodiversity lags far behind that of terrestrial biodiversity. It has became a commonly shared idea in recent years that the patterns and processes (and the potential consequences), which have been proved to exist in the terrestrial systems cannot be accepted as valid for their marine counterparts without any further examination.

On the other hand, marine ecosystems may provide a variety of goods and services to humans. Changes in marine biodiversity not only affect the natural environment but also the associated social and economic systems (e.g. wild capture fisheries). In most cases, however, the utilization of these goods and services is poorly regulated or not managed at all. More recently, marine scientists have become aware of the need to manage marine ecosystems for the conservation of biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystems functioning.

Now, based on the above, marine scientists may have fewer chances to answer questions such as "how to achieve the Gotenborg target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010". The potential of an umbrella Project for biodiversity monitoring has been already proposed during the MARBENA Conference, but we do not think this would be enough. We find also it difficult to answer the question posed by Andreas Troumbis: "How can we integrate our knowledge into new technologies, innovative plans for local development and biodiversity conservation?" from a marine biodiversity point of view.
We can deliver, however, a couple of policy changes, at least in the context of the European Union, of essential importance:
1. To replace our "primitive" way of burning oil for energy production by other technologically more advanced solutions (e.g. hydrogen reactors).
2. To replace our "aggressive" anthropocentric economic attitude by a "peaceful" environmentally benign economy.

References:
Heip, C., R. Warwick & L. d'Ozouville. 1998. A European Science Plan on Marine Biodiversity. European Marine and Polar Science Board Position Paper.
Ormond, R.F.G., J.D. Gage & M.V. Angel. 1998. Marine Biodiversity. Cambridge University Press.
Loreau, M., S. Naeem & P. Inchausti. 2002. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Oxford University Press.

A contribution by:

Christos Arvanitidis
Institute of Marine Biology of Crete
Postal address P.O. Box 2214
GR-71003 Iraklio
Crete Greece

Anastasios Eleftheriou
Institute of Marine Biology of Crete
Postal address P.O. Box 2214
GR-71003 Iraklio Crete
Greece