MARCO-BOLO

Biodiversity of european seas, coastal and inland waters

Coastal and marine areas are subject to intense pressures from agricultural and industry pollution in waterways, dredging and building development. Many national and regional programmes assess environmental health and human impact on our coasts, but these programmes are often fragmented, short term and uncoordinated at larger scales.

Infografik zum Projekt MARCO-BOLO (Quelle: https://marcobolo-project.eu/about-company)

The MARCO-BOLO project connects existing initiatives and optimizes and improves methods, and supports technologies for biodiversity observations. The project aims to deliver a transformative change in how marine biodiversity is monitored and managed. The MARCO-BOLO research team is engaging with diverse stakeholders to tailor their research and observation data for direct use, delivering practical tools that will allow politicians and companies to determine biodiversity health, predict and monitor changes from imposed policies, and proactively manage environments. 

The MARCO_BOLO project is funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme and aims to strengthen European marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observations in support for decision making. MARCO-BOLO’s innovations will address the full pipeline of data collection and use: from testing new monitoring tools using eDNA, robotics, optical and acoustic techniques, to data integration methods for environmental modelling, and guidance on how data can be stored, shared and applied in policy contexts.

Our group at hereon is specifically engaged in the work package 3 - Linking land and sea biodiversity observation, which uses four model land-river-sea systems (Danube, Elbe, Guadalquivir, Po) to test and validate workflows of existing biodiversity and environmental monitoring programmes (e.g., WFD, MSFD, H&B Directives, RIs), to identify chains of effects and connectivity points between land and sea observation and to evaluate effects of existing terrestrial and freshwater conservation areas on coastal and marine biodiversity.

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