Acronym ACIDBIV
Category
Fisheries
Title The integrated impacts of marine acidification, temperature and precipitation changes on bivalve coastal biodiversity and fisheries: how to adapt? Programme International Cooperation
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European
Coordinator institution
CCMAR - Centre for Marine Sciences (Portugal)
Institutions involved
FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology (Portugal) ,
CSIC - Spanish National Research Council (Spain) ,
FSB - University of Carthage Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte (Tunisia) ,
UNIPD - University of Padua (Italy) ,
Start year 2008 End year 2011 Funding (€) € 104,963 Website NA Summary Climate change and predictions of changes in air temperature and precipitation regimes will affect the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Moreover, increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations will lead to the acidification of coastal waters in the Mediterranean area, as well as around the world, and adverse consequences to animals with calcium carbonate shells are expected. The predicted changes in environmental conditions (temperature, salinity, pH) may alter physiological rates of bivalves, modifying their impact (filtration, respiration, excretion rates) on the ecosystem. These impacts need to be evaluated in an integrative way. Bivalves play an important role on ecosystem structure functioning since they link primary productivity with upper trophic levels. Moreover, bivalve species to be studied in this project also constitute important economic resources for fisheries and aquaculture in Galicia, Algarve, Adriatic and Golf of Tunis coastal areas. With this project, our first aim is to analyse the cumulative effects of temperature, precipitation and pH, as predicted in climate changes scenarios, on the most relevant bivalve species for the study areas, both in terms of ecologic and economic importance. Based on this knowledge, our second aim is to propose adaptation measures to sustain bivalve biodiversity, fisheries and aquaculture production in the Mediterranean estuaries and coastal waters. For achieving these aims we structured the project considering a bottom-up approach: starting by selecting the most relevant species to be studied, defining testing and calibrating the methodologies to be used, developing laboratory experiments, testing these experiments with in situ mesocosms and finally, testing and proposing adaptation measures to sustain bivalve assemblages and related economic uses and contribute to CO2 sequestration. The proposed solutions will be discussed with water managers, conservation and environmental areas responsible and with fisheries and aquaculture companies.
(1) Evaluate the effects of ocean acidification on bivalve physiology and shell structure, particularly on larval and juvenile phases; (2) Develop an ecophysiological model for the response of bivalves under different combined temperature and pH values; (3) Propose general measures to sustain the ecological and economic role of bivalves in coastal Mediterranean areas (e.g. control water quality, bivalve fisheries and aquaculture).
Keywords
Sustainability;
Shellfish;
Bivalve;
Water quality;
Climate change;
Impacts;
Mollusc;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
Marine Region Map
