Over the next three years, the Nordic seas and freshwater areas in the Oeresund, Kattegat and Skagerrak region will serve as the primary research locations for research activities within the BlueBioClimate project. The partners are five universities from Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
"We need integrated approaches and international collaboration to handle the biodiversity and climate crises simultaneously."
Jakob Hemmer-Hansen, Senior researcher and project leader, BlueBioClimate
‘BlueBioClimate’ points to the three related themes that are central to the project: water (marine and fresh water), biodiversity and climate change.
Learn more about BlueBioClimate
The overarching aim of BlueBioClimate is to enable environmental managers to effectively protect and restore marine biodiversity in a future impacted by climate change.
The project focuses on three overall areas of relevance to management and protection of biodiversity: 1. Prioritization and spatial planning, 2. Restoration, land and coastal protection and 3. Invasive, alien and new species.
The project was kicked off at DTU Aqua in Silkeborg, Denmark, last week of October. Here, project leader, Senior researcher Jakob Hemmer-Hansen from DTU Aqua, opened the conference and introduced the work packages and the organisation of BlueBioClimate.
“It was great to get the project off to a good start. We need integrated approaches and international collaboration to handle the biodiversity and climate crises simultaneously,” says Jakob Hemmer-Hansen.
The project partners are Göteborgs Universitet (SE), Aarhus Universitet (DK), Havforskningsinstituttet (NO), Universitetet i Agder (NO), and DTU Aqua (DK) as the leading partner.
According to Jakob Hemmer-Hansen, the project can provide urgently needed knowledge about the connections between biodiversity and climate change, for example on how biodiversity will be affected by climate change. Jakob Hemmer-Hansen explains:
“This is essential to secure resilient ecosystems that are able to function under current and future climates. Through co-creation with key natural resource management authorities, we will use this knowledge to develop the tools needed for practical biodiversity conservation and management.”
BlueBioClimate is funded by INTERREG Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak through the Green Transition priority to facilitate climate adaptation and risk reduction as well as national funding from individual project partners.
Tools to overcome bottlenecks in EU biodiversity strategy
The motivation for launching BlueBioClimate is the EU biodiversity strategy. This strategy sets ambitious targets for the protection of our seas and coastal areas. However, according to BlueBioClimate project partners, the existing procedures and tools available to natural resource managers do not take climate effects into account and are poorly integrated across borders.
For example, new tools are needed to prioritize the selection of biodiversity protection areas and to predict how biodiversity will be affected by climate change.
BlueBioClimate will help managers overcome the challenges by providing new knowledge on the capacity of the region’s biodiversity, i.e. species, populations, genes and functions, to adapt to change.
This research will be based on, for instance, existing genetic variation, functional diversity and available habitat, and by identifying the most important processes which maintains biodiversity.
The research results will form the basis for the development of Decision Support Frameworks, which take biodiversity's response to climate change into account, to secure resilient ecosystems and their services.
And just as important, BlueBioClimate aims at contributing to improved coordination of natural resource management efforts across national borders. Therefore, the new tools will be developed through co-creation with key stakeholders from the three countries.
Species specific activities
At the kick-off, plans for species specific activities were presented by BlueBioClimate partners. The work in the project includes different species living in the Oeresund, Kattegat and Skagerak region. From invasive species like zebra mussels and Pacific oysters, over eelgrass, zooplankton, sea trout bluefin tuna to Atlantic cod.
By combining state-of-the-art technology from bioscience – such as genomic analyses, advanced telemetry, bio-logging and combinations of field and experimental studies – the researchers will gain new important knowledge about the different marine species' ability to adapt to changes in their habitats due to climate change.
In the short term, this new knowledge will make it possible to develop the new tools for climate-adapted biodiversity protection and management.
In the longer term, the project partners expect BlueBioClimate to contribute to a knowledge-based sustainable green transition. This is expected to happen through improved natural management of ecosystems under significant pressure from climate change in combination with other factors, such as fishing, effects from invasive species and nutrient load.
A future platform for authority cooperation
As tourism, fishing and aquaculture develop in the three countries involved - Sweden, Norway and Denmark - healthier and more resilient ecosystems will be absolutely essential for ensuring sustainable growth.
The tools developed by BlueBioClimate will contribute to secure this, and Project leader Jakob Hemmer-Hansen stresses why he expects the project to succeed in reaching its goals:
“As a project consortium, our key strengths are the combination of approaches to study biodiversity at different levels from species to populations, genes and functions in relation to climate change.”
“This integrated approach is important for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of links between biodiversity and climate change. In addition, our consortium facilitates the regional collaboration across borders which is crucial for addressing challenges that cross borders”, says Jakob Hemmer.
In the longer term, an important project ambition is to enable future data collection in connection with nature and environmental monitoring in relation to climate change. The project will help to create an important platform for authority cooperation that can be further developed and formalized at authority level.
BlueBioClimate’s primary target groups are authorities in the three countries that manage natural resources at international, national and regional level
The national authorities will be able to develop their cooperation via the use of common reference frameworks and methods for implementation in administration across borders.
Top photo: the BlueBioClimate project group, October 2023