Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures

Society increasingly demands marine spatial planning and nature restoration efforts that integrate biodiversity structure and functioning. This is essential to achieve the ambitions of the European Green Deal, the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), and national spatial and climate adaptation plans.

A key societal focus is bottom‑trawl fisheries, which deliver valuable food but also cause significant ecological impacts that can conflict with conservation goals. DTU Aqua’s research area Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures develops methods to assess and advise on the levels of bottom‑trawl activity that are compatible with healthy seas and achieving seabed habitat conservation objectives.

As part of this, we contribute to defining Good Environmental Status (GES) thresholds for seabed habitat quality and spatial extent, which are essential for carrying out trade‑off analyses between food production and conservation goals.

The research area Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures focuses on developing the scientific basis for the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of living marine resources.

Research activities include:

• Modelling and quantification of human pressures under different environmental conditions.
• Indicator development and threshold modelling.
• Sediment- and fuel-related carbon footprint of fisheries.
• Biodiversity and food web modelling.
• Ecosystem functioning and habitat modelling.
• Ecosystem and habitat state assessments in response to natural drivers and human pressures.
• Trade-offs between ecosystem impacts, nature restoration goals and societal services.

Marine biodiversity
We address key ecological structure and functioning of benthic habitats, invertebrates, bony fish, elasmobranchs, seabirds, and marine mammals and the interlinkages between them. This includes advancing the understanding of benthic-pelagic coupling processes, including carbon dynamics, biodiversity and food web processes.

Through modelling and integration of different ecological components, we develop and implement state-of-the-art indicators, thresholds of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and societal trade-offs for use in Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) and nature restoration advice.

Human pressure
We focus on the development and application of methodology to map and quantify biodiversity pressures and impacts from human activities such as fisheries and offshore wind, at very fine spatial and temporal scales.

With the implementation of digitized high-frequency fisheries and vessel monitoring data such as VMS (Vessel Monitoring System), AIS (Automatic Identification System), and EU logbooks, the capacity to produce operational high-resolution maps and metrics of marine human pressures has substantially improved in recent decades. We are at the forefront of developing methodology in this field.

The research area Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures plays a central role in bridging ecological and technical science, stakeholder knowledge and policymaking related to marine ecosystem functioning and habitat biodiversity.

We provide advisory input internationally, mainly to ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea), DG MARE (EU Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries), and the EU Commission expert group TG Seabed .

Nationally, we provide advice to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Green Transition , and related agencies.

Output contributions include ecosystem based management advice, indicator frameworks, and ecosystem assessments for marine spatio-temporal planning and nature restoration. Our research-based advice serves the development of national and EU legislation.

Key innovations include AI-assisted biodiversity monitoring tools, novel habitat state and threshold indicators, and nature restoration decision-support tools.

External collaboration

The research area Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures has a strong involvement and leading roles in expert groups of the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea), in EU-funded research projects (e.g., Horizon Europe), and national stakeholder collaborations, contributing to policy development and implementation through science-based advice.

Close collaboration with industry and NGOs ensures the practical relevance of our research.

Internal collaboration

Within DTU Aqua, Marine Biodiversity and Human Pressures mainly collaborates with the following research areas:

• Fish Stocks and their Habitats
• Fisheries Management
• Population Dynamics and Stock Assessments
• Fisheries Technology
• Population Genetics
• Oceanography