A pilot Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) project in the UK has found MSP to be a useful approach in managing marine waters sustainably. Sharing the knowledge and experiences gained in developing the Shetland Islands’ Marine Spatial Plan (SMSP) can help other authorities in the process of developing similar plans, says the project team.

The Irish public are sceptical of government and industry’s ability to manage the marine economy, finds a survey. However, they place a large amount of trust in scientists. The research also indicates that people living in Ireland have a reasonable level of knowledge of the importance of different marine ecosystem services.

Plans for new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) need to consider social impacts alongside economic and environmental impacts, according to a recent study, which found that an MPA in the UK has increased some tensions within its local community. The researchers suggest that collaborative management could also help increase support for MPAs and reduce stakeholder conflict.

More than 200 pieces of English and EU-wide marine environmental legislation have been analysed in a recent review. While complex, the legislation adequately covered all areas of the marine environment, the authors conclude. However, there is opportunity to remove overlap and conflicts between different legislation and improve cross-border co-operation.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely used to safeguard marine ecosystems across Europe. This study investigated the effect of a partially protected area (PPA) off the coast of Norway on a population of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). The PPA reduced the number of deaths due to fishing, increased survival and stimulated movement to surrounding areas. The authors say that preventing fishing altogether would increase survival even further and recommend no-take zones in areas where populations are severely reduced.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have well-reported ecological benefits, but may also have important socioeconomic effects on local communities. Existing methods to assess these effects have been hampered by a number of limitations. This paper describes a new framework to monitor and assess the socioeconomic effects of MPAs, which overcomes many of these limitations to provide greater value for decision makers.

A large proportion of ships are recycled on the beaches of developing countries in Asia. This study considered shipbreaking in Bangladesh, using critical scenario analysis to explore different futures for the industry and its workers. The paper suggests that a radical shift in socioeconomic and political structures is needed to enable environmentally sound practices while retaining employment opportunities for local people.

Milan and Seoul are considered by many as pioneering examples of cities in promoting a sharing economy. A new study has analysed governance in these two cities, and concludes that they have both laid the right foundations for a sharing economy to develop. The researchers propose that while such economies carry risks, they are also able to benefit the economy, environment, and society.

The announcement of a new no-take fishing zone in the Pacific led to a 130% increase in fishing activity ahead of its implementation, satellite data reveal. Although fishing activity dropped to zero once the marine protected area (MPA) came into effect just over a year later, the study warns that the pre-emptive short-term surge in fishing could have caused long-term ecological damage.

Individuals and groups of individuals have been influential in changing the Tisza River water policy in Hungary, according to a new study. A shift away from engineering solutions towards sustainable flood management was achieved through new policy ideas being recognised by civil servants at the national level and a regional coalition championing the ideas at the local level.

Recent work in the coastal Mediterranean waters of the ‘Comunidad Valencia’ in Eastern Spain confirms that wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a significant source of pollutants that need monitoring under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Priority Substances Directive. However, these substances also directly enter coastal waters from mixed urban, industrial and agricultural sources, creating a challenge for the development of control measures.

The importance of addressing eutrophication to improve the ecological health of coastal and marine waters has been identified in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive1. A new study discusses possible methods for assessing and monitoring eutrophication, including which indicators to monitor.

The management of international rivers is subject to two main types of boundary: the physical boundary of the river itself and the socio-political boundaries of the nations and regions that surround it. A new study has compared the impacts of managing rivers according to these different boundaries in Europe and Africa.

Researchers attempting to establish the limits of coastal waters in Europe have found that national declarations of coastal waters contain a number of inconsistencies regarding the definition from the Water Framework Directive. In particular, the national declarations over-estimated the area of coastal waters by almost 12% overall, which could affect the results of ecological assessments required by several major EU environmental policies.

A new study has investigated the restoration of a damaged estuary in Spain by comparing the costs of installing sewage systems with the associated benefits for water quality and biodiversity in the area. Long-term benefits, particularly in the inner part of the estuary, increased with investment in sewage treatment schemes.

A case study in Greece suggests that farmers growing low-value crops such as maize and cotton will suffer most from policies which introduce charges for water. However, this impact can be mitigated if groundwater is priced based on the energy needed for pumping, shifting some of the burden to higher value crops.

Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) provide important habitats for the yelkouan shearwater, a species of conservation concern, new research concludes. The study examined the behaviour of the birds at sea and found that they used MPAs extensively as foraging grounds.

Water shortages in water stressed regions can be alleviated by building large infrastructures, such as water transfer systems or saltwater desalination plants, which increase the supply of water. However, a new study, which compares the environmental impact of water supply alternatives in a region of Spain, concludes that reducing water use, rather than increasing supplies, is a more sustainable solution.

The English Channel (La Manche) is one of the world’s busiest sea areas, and management of it is a challenging task. This study reviews governance across the Channel, finding poor integration between countries, sectors, policies and research. The study also considers management in terms of the ecosystem approach and suggests that linking research between the UK and France could be key to improving marine governance.

The world could experience the highest ever global sea-level rise in the history of human civilisation if global temperature rises exceed 2 °C, predicts a new study. Under current carbon-emission rates, this temperature rise will occur around the middle of this century, with damaging effects on coastal businesses and ecosystems, while also triggering major human migration from low-lying areas. Global sea-level rise will not be uniform, and will differ for different points of the globe.

Areas of mariculture — where marine organisms are cultivated for food — have been identified as important source areas for the dispersal of invasive alien species (IAS) via artificial floating litter. In order to identify IAS at high risk of dispersal via this method, researchers have analysed fouled anthropogenic litter sampled on beaches in two important European mariculture areas. Overall, the team detected eight aquaculture-related IAS attached to anthropogenic litter. All of these species are well adapted to rafting on artificial surfaces and have high potential to disperse in this way, suggesting that they are suitable candidates for closer monitoring and policy action in the future.

Researchers have developed an online tool to help water managers find effective ways of tackling eutrophication, an excess growth of weeds and algae that suffocates life in rivers, lakes and seas. They describe the tool as quick and easy to use and understand. Users can compare the likely effects of different strategies for cutting nutrient pollution in surface waters via an interactive map-based system; this is currently available for Sweden and Europe as a whole.

The company said it will utilise the capital to work with manufacturers to build IoT products for the consumer segment that can be plugged into its platform.

​​The current lockdown has prompted even fence-sitters to begin using these tools, as they face constraints in accessing critical information that resides on systems in company premises

DBS Bank is leveraging technology to reduce man hours, enhance the customer journey, automate processes and open new revenue streams.

New research in Estonia indicates that plant biodiversity in field boundaries varies with features, such as ditches, trees and nearby roads. It suggests that, in addition to common non-weedy plants, more consideration should be given to rare weeds by broadening of field boundaries and reducing the use of agrochemicals and fertilisers near these boundaries.

New EU-supported research in the Mediterranean Sea has assessed the impact of fish-farming on seafloor ecosystems. Results indicate that impacts are only apparent in habitats with no vegetation, but the researchers suggest that habitats with vegetation seagrass could be masking the effects.

The urbanisation of coastal areas and introduction of man-made structures, such as jetties and seawalls, are changing marine environments. A new analysis highlights the impacts of these changes on marine plants and animals and suggests options to manage the detrimental effects.

A global team of marine biologists have recently completed a Census of Marine Life, which contributes to our basic understanding of marine ecosystems. Among its findings - marine biodiversity in the Baltic and Mediterranean are among the most threatened globally.

Restoring ecosystems in estuaries and along coasts is an important part of European environmental policy. A new analysis of degraded ecosystems has indicated that, although some restoration can take less than five years, when there has been a century of degradation, it can take a minimum of 15-25 years.

Land-dwelling and charismatic animals, such as birds and mammals, receive greater attention in conservation research than other species. How does this bias affect those that are not so well known or loved? A new study suggests that African species in freshwater habitats may suffer as a result.

Biodiversity could play a key role in preventing future outbreaks of malaria in tropical forests, according to a new study. Results indicate that a greater number of mosquito species could increase competition for mosquitoes that spread malarial parasites, whilst more vertebrate species could increase the likelihood that malarial parasites end up in 'dead-end hosts' that are unable to transmit the disease any further.

The drying of soils under global warming could disrupt the balance of nutrients in large areas of the Earth's land surface, according to new research. The study focused on ‘drylands' – arid areas with low levels of rainfall – which support over 38%% of the world's population. Such nutrient imbalances could diminish the provision of ecosystem services, such as food production and carbon storage, the researchers say.

Microplastic pollution impairs the heath of the marine worms that help maintain sediments for other creatures, new research suggests. This study shows that the energy reserves of lugworms living in sediment contaminated with microplastic particles were reduced by up to 50%.

Offshore renewable energy sites may provide new 'stepping stone' habitats for marine species, a recent study suggests. They could allow some species to spread beyond their present range and help vulnerable creatures survive in the face of climate change. However, they may also allow harmful invasive species to spread, the researchers warn, and the effects of such projects must be assessed by examining their impacts on the ecosystem as a whole.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) in which fishing is prohibited contain substantially more fish, including commercially valuable species, than either partially protected or unenforced MPAs, according to a recent survey of rocky reef fish in the Mediterranean Sea. This suggests that MPAs need to be highly protected to offer the best chance of recovery for fish stocks, say the researchers.

Civilisation has crossed four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’, increasing the risk of irreversibly driving the Earth in to a less hospitable state, concludes new research. These are: extinction rate, deforestation, atmospheric CO2 and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorus.

Marine Protected Areas should be managed as integrated networks rather than isolated units because of the high degree of exchange between them, a new study suggests. The researchers found that the large majority of sea bream (Sparidae) and wrasse (Labridae) fish spawned in MPA study sites in the Mediterranean Sea were transported via currents to other MPAs and unprotected areas, highlighting their interconnected nature.

Mathematical models created to help design marine reserves have tended to focus on fish species where larvae are highly mobile but adults occupy relatively small areas. However, new research has extended these models to include fish species with different life histories, such as groupers and flounders, showing that they also benefit substantially from reserve protection.

Discarding – returning unwanted catches to the sea – is seen as wasteful, but banning the practice would remove an important food source for many marine organisms. This study modelled the effects of gradually reducing and abruptly banning discards using data from a protected bay in Australia. The researchers recommend gradual reduction of discards in order to maintain ecosystem stability.

Assessing threats to biodiversity is necessary for effective spatial planning and balancing sustainable development with conservation. This study details a fine-scale assessment of the effect of a range of threats to coastline habitats within a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Mediterranean Sea. The study provides an example of how local-scale assessments can contribute to national conservation policy.

Biodiversity scenarios are a useful tool to help policymakers predict how flora and fauna will likely respond to future environmental conditions. Although changes to land use are a major driver of biodiversity loss, scenarios focus overwhelmingly on climate change, a new study shows. The researchers say this imbalance makes scenarios less credible, and make recommendations for developing more plausible projections.

The importance of seagrass meadows in supporting fisheries has been highlighted by a new study in San Simón Bay, a Natura 2000 site in Spain. The research also demonstrates the benefits of stakeholder involvement in developing management plans to balance conservation with the use of natural resources.

A new study has investigated the effects of set-aside management —when fields are taken out of agricultural production — on common invertebrate decomposers in soil. The diversity of woodlice species was higher in set-aside fields compared to neighbouring wheat fields and this effect increased in older set-asides. This study highlights the importance of set-aside areas as habitats for soil invertebrates, which are important for soil health.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are used increasingly often in innovative technologies, causing these elements to enter the natural environment. They can be sourced via deep-sea mining, raising concerns about marine exposure to mining processes and waste products. This study examined how two REEs, lanthanum and yttrium, affected and stressed marine ecosystems, using young marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) as indicators of water quality. The researchers determine a parameter known as the ‘predicted no effect concentration’ (PNEC) for La and Y — the maximum environmental level of each of the two elements at which no effect is seen on the most sensitive organisms and which is, therefore, deemed safe for the environment.

Commercial bottom trawling, the technique of pulling fishing gear across the seabed to catch fish and other seafood, releases pollutants trapped in the seabed, which can negatively affect local marine life and ecosystems. Recent findings from a Norwegian fjord show how mussels can take up high levels of contaminants released by trawling, with important health implications for consumers.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with the hormonal systems of both humans and wildlife. New research quantifying EDCs in marine environments in Greece found concentrations which present significant risks to sediment-dwelling organisms.

Leakage of radioactive material from the wreck of the nuclear submarine K-159 in the Barents Sea could increase levels of radioactivity in local populations of cod by a hundred times, new research suggests. However, this level remains well below ‘safe’ standards set by the Norwegian government.

New research has provided the first conclusive evidence that microplastics ingested by marine wildlife can transfer toxic pollutants to their tissues. The researchers studied lugworms fed on PVC particles contaminated with either widespread marine pollutants or plastic additives and found that these 'earthworms of the sea' absorbed the chemicals into their gut tissue, which reduced their ability to perform essential functions.

The combined effects of pollution and rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including CO₂, may have effects on marine ecosystems that are more damaging than expected, warns new research. The study found that bacteria capable of breaking down oil pollution were far less abundant in sediment in acidified waters. Although increased ultraviolet-B (UV-B) light reduced these negative impacts, the researchers caution that deeper waters or other waters with less UV-B, may still suffer.