Description: Maritime industries routinely collect critical environmental data needed for sustainable management of marine ecosystems, supporting both the blue economy and future growth. Collating this information would provide a valuable resource for all stakeholders. For the North Sea, the oil and gas industry has been a dominant presence for over 50 years that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge about the environment. As the industry begins to decommission its offshore structures, this information will be critical for avoiding duplication of effort in data collection and ensuring best environmental management of offshore activities. This paper summarises the outcomes of a Blue Growth Data Challenge Workshop held in 2017 with participants from: the oil and gas industry; the key UK regulatory and management bodies for oil and gas decommissioning; open access data facilitators; and academic and research institutes. Here, environmental data collection and archiving by oil and gas operators in the North Sea are described, alongside how this compares to other offshore industries; what the barriers and opportunities surrounding environmental data sharing are; and how wider data sharing from offshore industries could be achieved. Five primary barriers to data sharing were identified: 1) Incentives, 2) Risk Perception, 3) Working Cultures, 4) Financial Models, and 5) Data Ownership. Active and transparent communication and collaboration between stakeholders including industry, regulatory bodies, data portals and academic institutions will be key to unlocking the data that will be critical to informing responsible decommissioning decisions for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea.

Description: Publication date: Available online 19 January 2018 Source: Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies Author(s): Alfonso Rivera, Lucila Candela Study region Global scale. Study focus This paper highlights the main outputs and outcomes of the Internationally Shared Aquifer Resources Management Initiative (ISARM, 2000–2015) of UNESCO on the global scale. We discuss the lessons learned, what is still relevant in ISARM, and what we consider irrelevant and why. We follow with discussion on the looming scenarios and the next steps following the awareness on transboundary aquifers (TBAs) as identified by ISARM. New insights for the region This analysis emphasizes the need for more scientific data, widespread education and training, and a more clearly defined role for governments to manage groundwater at the international level. It describes the links, approach and relevance of studies on TBAs to the UN Law of Transboundary Aquifers and on how they might fit regional strategies to assess and manage TBAs. The study discusses an important lesson learned on whether groundwater science can solve transboundary issues alone. It has become clear that science should interact with policy makers and social entities to have meaningful impacts on TBAs. Bringing together science, society, law, policy making, and harmonising information, would be important drivers and the best guidance for further assessments. ISARM can still make contributions, but it could be redesigned to support resolving TBAs issues which, in addition to science (hydrogeology), require considering social, political, economic and environmental factors. ISARM can increase its international dimension in the continents that still lag behind the assessment and shared management of TBAs, such as Asia and Africa.

Description: Forests worldwide are threatened by various environmental and anthropogenic hazards, especially tropical forests. Knowledge on the impacts of these hazards on forest structure and dynamics has been compiled in empirical studies. However, the results of these studies are often not sufficient for long-term projections and extrapolations to large spatial scales especially for unprecedented environmental conditions, which require both the identification and understanding of key underlying processes. Forest models bridge this gap by incorporating multiple ecological processes in a dynamic framework (i.e. including a realistic model structure) and addressing the complexity of forest ecosystems. Here, we describe the evolution of the individual-based and process-based forest gap model FORMIND and its application to tropical forests. At its core, the model includes physiological processes on tree level (photosynthesis, respiration, tree growth, mortality, regeneration, competition). During the past two decades, FORMIND has been used to address various scientific questions arising from different forest types by continuously extending the model structure. The model applications thus provided understanding in three main aspects: (1) the grouping of single tree species into plant functional types is a successful approach to reduce complexity in vegetation models, (2) structural realism was necessary to analyze impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances such as logging, fragmentation, or drought, and (3) complex ecological processes such as carbon fluxes in tropical forests – starting from the individual tree level up to the entire forest ecosystem – can be explored as a function of forest structure, species composition and disturbance regime. Overall, this review shows how the evolution of long-term modelling projects not only provides scientific understanding of forest ecosystems, but also provides benefits for ecological theory and empirical study design.

Description: Microplastic pollution within the marine environment is of pressing concern globally. Accordingly, spatial monitoring of microplastic concentrations, composition and size distribution may help to identify sources and entry pathways, and hence allow initiating focused mitigation. Spatial distribution patterns of microplastics were investigated in two compartments of the southern North Sea by collecting sublittoral sediment and surface water samples from 24 stations. Large microplastics (500−5000 μm) were detected visually and identified using attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The remaining sample was digested enzymatically, concentrated onto filters and analyzed for small microplastics (11−500 μm) using Focal Plane Array (FPA) FTIR imaging. Microplastics were detected in all samples with concentrations ranging between 2.8 and 1188.8 particles kg−1 for sediments and 0.1–245.4 particles m−3 for surface waters. On average 98% of microplastics were 〈100 μm in sediments and 86% in surface waters. The most prevalent polymer types in both compartments were polypropylene, acrylates/polyurethane/varnish, and polyamide. However, polymer composition differed significantly between sediment and surface water samples as well as between the Frisian Islands and the English Channel sites. These results show that microplastics are not evenly distributed, in neither location nor size, which is illuminating regarding the development of monitoring protocols.

Description: The concept of co-location of marine areas receives an increased significance in the light of sustainable development in the already heavily used offshore marine realm. Within this study, different spatial co-location scenarios for the coupling of offshore aquacultures and wind farms are evaluated in order to support efficient and sustainable marine spatial management strategies. A Geographic Information System (GIS) and multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) techniques were combined to index suitable co-sites in the German exclusive economic zone of the North Sea. The MCE was based on criteria such as temperature, salinity or oxygen. In total, 13 possible aquaculture candidates (seaweed, bivalves, fish and crustaceans) were selected for the scenario configuration. The GIS modelling framework proved to be powerful in defining potential co-location sites. The aquaculture candidate oarweed (Laminaria digitata) revealed the highest suitability scores at 10–20 m depth from April to June, followed by haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) at 20–30 m depth and dulse (Palmaria palmata) and Sea belt (Saccharina latissima) at 0–10 m depth between April and June. In summary, results showed several wind farms were de facto suitable sites for aquaculture since they exhibited high suitability scores for Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems combining fish species, bivalves and seaweeds. The present results illustrate how synergies may be realised between competing needs of both offshore wind energy and offshore IMTA in the German EEZ of the North Sea. This might offer guidance to stakeholders and assist decision-makers in determining the most suitable sites for pilot projects using IMTA techniques.

Description: CO2 is the strongest anthropogenic forcing agent for climate change since pre-industrial times. Like other greenhouse gases, CO2 absorbs terrestrial surface radiation and causes emission from the atmosphere to space. As the surface is generally warmer than the atmosphere, the total long-wave emission to space is commonly less than the surface emission. However, this does not hold true for the high elevated areas of central Antarctica. For this region, it is shown that the greenhouse effect of CO2 is around zero or even negative. Moreover, for central Antarctica an increase in CO2 concentration leads to an increased long-wave energy loss to space, which cools the earth-atmosphere system. These unique findings for central Antarctica are in contrast to the well known general warming effect of increasing CO2. The work contributes to explain the non-warming of central Antarctica since 1957.