Coast and sea protection

On Feb­ru­ary 17 and 18, the kick-off meet­ing now marks the offi­cial start of the sec­ond research mis­sion sus­tain­Mare “Pro­tec­tion and sus­tain­able use of marine spaces” of the Ger­man Alliance for Marine Research (DAM). It ana­lyzes our use of the sea and coast. Sea lev­el rise, warm­ing and ocean acid­i­fi­ca­tion, togeth­er with pol­lu­tion and over­ex­ploita­tion of ecosys­tems, are caus­ing pro­found prob­lems. Two pilot projects and five col­lab­o­ra­tive projects are inves­ti­gat­ing the eco­log­i­cal, eco­nom­ic and social impacts of the use and pol­lu­tion of the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The aim is to pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions for action for users and decision-makers.

Food provider, ener­gy sup­pli­er, raw mate­r­i­al source, vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion and trans­port route. The sea and the coast are used in many dif­fer­ent ways. At the same time, they har­bor a unique bio­di­ver­si­ty that is essen­tial for the coastal ecosys­tem. Sus­tain­Mare, the sec­ond DAM research mis­sion, start­ed in ear­ly Decem­ber 2021 to inves­ti­gate this com­plex of top­ics. More than 200 sci­en­tists will con­tribute to it. The focus is on con­cepts and imple­men­ta­tions for a wel­fare-ori­ent­ed, pros­per­i­ty-secur­ing and envi­ron­men­tal­ly sound use of marine and coastal areas. The DAM mis­sion also aims to help pro­tect bio­di­ver­si­ty and nat­ur­al habi­tats. The Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Research (BMBF) is fund­ing the mis­sion with around 25 mil­lion euros over an ini­tial peri­od of three years.

Coast and seas in focus

The effects of use and over­ex­ploita­tion can rein­force each oth­er and lead to eco­log­i­cal, as well as soci­etal crises.

“The mis­sion aims to ana­lyze and clas­si­fy the use of and pres­sures on marine spaces. Our sound sci­en­tif­ic advice is intend­ed to pro­vide a basis for deci­sion-mak­ers from pol­i­tics, author­i­ties and industry.”

- Pro­fes­sor Corin­na Schrum, direc­tor of the Here­on Insti­tute for Coastal Sys­tems — Analy­sis and Modeling

The mis­sion also aims to devel­op soci­etal options for bal­anced use and sus­tain­able pro­tec­tion that can only be devel­oped with the involve­ment of var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, user groups and the public.

Sus­tain­Mare focus­es on three issues. First, con­cepts to reduce the impacts of use and human-induced pres­sures on marine ecosys­tems and bio­di­ver­si­ty. Sec­ond, con­cepts to pre­vent and reduce marine pol­lu­tion. And third: Mod­el-based inves­ti­ga­tions of future use sce­nar­ios and analy­ses of pos­si­ble man­age­ment options. Includ­ed are cur­rent prob­lems such as the use of alter­na­tive ener­gy sources, pol­lu­tion from muni­tions waste or the cri­sis in fish­eries. The five projects CREATE, iSEAL, SpaCePar­ti, CONMAR and Coastal­Fu­tures togeth­er with the two pilot projects MGF North Sea and MGF Baltic Sea form the research mis­sion in its entire­ty. In addi­tion to coor­di­nat­ing the mis­sion, the Helmholtz Cen­ter Here­on is also respon­si­ble for the Coastal­Fu­tures project.

The oth­er projects are coor­di­nat­ed by the Alfred Wegen­er Insti­tute — Helmholtz Cen­tre for Polar and Marine Research (MGF North Sea), the Leib­niz Insti­tute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (MGF Baltic Sea), the Schleswig-Hol­stein State Office for Coastal Pro­tec­tion, Nation­al Park and Marine Con­ser­va­tion (iSeal), the Chris­t­ian Albrechts Uni­ver­si­ty Kiel (SpaCePar­ti), the Carl von Ossi­et­zky Uni­ver­si­ty Old­en­burg (CREATE) and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Cen­tre for Ocean Research Kiel (CONMAR). In the sus­tain­Mare research mis­sion, var­i­ous sci­en­tif­ic dis­ci­plines and experts from a total of more than 40 insti­tutes, author­i­ties, NGOs, etc. work close­ly together.