In order to protect and manage marine species and habitats, there is an immediate need for the creation of robust evidence-based methods. Therefore, there is a need to undertake marine research projects that are developed and implemented collaboratively, strategically, and at a sufficient scale. NorTrack will leverage ongoing acoustic tracking projects across the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) region and Europe by expanding efforts to connect initiatives on species-based biodiversity management while developing data management plans and networking channels to deliver data to national and international governing bodies. Coordinating aquatic animal tracking efforts at a scale that will be usable to make progress on international marine management and planning is a major step towards an operational European Tracking Network (ETN) that contributes to major European biodiversity initiatives, conservation, and policy. Acoustic telemetry has vast potential when it comes to understanding the behaviours of mobile marine species both within and across territorial waters. Acoustic telemetry refers to the use of transmitters or “tags” attached to target species that emit sound pulses that are heard by underwater receivers. This system allows researchers to track target species as they move through networks or across lines of receivers. The more complex the network of receivers, the more robust the dataset becomes. Knowledge of how key species use marine space allows for the creation of tailored strategies for protection, management, and development, which take into account how marine species use critical habitats. Recent efforts to develop aquatic telemetry networks have been at local or bilateral levels in Europe while larger networks in North America and Australia have established and are providing critical data relevant to management. The NorTrack project will support and enhance the existing and planned a basin-wide network of acoustic receivers in the NEA and across European seas, which is the next step towards a cohesive and integrated European-wide telemetry network.

Streams are traditionally viewed as receptacles rather than sources of energy with regard to nutrient and energy cycles. However, numerous studies have shown that lakes and rivers are important source of energy for the terrestrial environment, mainly through the emergence of winged aquatic insects, by providing nutritional subsidies to terrestrial consumers. The objective of this project is to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by aquatic ecosystems in adjacent agricultural environments. More precisely, (1) we will focus on three ecosystem services provided and mediated by emerging aquatic insects that are fundamental to agronomy (pollination, foodweb support, and soil fertilization). (2) In parallel to the first objective, we will study the history of the governance of French riparian areas to examine current management practices, their associated representations, and their recent improvements in the governance in order to increase the adoption of ecologically responsible practices by stakeholders. (3) We will map physical and biological characteristics of streams and catchments with high-resolution data and remote sensing techniques to estimate the respective contribution of various drivers (land uses, landscape features, etc.) and spatially exhaustively evaluate the related ecosystems services at multiple scales. To achieve these objectives, we will rely on five sites located along a gradient of agricultural intensification and in different agricultural context. This selection follows a call for collaboration within three Zones Ateliers (ZA Armorique, ZA Loire, ZA Brest-Iroise) from the French Long Term Socio-Ecological Research network (LTSER RZA). The two PIs will be helped is their tasks by 15 other scientists from 11 research units with complementary skills in ecology (plant and animal ecology, foodweb, pollination), geography (remote sensing, spatial modeling, land use planning) and social scientists (ecological economy, management, planning).

The biodiversity in the Earth’s oceans is under acute pressure from anthropogenic threats and marine ecosystems already exhibit high rates of biodiversity change. The sheer vastness and inaccessibility of most marine habitats challenge monitoring efforts and the creation of high-resolution, long-term biodiversity datasets necessary to guide policymakers. On top of that, societal support for the protection of marine biodiversity is key for the implementation of bold conservation strategies. However, most marine taxa are not in the public spotlight and remain hidden beneath the ocean surface. The eWHALE project will meet the above challenges, unite researchers, industry partners and the public across Europe, and implement stakeholder-driven marine biodiversity protection by combining environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling with whale watching and citizen science. As such, this project will provide a much-needed proof of concept for ocean-wide participatory biomonitoring. By analyzing eDNA obtained from filtered water samples, we will go beyond the detection of species and generate population-genomics data for a range of marine megafauna species. This novel metagenomics approach will enable the non-invasive assessment of population sizes and individuals. Additionally, we will obtain biodiversity data for a wide range of marine organisms via eDNA metabarcoding, putting special focus on megafauna, high trophic level consumers, and their potential prey. Comparison with data from established monitoring techniques will allow us to evaluate the performance of this novel eDNA toolbox. By incorporating the water sampling directly in whale watching tours, we strive to educate the general public about the potential of molecular methods and raise awareness for the importance of marine biodiversity and its protection. The focus of this project will be the incorporation of cost effective, widely applicable, eDNA-based techniques into whale watching tours to reach sampling frequencies far beyond those obtainable with research cruises alone. The eWHALE project will utilize cetaceans as flagship taxa for marine conservation to provide a public audience with an easy entry point into the world of marine biodiversity monitoring and protection. Beyond this proof of concept, our participatory strategy can be extended to other stakeholders such as fishers, ferry operators, and tourists and be used to generate datasets of unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution, which are a fundamental prerequisite for policy makers and authorities to establish effective marine biodiversity protection measures. By combining forces across Europe, this project will bridge the gap between science, industry, and the public, exemplify a novel strategy for marine biomonitoring, and generate public support to boost conservation efforts.