• Energy Research
• EC|FP7 close
• 14. Life underwater close
• 7. Clean energy close
• 11. Sustainability close
• European Marine Science close

Total oxygen uptake rates were assessed by conducting sediment core incubations. After MUC retrieval and sediment core preparation on deck, three cores were taken to a dark, temperature controlled laboratory on board Polarstern that was refrigerated to 2 °C-4 °C. Incubation procedure generally followed the approach described by Link et al. (2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-5911-2013).

Mesocosm experiments have been fundamental to investigate the effects of elevated CO2 and ocean acidification (OA) on planktic communities. However, few of these experiments have been conducted using naturally nutrient-limited waters and/or considering the combined effects of OA and ocean warming (OW). Coccolithophores are a group of calcifying phytoplankton that can reach high abundances in the Mediterranean Sea, and whose responses to OA are modulated by temperature and nutrients. We present the results of the first land-based mesocosm experiment testing the effects of combined OA and OW on an oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean coccolithophore community. Coccolithophore cell abundance drastically decreased under OW and combined OA and OW (greenhouse, GH) conditions. Emiliania huxleyi calcite mass decreased consistently only in the GH treatment; moreover, anomalous calcifications (i.e. coccolith malformations) were particularly common in the perturbed treatments, especially under OA. Overall, these data suggest that the projected increase in sea surface temperatures, including marine heatwaves, will cause rapid changes in Eastern Mediterranean coccolithophore communities, and that these effects will be exacerbated by OA. In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2021) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation by seacarb is 2021-05-11.

Quantitative reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) assessments are of fundamental importance at the early design stages, as well as planning and operation of marine renewable energy systems. This paper presents an RAM framework adaptable to different offshore renewable technologies, conceived to provide support in the choice of the device components and subsequent planning of the O&M strategies. A case study, characterizing a pilot farm of oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converters (WECs), is illustrated together with the method used to obtain reliable estimate of its key performance indicators (KPIs). Based on a fixed feed-in-tariff for the project, economic figures are estimated, showing a direct relationship with the availability of the farm and the cost of maintenance interventions. Consequently, the probability distributions of the most relevant output variables are presented, and the mutual correlations between them investigated using principal components analysis (PCA) with the aim of discovering the relationships influencing the performance of the offshore farm. In this way, the contributions of the individual factors on the profitability of the project are quantified, and generic guidelines to support the decision-making process are derived. It is shown how this type of analysis provides important insights not only to ocean energy farm operators after the deployment of the devices, but also to device developers at the early design stage of wave energy concepts.

The marine environment has been in the spotlight of economic development due to the growing demand for areas to promote activities associated with the concept of Blue Economy. This is the case of the renewable energy and aquaculture sectors, whose expansion towards offshore is determined by the increase global demand for energy and food, and by exceeding of the carrying capacity of coastal and terrestrial systems. In this context, the multi-use strategy can be an alternative to minimize conflicts between activities and impacts on the surrounding social-ecological environment. This contribution presents a preliminary approach to identify opportunities for individual exploitation and the possibilities of multi-use between wind energy, wave energy and aquaculture in Brazil?s Exclusive Economic Zone. Technical, operational, and biological aspects were evaluated, through a Suitability Index validated in previous works, to identify zones with favorable conditions for energy exploitation and farming of six fish species. Additionally, overlaps between conservation areas and multi-use zones were considered to analyze possible spatial conflicts. Zones with multi-use possibilities with different combinations between these sectors were identified: i) wave energy and aquaculture presented the largest areas for multi-use, distributed in the south, southeast and northeast; ii) possibility of combining wind energy and aquaculture was identified in the northeast; and iii) multi-use possibilities in the south for marine energies. Zones with multi-use possibilities were identified in protection and conservation areas, such as the combination of wave exploitation and Greater Amberjack farming, with 63% overlap. Therefore, this case study is a guide for future local studies in the marine region of Brazil, mainly in the selection of sites for analysis. The present contribution represents a starting point for the discussion about multi-use in the country C.V.C. Weiss is grateful to the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for the PDJ (Pós-doutorado Junior) fellowship granted (151228/2020–5), and the financial support from the Universidad de Cantabria (UC) through the Agusto González de Linares and Margarita Salas Grants (POS-UC-2019-06 and RMS-04, respectively). J. Bonetti is a Research Fellow of CNPq (Grant 306633/2019–1). Raúl Guanche acknowledges the Grant RYC-2017-23260 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ESF Investing in your future”. This work is framed in the project “ACUFLOT”, supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge Ministry of Spain and the IHCantabria - Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental de la Universidad de Cantabria

In the future, the Baltic Sea ecosystem will be impacted both by climate change and by riverine and atmospheric nutrient inputs. Multi-model ensemble simulations comprising one IPCC scenario (A1B), two global climate models, two regional climate models, and three Baltic Sea ecosystem models were performed to elucidate the combined effect of climate change and changes in nutrient inputs. This study focuses on the occurrence of extreme events in the projected future climate. Results suggest that the number of days favoring cyanobacteria blooms could increase, anoxic events may become more frequent and last longer, and salinity may tend to decrease. Nutrient load reductions following the Baltic Sea Action Plan can reduce the deterioration of oxygen conditions.

The biotechnological development has traditionally focused on the compliance with regulatory demands rather than optimising the processes or analysing their sustainability. This work proposes the combination of available tools for the comprehensive sustainability assessment of a blue biotechnology process based on the cultivation of the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. The work aims to include environmental, economic and social dimensions to measure the sustainability of the production of a carotenoid with potential applications in food, nutraceutical, cosmetics and eventually pharmaceutical industries. Electricity for cultivation was identified as the major contributor to the environmental impacts, which depended significantly on the production scale. Social benefits were mainly related to workers and consumers, while the economic assessment suggested a profitable process with a relatively short period to recover the initial investment.

AbstractThe Paris Conference of Parties (COP21) agreement renewed momentum for action against climate change, creating the space for solutions for conservation of the ocean addressing two of its largest threats: climate change and ocean acidification (CCOA). Recent arguments that ocean policies disregard a mature conservation research field and that protected areas cannot address climate change may be oversimplistic at this time when dynamic solutions for the management of changing oceans are needed. We propose a novel approach, based on spatial meta‐analysis of climate impact models, to improve the positioning of marine protected areas to limit CCOA impacts. We do this by estimating the vulnerability of ocean ecosystems to CCOA in a spatially explicit manner and then co‐mapping human activities such as the placement of renewable energy developments and the distribution of marine protected areas. We test this approach in the NE Atlantic considering also how CCOA impacts the base of the food web which supports protected species, an aspect often neglected in conservation studies. We found that, in this case, current regional conservation plans protect areas with low ecosystem‐level vulnerability to CCOA, but disregard how species may redistribute to new, suitable and productive habitats. Under current plans, these areas remain open to commercial extraction and other uses. Here, and worldwide, ocean conservation strategies under CCOA must recognize the long‐term importance of these habitat refuges, and studies such as this one are needed to identify them. Protecting these areas creates adaptive, climate‐ready and ecosystem‐level policy options for conservation, suitable for changing oceans.