WP4 Pressures on the Coastal Zone

Work package leader: Prof. N. Panin,email: panin@geoecomar.ro

Deliverables
D4.1: Report on the anthropogenic pressures on the coastal zone (including ecosystem functioning and marine resources).
D4.2: Assessment of hazards and threats on the coastal zone, arising either from Global Change or from regional variability due to either natural or anthropogenic forcing.

 The ecosystems of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean have for a long time been influenced by human activities of many different kinds: industry, agriculture, mariculture, transport, recreation activities, etc. Anthropogenic pressure has gradually increased, as witnessed by the dramatic increase in the occurrence of phytoplankton blooms, the reduction in Cystoseira and Phylophora fields as well as mussel beds (Mytilus galloprovincialis) in the Black Sea and Posidonia beds in the Mediterranean, all leading to the ultimate threat of coastal habitat destruction and the loss of the entire Black Sea shelf ecosystem.

Marine species are selectively sensitive to certain types of single or multiple human impacts. Although the underlying mechanisms and pathways are still poorly understood, nutrient enrichment (eutrophication) and pollution very often act in synergy resulting in dramatic alteration of species composition, biodiversity loss and disruption of ecosystem integrity.

This group of scientists will try to assess the current state of the Mediterranean and Black Sea system coastal zone as well as the potential hazards and threats to the system’s coastal zone, dealing with pressing issues such as habitat loss and biodiversity changes, eutrophication and the definition of environmental thresholds