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Opportunities, threats and challenges of deep-ocean conservation

Marina R. Cunha1*
  • 1 University of Aveiro, Departamento deBiologia & CESAM, Portugal

The deep ocean is currently one of the most exciting frontiers for science, technology and economic activities. Deep-ocean ecosystems are likely to be biologically fragile, relevant to carbon cycling and susceptible to catastrophic events and global change. Over the past century advances in technology have met some of the challenges of the deep allowing exciting new discoveries and prospects to pursue novel research themes (Rogers et al., 2015). Such advances also permitted unique opportunities for economic activities and industrial exploitation of the deep ocean biological and abiotic Resources (Wenhai et al, 2019). Alongside, increasing human population in tandem with climate change became the drivers of unprecedented levels of anthropogenic and natural pressures that call for urgent governance and management actions (e.g. Armstrong et al., 2019; Ramalho etal., 2018; Stratmann et al., 2018; Almeida et al., 2017). Nonetheless, a huge gap in the fundamental knowledge on the biodiversity and functioning of deep ocean ecosystems still persists, hindering not only an effective assessment of their economic value but also the implementation of science-based policy and governance models (Folkersen et al., 2019). Which is then the way forward? A crucial scientific aspect is a better knowledge of ecological processes, such as connectivity, paramount for the renewal of biological populations and their resilience to disturbance (Balba rand Metaxas, 2019). Also critical, is a wider coverage and higher resolution of the ocean observations, both at spatial and temporal scales (Levin et al., 2019). We advocate that advanced technology, collaborative networks of infrastructures for deep ocean observations and cross-disciplinary research are needed to address emergent societal issues and scientific challenges, and harmonise a responsible Blue Economy with the conservation of the deep ocean.

Acknowledgements

The author was funded by FCT/MCTES under the project UID/AMB/50017/2019 that provides financial support to CESAM through national funds.

References

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Keywords: Deep ocean, Consevation, Anthropogenic impact, Ocean observation, Biodiversity

Conference: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) , Braga, Portugal, 9 Sep - 12 Sep, 2019.

Presentation Type: Keynote talk

Topic: Keynote lecture

Citation: Cunha MR (2019). Opportunities, threats and challenges of deep-ocean conservation. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) . doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.08.00007

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Received: 21 Aug 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019.

* Correspondence: Dr. Marina R Cunha, University of Aveiro, Departamento deBiologia & CESAM, Aveiro, 3800-193, Portugal, marina.cunha@ua.pt