Work package 4
Natural resource exploitation and global change - the need for improved sustainable management to protect biodiversity

Project leaders: Prof. Michael Guiry (NUIG) and Dr. John Breen (UL)
Principle Investigator: Dr. Dagmar Stengel

Project Statement

While most scientists will agree that climate change will have an impact on organisms, communities and ecosystems, few hard data are currently available to allow predictions of species or community responses to global change. Increased pressures exist for habitat-forming keystone species in high-biodiversity areas that are currently exploited commercially and informed sustainable management is critical. In the initial project for this work package, an intertidal keystone primary producer, which has been commercially exploited for decades, has been selected as a model organism to investigate experimentally and model responses to climate change, and to predict potential change in associated biodiversity as a consequence of habitat change. This project will directly contribute to the future sustainable exploitation of a significant biological resource with a view to protect already vulnerable habitats threatened by global change in the future. This work package integrates the expertise of several institutions (NUIG, UCD, TCD, UL) focusing on effects of climate change on keystone species with current of potential commercial value. The overall aim is to assess the effects of climate change on a model keystone organism, with the development of standardized monitoring protocols that in the future will allow a fast and reliable assessment of biodiversity change as a consequence of global change.

Objectives and Targets

• Characterise natural productivity of a model keystone species (Ascophyllum nodosum) under today’s climatic conditions;
• Assess and model the effects of predicted global change on Ascophyllum nodosum as a habitat-forming keystone primary producer in the intertidal Irish environment;
• Predict potential changes in standing crop and productivity that could affects its role as a habitat and facilitator for high coastal biodiversity;
• Quantify potential effects and ensure sustainable harvesting in the future under increased environmental pressure and habitat loss due to climate change, eutrophication and sea level rise; and,
• Evaluate the potential for Ascophyllum nodosum to fulfil a role as biological indicator for global change and to consider its possible role as a carbon sink