IMAPP

Pelagic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by climate change, fisheries and shipping but only 1% of the world's high seas have been designated as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). For management and protection of these areas, it is essential to fill knowledge gaps and prioritise pelagic environments according to their functional diversity and productivity.

IMAPP will develop decision-making guidelines for the designation of MPAs in international waters, using a spatial conservation prioritisation that integrates ecological, economic and legal criteria. 

IMAPP aims to achieve these goals by:

(a) Compiling a unique dataset of abundance patterns of phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, key invertebrates and marine mammals and freely available information on biogeography, economics and legal systems, as well as the intensity and economic importance of fishing and shipping across the Atlantic Ocean. 

(b) Combining climate niche modelling, machine learning methodology and bio-economic modelling approaches to reveal complex functional networks and species-environment interactions. 

(c) Inferring information on the biogeography and climate niche of species, communities and ecosystem services to be used in a risk assessment. 

(d) Develop a spatial prioritisation analysis with ecological, economic and legal ranking criteria to identify suitable areas as well as potential actors and stakeholders. 

(e) Ultimately integrating the findings by means of a multi-criteria assessment and optimization analysis leading to MPA designation guidelines that are suitable for balancing conservation priorities with economic and legal interests. 

The CAU is contributing to the project by co-developing an integrated ecological-economic model of deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic. This model enables the spatial analysis of economic benefits and opportunity costs under current conditions as well as under future scenarios. In addition, the CAU is involved in the development of a decision-making framework that supports multi-criteria optimization and allows the identification of trade-offs and potential win-win situations between exploitation and conservation interests.

Project partners: University of Hamburg, University of Bremen, Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), University of Leipzig – German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Kiel University (CAU), and Leuphana University Lüneburg.

The collaborative project IMAPP is part of the BBO Cluster and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).