PUREEF-Y

Over the last century and more so in recent decades, the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region have warmed significantly faster than most other inhabited regions. In the marine environment, marine heatwaves are known to severely affect marine ecosystems. Simultaneously, the Eastern Mediterranean is a global hotspot of marine bioinvasions that rapidly transform the biodiversity of coastal regions.

Research in the last decade has shown evidence of dramatic loss of native species in several important groups such as mollusks and echinoderms, driven by ocean warming. Marine pollutants, like heavy metals and litter, are additional stressors which can be transported from sediment/water column and bio-accumulate in food webs with direct impact on aquatic organisms and humans. Marine litter, especially microplastics, can be ingested by marine organisms resulting in physical damage, transfer through the food webs or death to individuals.

Effective management and policy are therefore required for the conservation of regional biota and its ecological functioning and services. Hence, good knowledge of the environment and the levels of threats and risks is required, which is an area in which Cyprus currently lacks skills, capacities, and knowledge. It is also defined as an important horizontal sector in the recently updated Smart Specialisation Strategy for Cyprus.

In response to the above needs, PUREEF-Y is proposed as a transformational Coordination and Support action with an overall objective to enhance the science and innovation capacity of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), Cyprus and Europe in the sectors of chemical oceanography and marine ecology, focusing on Climate Change and other anthropogenic stressors.

The two Advanced Partners in the project have been specifically selected for their achieved top-class international recognition in the fields of chemical oceanography, marine ecology and experimental design (Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research - IOLR) and marine pollution, management plans and policy influence (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB) and their complementary capacity to support CMMI in developing expertise related to the effects of climate change and anthropogenic stressors through understanding past (paleo) and present ecological conditions and designing management plans and policy reforms for the future.

The overall project objective will be achieved through the following 4 key S.M.A.R.T. objectives:

1. To implement capacity-building and knowledge transfer activities to strengthen CMMI’s R&I capacity and skills in the field of chemical oceanography and marine ecology.

2. To conduct an R&I project focused on chemical oceanography and marine ecology. This will focus on performing baseline assessments of: Physicochemical parameters collected from coastal sediments and waters (surface and column) which are likely to be affected by Climate Change and Ocean Acidification; Marine pollution levels in key sites around Cyprus which are likely to disrupt ecosystem services; and the health status of key shallow water benthic and planktonic habitats that are highly ecologically diverse.

3. To implement networking activities to raise the reputation, research profile and attractiveness of CMMI and enable all partners to improve outreach to an international level.

4. To maximize the project’s impact through wide dissemination, communication, exploitation, and ocean literacy activities.