WORLD EARTH DAY

CONTEXT - Preserving marine ecosystems is a crucial priority as they support the livelihood and well-being of millions of its citizens (human food provisioning, water purification, disease regulation, cultural values etc). Despite their importance, these ecosystems and their food chains are nowadays jeopardized by numerous environmental alterations, such as climate change, overfishing, invasive species, species extinction, and habitat fragmentation.

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OBJECTIVES - The METRODIVER project and its research team participate actively to the international effort for marine ecosystem preservation. More specifically, this project aims to investigates how to efficiently preserve and restore marine food webs. It will notably determine the effects of protection strategies such as marine protected areas on marine food webs. Beyond this first objective, the project will also determine if these effects allows better results in terms of ecosystem services. Its conclusions will directly help local and international authorities to build up better conservation strategies. 

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PRACTICALLY - Combining a multi-level approach (community, population, microbiome), cutting-edge techniques and a large scale analysis (10 European MPAs), the METRODIVER project aims to answer three pivotal questions: What are the effects of MPAs on the trophic diversity and food web functioning? How do these effects mediate ecosystem services (e.g. productivity) and animal health (e.g. growth, bodycondition)? To what extent do they contribute to provide healthier food for human societies (e.g. nutritional value of fish flesh)?