ClimateCalendar - Details

30.06.2016 - 01.07.2016
Symposium

Symposium Cumulative Effects in Marine Ecosystems

Most coastal marine ecosystems, including the Wadden Sea, experience multiple environmental stressors simultaneously that can differ widely in their pathways and strengths of impact. An understanding of all relevant stressors is critical to prioritize conservation actions, including restoration, protection, and management. Yet, scientific concepts and empirical evidence on the separate and cumulative impacts of all relevant stressors is often insufficient to guide such decisions.

On 30 June and 1 July 2016, the Waddenacademie and the NIOZ Wadden System Research Centre will host an international scientific symposium at Texel on “Cumulative Effects in Marine Ecosystems” in co-operation with the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment, the Waddenvereniging and the Province of Groningen. During this symposium, scientists will address concerns from NGOs and governmental licensing authorities on how to properly assess combined effects of successive human activities on the environment.  The aim of this symposium is to jointly come forward with feasible options to deal with the complexity of cumulative effects inherent to the suite of activities, scales and uncertainties.

Keynotes will be given by Prof. Benjamin Halpern (Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) and Prof. Pavel Kabat (Director General and Chief Executive Officer International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Austria). The day of presentations and discussions on July 1 will be preceded by a field trip on Texel on June 30, 2016.