INSTITUTE OF NATURAL SCIENCES
Operational Directorate Natural Environment
MARECO – Marine Ecology and Management
Assessing the Conservation Status of the “Vlakte van de Raan” Marine Protected Area The “Vlakte van de Raan” Special Area for Conservation has recently been spatially extended in the framework of a revision of the Belgian marine spatial plan (2020-2026). To ascertain a proper management of the MPA, an updated scientific assessment of the habitats…
Designing Measures to Reduce the Impact of Fisheries on Seabed Integrity In the framework of the Habitat Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, biodiversity and habitat conservation and restoration must be pursued also in Belgian waters. Accordingly, the Marine Spatial Planning 2020-2026 included an area of maximally 285 km²…
Measuring Marine Plastics in the Belgian Part of the North Sea The ‘Marine Plastics’ project aims to draw up an approach to monitoring of marine microplastics. In compliance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, microplastics have to be monitored in the water column and sediments of the Belgian part of the North Sea. Different approaches…
Belgian national non-indigenous species monitoring Non-indigenous species may have substantial impact on the marine ecosystems, especially in coastal regions. They may change the original habitat, oust the native species and consequently alter the ecosystem structure and functioning. They hence are of particular managerial concern and therefore addressed by the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. To…
Belgian National Beach Litter Monitoring The presence of marine litter is a global problem that continues to increase in all seas and oceans. It affects marine ecosystems, challenges human activities that use and depend on the sea and are a cause of concern for human health. In addition, many organisms are adversely affected by plastic…
Belgian National Gravel Bed Monitoring In the framework of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, MARECO is responsible for the design and implementation of the national monitoring program on seafloor integrity and biodiversity in natural gravel bed biotopes, classified as a geogenic reef under the EU Habitats Directive. This multidisciplinary monitoring program exploits underwater remote sensing…
OUTFLOW Quantifying the cOntribUTion of Fouling fauna to the Local carbon budget of an Offshore Wind farm OUTFLOW investigates how the presence of large densities of fouling fauna on wind turbines in offshore wind farms affect the spatial distribution of organic matter at the local and regional scale. These organisms filter large quantities of organic…
FaCE-IT Functional biodiversity in a Changing sedimentary Environment: Implications for biogeochemistry and food webs in a managerial setting Coastal ecosystems are facing many pressures affecting ecosystem health. Major human activities include the installation of offshore wind farms (introduction of man-made hard substrates in sandy environments), beam trawling, aggregate extraction, dredging and dumping, all resulting in…
PERSUADE ExPERimental approaches towards Future Sustainable Use of North Sea Artificial HarD SubstratEs Coastal areas are affected by a mixture of global change (warming and ocean acidification) and local pressures, induced by local human activity. In coastal areas around Europe, for example, there is an increasing trend towards the installation of offshore wind farms. This…
WinMon.BE The Belgian monitoring programme on the environmental impacts of offshore wind farms MARECO is coordinating the environmental monitoring program to assess the impact of Belgian offshore wind farms, WinMon.BE. Together with our partners Ghent University, INBO and ILVO, we assess the impacts onto the marine ecosystem and aim at revealing the processes behind these…
