Acronym: MUrFor
Keywords: #SeaUrchins, #TrophicInteractions, #MarineForest, #EcosystemConservation, #SustainableFishery
Coordinator/Lead Partner: Genoa Marine Centre, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn - National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnologies, Italy
Principal Investigator(s): Simone Farina
Partnership: CNR, Uniss, CSIC, Ub, IFREMER, CAU
Funding body and amount: Biodiversa+ partners and co-founder European Commission
Overall funding: 947.638 €
Funding to GMC-SZN: 113.992 €
Grant period: February 2023 – January 2026
Project in a nutshell:
MUrFor acts at the interface of ecosystem dynamics, habitat conservation and resource use by exploring sustainable management options for sea urchin fishery in tri-trophic systems with fishes, sea urchins and macroalgae in Mediterranean Sea. Uncoordinated management can result in overfishing of either or both resources, and/or in overgrazing of macroalgae, leading to habitat and biodiversity loss and to permanent regime shifts. The objective is to identify critical thresholds leading to irreversible regime shifts on the habitat, the resource, and the fishery. This will be achieved through a multi-modelling approach based on a suite of single-species, multi-species, ecosystem, economic and bio-economic models. Study areas will be based on two contrasting regional conditions: Catalonia (Spain) and Sardinia (Italy). Through active stakeholder engagement, the project will develop a toolbox to co-design an actionable research/management program for both marine forest conservation and sustainable sea urchin fishery.
Contacts: simone.farina(at)szn.it
To know more: https://www.biodiversa.eu/ ; https://sites.google.com/view/murfor/home