Toward a comprehensive and integrated strategy of the European Marine Research Infrastructures for Ocean Observations

Abstract

Global Change is advancing rapidly making it urgent to strengthen our understanding of marine ecosystems vital for life on Earth. Geohazards such as earthquakes, eruptions, and tsunamis are ever-more frequent, resulting in great loss of life and massive damage to costly infrastructure, as we saw in the recent Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. Such drastic threats require quantum improvements to our understanding of the multiple and complex stress factors and forces that shape them. In this regard, the new breed of large environmental research infrastructures (RIs) being developed in various parts of the world are powerful tools. Of these, the 4 European marine RIs described below have assumed special leadership positions at the forefront of unprecedented new scientific and technological advances offering significant socio-economic benefits. These RIs are now transitioning to the next level, actively integrating and interconnecting their monitoring capabilities, greatly boosting our ability to respond effectively to the huge challenges posed to our oceans and world by Climate Change.