European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)
Use Cases
Submit your Use Case
To understand the full benefits of EMODnet, users are kindly asked to describe how EMODnet supports them in their daily work and activities.
If you have developed an application using EMODnet products that you would like to share with us or if you use EMODnet data for other purposes, submit your use case by contacting secretariat@emodnet.ec.europa.eu.
MPA Europe project (https://mpa-europe.eu/). The MPA Europe project is using a holistic range of measures of biodiversity from species to ecosystems, including habitats, to map the optimal areas for Marine Protected Areas implementation in Europe. Areas will be prioritised using systematic conservation planning software, which enables alternative weighting of variables and multiple scenarios and thus support wider marine spatial planning. OBIS (https://obis.org/) is responsible for WP3, which will generate species distribution models for at least half of all marine species in Europe to be utilized in the prioritization process.
Flanders Marine Institute, coordinator of EMODnet Biology, developed guidelines on how to report imaging data (focusing on the specific case of plankton imaging) in a standardised manner.
The request by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport was to chart the actual distribution of four reef-building species (Sabellaria, Modiolus, Lanice, Ostrea) in the Dutch EEZ, and to estimate the probability for restoring populations of these species in the same area.
Collaboration between EMODnet Biology, EMODnet Seabed Habitats and OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System) has facilitated richer dataset publication and ensured the greatest volume of high-quality species and habitat data are available for reporting, assessments and informed decision making.
A joint Copernicus Marine and EMODnet data catalogue for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) has been developed. It gathers all relevant marine data products from Copernicus Marine Serviceand EMODnet for all the MSFD descriptors (except Descriptor 4) in the Baltic Sea.
The European contribution to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) is significant with EMODnet playing a pivotal role: around 20 million of these records are provided by EMODnet Biology.
Non-indigenous species (NIS) introduced by human activities are organisms moved into new areas outside their natural range by, for example, transfer of ships’ ballast water, biofouling and aquaculture. The EMODnet biology data were used to assess the trends in new records of NIS introductions into the OSPAR Maritime Area...
Wildsea Europe Route offers tourists access to routes connecting European coastal destinations that allow them to learn about marine wildlife and participate actively in conservation efforts; including the collection and propagation of marine biodiversity data. “Citizen science” activities such as these are increasingly being recognised as an important source of information with the potential to contribute to our knowledge of the sea and increase participants’ sense of responsibility and ownership of the marine environment.