The HIFMB was founded in 2017 and is an institutional cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. It researches marine biodiversity and its importance for the function of marine ecosystems. In doing so, it develops the scientific basis for marine nature conservation and ecosystem management.
Marine life is characterized by an unsurpassed diversity of life forms and interactions. At the same time, this biological diversity ensures the Earth’s habitability for humans by contributing to key global ecosystem processes, including oxygen production, carbon fixation, transfer of energy in food webs and material cycles.
The protection of biodiversity therefore serves directly (food production, water quality, tourism) and indirectly (climate stabilization, coastal protection) to ensure human well-being. However, marine biodiversity reacts sensitively to (anthropogenic) global environmental changes, resulting in a rapidly changing composition of marine communities.
HIFMB’s scientific goals
1
Quantify and predict how the variety of marine life (biodiversity) responds to global change
2
Understand how biodiversity change alters the functioning in marine ecosystems and their contribution to human wellbeing
3
Provide sustainable conservation concepts for adaptive ecosystem management
HIFMB’s strategic goals
1
Enhance integrative research across disciplines and in a transdisciplinary setting
2
Provide scientific opportunities and mentoring for early career researchers
3
Increase diversity and equal opportunity in science
Understanding the role of this biodiversity change for ecosystem functions and to develop concepts for the protection of marine biodiversity requires integrative research merging fundamental natural science (ecology, evolutionary biology, biogeochemistry) and social science disciplines (governance, political science, economics) as well as transdisciplinary approaches to conservation and management concepts.
Understanding biological complexity in different dimensions
The HIFMB analyzes different dimensions of biological diversity (from the taxonomic composition of species communities to functional and genetic diversity) to quantify how the variety of marine life changes under global change (changes over time, shifts in distribution ranges, extinction).
From a functional point of view, the main interest is how diversity controls processes in and properties of ecosystems. Summarized as ecosystem function, this refers to the material and energy flows resulting from the properties of species and their interactions. This research is integrated into scientific considerations of marine governance, i.e. the management and control instruments that make it possible to regulate the use and protection of marine biodiversity.
Through this interdisciplinary approach, the HIFMB develops refined concepts for the adaptive conservation and management of the oceans aiming for the robustness of marine communities and ecosystem functionality under environmental change
Combining basic research and innovative analytical methods
At the basis of this strategy, HIFMB combines regular observational and process-oriented field studies with controlled experiments and thereby provides fundamental data on biodiversity change across a broad range of marine life forms.
This includes long-lived, ecosystem structuring species (e.g. foundation species such as krill, seagrasses, corals or macro-algae) as well as microbial taxa that perform important ecosystem functions through their coupling with other organisms and with geochemical cycles.
Additionally, HIFMB develops and uses novel pathways in ecosystem informatics to analyze biodiversity and functional data, and feed these into developing theory and numerical modeling. Here, HIFMB provides integrated knowledge on the role of networks and interactions needed for upscaled understanding of biodiversity change and the prediction of functional consequences at ecosystem scales.
Predicting consequences and developing protection concepts
The understanding of biodiversity change and the ecosystem functions linked to it forms the scientific basis for concepts of marine conservation that ensure the sustainable use and resilience of marine ecosystem services in a changing climate.
Working on theory and practice in marine governance, HIFMB evaluates tools used to manage marine ecosystems under predicted future changes in biodiversity and the consequences of such management strategies for human well-being. This requires the HIFMB to design transdisciplinary research modes that develop scientific questions together with different stakeholders and translate them into interdisciplinary research.
Developing solutions across countries and disciplines
Research at HIFMB also supports the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Exploration for Sustainable Development, which the United Nations has proclaimed for the years 2021 to 2030.
The Ocean Decade draws attention to the special importance of the oceans for human well-being. Under the motto “The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want,” transformative solutions for the protection and sustainable use of the oceans will be developed and implemented across disciplines and countries. HIFMB is an official network partner of the UN Ocean Decade.
Among the ten challenges defined by the UN Decade, we contribute in particular to:
- Understand the impacts of various stressors on ocean ecosystems and develop solutions to protect, manage, and restore ecosystems
- Support solutions for fair and sustainable development of the maritime economy – under changing ecological, social and climatic conditions.
- Understand the diverse ecological and economic services provided by the ocean for human well-being, culture, and sustainable development.