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EMB Brown Bag Lunch: How marine stations address societal challenges

What would the perfect network of biodiversity observatories in Europe look like, what would it be able to achieve, how would it make the lives of Europeans better, and how would it make policy-makers’ work easier? Dr. Matthew Frost, MBA Deputy Director and President of the European Network of Marine Stations (MARS) sparked the conversation on this topic at EMB's 3rd Brown Bag Lunch Session on Wednesday 2 October at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.

There is an ongoing challenge to maintain sustained ocean observations. This is partly due to funding issues linked to a lack of understanding among non-specialists as to their importance. There are also challenges around coordination and oversight, which can be confusing as we attempt to maintain time-series over large temporal and spatial scales.

The challenges are even more pronounced when we consider biological as opposed to oceanographic observatories.

This talk highlighted some of the extremely important work that has come out of biological observatories, often linked to some of the approximately 1400 marine laboratories located around the world’s coastlines. It also highlighted why long-term biological observations are vital for addressing some of society’s most important issues today and put forward ideas for ensuring that they are recognised as a vital long-term resource for policy-makers.

You can view the presentation here.

Registration & location:

The event took place at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels in the VIP room. Address: Vautierstreet 29, 1000 Brussels.

Registration is now closed.

Event Date
-
Location
Vautierstreet 29, 1000 Brussels (VIP room)