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Marine genetic resources are a subject of a growing body of research and development activities, as demonstrated by the abundance of marine patented genes reported in GenBank. Given the lack of a comprehensive legal regime for the management of marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the General Assembly of the United Nations met in 2006 to discuss whether there are regulatory or governance gaps and how to address them. Besides the crystallization of the different political positions, the process is now advancing towards making a decision about whether to develop an international instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity, within which the regulation of access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits from their utilization has emerged as an in-dissociable issue. In order to propose concrete options to be considered for the establishment of a legal framework addressing these issues, policy-makers need to better understand the feasibility, the costs and the modalities of scientific activities undertaken, together with the actual level of commercialization of new products. They also need to be aware of the already advanced practices in place within the scientific community, especially regarding sharing of non-monetary benefits. This paper particularly highlights and discusses practical scenarios to advance in the international process, based on the approaches adopted in other regional and international regimes for the management of genetic resources and on the best practices developed within the scientific community.

Acknowledgments This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: THALES. The authors would like to thank M. Malandrakis and A. Lolas for their contribution to sampling. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

Poster presentation at ATLAS 3rd General Assembly. Understanding marine biogeography and, in particular, vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) will lead to better ocean governance in a future ocean challenged by rapid rates of climate change and the exploitation of living and non-living resources in the deep ocean. Most of the deep-seabed and VMEs, however, lie in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), where the study of VME biogeography has received far less attention and where there is very limited governance. Biogeographic classifications have been used to date to analyse patterns of marine biodiversity and advancing knowledge of evolutionary and ecosystem processes (Rice et al., 2011). These classifications can also assist governments in designing management tools such as marine protected areas. The Global Open Oceans and Deep Seabed (GOODS) biogeographic classification system (UNESCO, 2009; Watling et al., 2013) was developed to provide technical support to planning and policy decisions related to open ocean and deep-seabed areas. GOODS divides the deep ocean into pelagic and benthic biogeographic provinces based on biological data such as primary production, and a range of environmental variables. The classification is based entirely on physical proxies, presumed to reflect species biogeography. Physical-proxy based schemes are available now for managers and they are based on data that are more easily compiled and updated. Thus, a main purpose of my thesis is to validate GOODS using species data and refine where necessary to overcome three limitations of GOODS to delineate biogeographic provinces in the deep ocean. Firstly, GOODS has not been validated for complex habitats formed by VME indicator taxa, which underpins the need of testing the biogeography of VME indicator species. Secondly, it does not account for projected future climate change scenarios, and thus is currently only a static product. Finally, it represents a high-level classification system, with both pronounced heterogeneity and a ...

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers ; International audience ; Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate ...

Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate the integration of MFC knowledge into decision support ...

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers ; International audience ; Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate ...

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers ; International audience ; Truly sustainable development in a human-altered, fragmented marine environment subject to unprecedented climate change, demands informed planning strategies in order to be successful. Beyond a simple understanding of the distribution of marine species, data describing how variations in spatio-temporal dynamics impact ecosystem functioning and the evolution of species are required. Marine Functional Connectivity (MFC) characterizes the flows of matter, genes and energy produced by organism movements and migrations across the seascape. As such, MFC determines the ecological and evolutionary interdependency of populations, and ultimately the fate of species and ecosystems. Gathering effective MFC knowledge can therefore improve predictions of the impacts of environmental change and help to refine management and conservation strategies for the seas and oceans. Gathering these data are challenging however, as access to, and survey of marine ecosystems still presents significant challenge. Over 50 European institutions currently investigate aspects of MFC using complementary methods across multiple research fields, to understand the ecology and evolution of marine species. The aim of SEA-UNICORN, a COST Action within the European Union Horizon 2020 framework programme, is to bring together this research effort, unite the multiple approaches to MFC, and to integrate these under a common conceptual and analytical framework. The consortium brings together a diverse group of scientists to collate existing MFC data, to identify knowledge gaps, to enhance complementarity among disciplines, and to devise common approaches to MFC. SEA-UNICORN will promote co-working between connectivity practitioners and ecosystem modelers to facilitate the incorporation of MFC data into the predictive models used to identify marine conservation priorities. Ultimately, SEA-UNICORN will forge strong forward-working links between scientists, policy-makers and stakeholders to facilitate ...

This article is contribution 125 of Tara Oceans.-- 13 pages, 5 figures, supplementary materials https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj9309.-- Data and materials availability: The raw sediment sequencing data have been deposited to the ENA under project accessions PRJEB48517 (deep_sea) and PRJEB33873 (eDNAbyss). Accession numbers of additional raw sequencing data of pelagic and sediment samples analyzed in this study can be found in respective publications listed in table S2. All the metadata and R code to process the raw sequencing data and to reproduce the results and figures are available through a GitHub repository: https://github.com/trtcrd/DOS_V9 ; Remote deep-ocean sediment (DOS) ecosystems are among the least explored biomes on Earth. Genomic assessments of their biodiversity have failed to separate indigenous benthic organisms from sinking plankton. Here, we compare global-scale eukaryotic DNA metabarcoding datasets (18S-V9) from abyssal and lower bathyal surficial sediments and euphotic and aphotic ocean pelagic layers to distinguish plankton from benthic diversity in sediment material. Based on 1685 samples collected throughout the world ocean, we show that DOS diversity is at least threefold that in pelagic realms, with nearly two-thirds represented by abundant yet unknown eukaryotes. These benthic communities are spatially structured by ocean basins and particulate organic carbon (POC) flux from the upper ocean. Plankton DNA reaching the DOS originates from abundant species, with maximal deposition at high latitudes. Its seafloor DNA signature predicts variations in POC export from the surface and reveals previously overlooked taxa that may drive the biological carbon pump ; We further thank the following sponsors for support: the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 31003A_159709, 31003A_1791259, and P2GEP3_171829), the Swiss Network for International Studies award (20170024), the European Research Council (grant 818449 AGENSI), CNRS (in particular, FR022), Sorbonne University, the French Government "Investissement d'Avenir" program OCEANOMICS (ANR-11-BTBR-0008), France Génomique, the Genoscope-CEA (ANR-10-INBS-09) for the project eDNAbyss (AP2016-228), Ifremer for the project Merlin "Pourquoi pas les Abysses," the German Research Foundation (grants BR1121/20-1 and BR1121/41-1 and the Center/Cluster of Excellence "The Ocean Floor—Earth's Uncharted Interface"), the German Ministry for Science and Education (grants 03G0223A and 03G0227A), EU JPIO-Oceans project MinigImpact-2 (German BMBF contract 03F0812E), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CTM2016-75083-R), European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (grant 678760 ATLAS), and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant GBMF5257 UniEuk). Samples from the UK-1 and OMS license areas in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone were collected as part of the ABYSSLINE project, funded by UK Seabed Resources Development Ltd. (contract SRDL SRD100100) ; With the institutional support of the 'Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence' accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) ; Peer reviewed

ABSTRACT. The deep sea plays a critical role in global climate regulation through uptake and storage of heat and carbon dioxide. However, this regulating service causes warming, acidification and deoxygenation of deep waters, leading to decreased food availability at the seafloor. These changes and their projections are likely to affect productivity, biodiversity and distributions of deep-sea fauna, thereby compromising key ecosystem services. Understanding how climate change can lead to shifts in deep-sea species distributions is critically important in developing management measures. We used environmental niche modelling along with the best available species occurrence data and environmental parameters to model habitat suitability for key cold-water coral and commercially important deep-sea fish species under present-day (1951–2000) environmental conditions and to project changes under severe, high emissions future (2081–2100) climate projections (RCP8.5 scenario) for the North Atlantic Ocean. Our models projected a decrease of 28%–100% in suitable habitat for cold-water corals and a shift in suitable habitat for deep-sea fishes of 2.0°–9.9° towards higher latitudes. The largest reductions in suitable habitat were projected for the scleractinian coral Lophelia pertusa and the octocoral Paragorgia arborea, with declines of at least 79% and 99% respectively. We projected the expansion of suitable habitat by 2100 only for the fishes Helicolenus dactylopterus and Sebastes mentella (20%–30%), mostly through northern latitudinal range expansion. Our results projected limited climate refugia locations in the North Atlantic by 2100 for scleractinian corals (30%–42% of present-day suitable habitat), even smaller refugia locations for the octocorals Acanella arbuscula and Acanthogorgia armata (6%–14%), and almost no refugia for P. arborea. Our results emphasize the need to understand how anticipated climate change will affect the distribution of deep-sea species including commercially important fishes and foundation ...