The Marine Evidence Team of the MBA delivers evidence and information resources to support marine policy and conservation science. The team coordinates contract and grant-aided research services undertaken across the MBA to interpret science and provide advice and evidence for UK/EU government agencies, industry, NGOs and other stakeholders (inc. society). In doing so, the team provides robust scientific evidence to inform policy and progress conservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable management of our seas.
We currently provide advice and services in the following areas.
For further information on the contract research and other services we provide, please contact the team leader Dr Harvey Tyler-Walters (email:htw@mba.ac.uk; tel. 01752 63 33 55).
The MBA has provided scientific advice and evidence since its inception in 1884 and continues to provide evidence and advice on the long-term ecological impacts and other incidents arising through anthropogenic activities on the marine environment.
The MBA currently hosts the following flagship projects and strategic programmes.
The MarClim project was a four year multi-partner funded project created to investigate the effects of climatic warming on marine biodiversity. In particular the project aimed to use key intertidal species, whose abundances had been shown to fluctuate with changes in climatic conditions, as indicators of changes occurring in the intertidal and offshore. The project used historic time series data, from the 1950s onwards, and contemporary data to provide evidence of changes in the abundance, range and population structure of intertidal species and relate these changes to recent rapid climatic warming. In particular quantitative counts of barnacles, limpets and trochids were made as well as semi-quantitative surveys of up to 56 intertidal taxa. Historic and contemporary data informed experiments to understand the mechanisms behind these changes and models were created to predict future species ranges and abundance
The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN) is a collaboration between organisations in England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland collecting long-term time series information for marine waters. It is coordinated by the Marine Biological Association of the UK (MBA) and is funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
A key objective of the MECN is “ensuring that information is provided to policy makers and other end-users to enable them to produce more accurate assessments of ecosystem state and have a clearer understanding of factors influencing change in marine ecosystems”. The link between long-term time series and UK policy is explored in Chapter 4 of the report ‘The evaluation of time series: their scientific value and contribution to policy needs. (2006) Marine Biological Association Occasional Publications No. 22.’
The MECN is engaged in proving evidence to a number of policy and knowledge transfer programmes including the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) and the United Kingdom Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy (UKMMAS).
MarLIN provides information on the biodiversity of our seas for conservation, management and protection. It is a centre of excellence for on-line resources to support good stewardship of the marine environment. The MarLIN website (www.marlin.ac.uk) hosts the largest review of the impacts of human activities on marine life (species and habitats) yet undertaken, including reviews of the ecology, sensitivity and recoverability of the UKs designated and/or threatened marine species and habitats to various ‘pressures’ or ‘threats’. It hosts additional on-line tools such as a searchable database on the impacts of fisheries on European Marine Sites, the Biological Traits Information Catalogue (BIOTIC), distribution maps, and marine life images. The website also hosts information on the priority and common marine species and habitats from around the British Isles.
The UK MPA Centre acts as a resource for information and news on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the UK (including the Crown Dependencies of the Channel Isles and Isle of Man). The Centre provides factual information about MPAs, their designations, habitats, species, and activities and draws together resources that will help to build capacity amongst UK MPAs practitioners and facilitate sharing information, good practice and learning. The UK MPA Centre is hosted by the MBA.
Go to the UKMPA Centre website
The MBA is a partner in the following project.
The Non-Native Species Information Portal provides access to distribution data for over 3000 non-native species in GB as well as additional information such as place or origin, date of introduction and methods of introduction. Detailed information is provided for 300 species, including information on identification, impacts and control methods.
The Portal has been developed by a consortium including the MBA and BTO, GB Non-native Species Secretariat and led by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology under funding from Defra. Distribution data are provided directly by the NBN Gateway. And an element of the project has been to facilitate the flow of new and existing distribution data to the NBN