Abstract
The ecosystem approach requires that all elements of an ecosystem, and their mutual interactions, be taken into consideration in any management effort. The selection of suitable geographical units, where this approach can be taken, requires the assessment of ecological provinces, characterized by a coherent set of environmental traits. The marine side of coastal zones, where the interaction between atmosphere, land and sea is not bounded by evident geographic markers, represents a critical factor in this assessment. A coastal province can be defined by physical setting, but also by its bio-geo-chemical features, ideally on the basis of synoptic remote sensing data, collected at space/time scales not accessible by other means. Classifications based on indicators such as temperature, wind speed and chlorophyll-like pigments, demonstrate the identification of potential ecological provinces in the Mediterranean Sea. The results suggest remote sensing as the ideal tool to set up the basis for an ecosystem approach to the management of each province.
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Acknowledgements
The present review summarizes results obtained by several projects carried out at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission (EC). Recent exploratory research on the synergies between remote sensing applications, assessment of ecological provinces and development of an ecosystem approach to ICM, in the Mediterranean Sea, has been undertaken as part of the Framework Programme 7 (FP7) JRC Action 21203 PROCAS. The author wishes to express his gratitude to the many JRC Colleagues who contributed to these activities. In particular, thanks are due to L. Nykjaer, Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), for providing the climatological data on sea surface temperature of the European Seas, and to G. Ferraro, Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (IPSC), for sharing the historical data on oil spills in the Mediterranean basin. Thanks are also due to D.J.T. Carter, formerly with Satellite Observing Systems Ltd, Godalming, Surrey, UK, who processed the original altimeter data set on wind speed, and to S. Zampierin, who completed at the JRC her graduate studies for the Dipartimento di Idraulica, Facolta’ di Ingegneria, Universita’ di Padova, working on unsupervised classification procedures applied to surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Thanks are also due to two anonymous reviewers, whose input allowed the author to improve substantially several sections of the original paper. Images and data shown here were acquired, in part, from the Environmental Marine Information System (EMIS) of the IES, JRC EC. The EMIS is available for public access and use at http://emis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/.
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Barale, V. Toward an ecosystem approach to ICM: assessing ecological provinces at sea by remote sensing. J Coast Conserv 14, 317–326 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-009-0080-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-009-0080-9