New Study Monitors Fish Migration in the Leie and Scheldt Rivers
Over recent weeks, researchers from the Institute for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) have deployed an extensive network of detection devices alo
Taking the next step: In-situ imaging data through the Video Plankton Recorder
Zooplankton and phytoplankton are essential to coastal ecosystems, playing crucial roles in marine food webs. Environmental changes like climate change and pollution threaten these delicate communities, making monitoring crucial. The Video Plankton Recorder (VPR), integrated with LifeWatch...
SeaWatch-B citizen science data confirm climate change
The first report "What is the state of the North Sea?" by the LifeWatch citizen science project SeaWatch-B shows that the Belgian North Sea is affected by human activities, more in particular climate change. Cold-water species such as the North Sea shrimp are decreasing in number compared to a...
LifeWatch and JERICO-NEXT join forces
Though plankton communities are omnipresent in our oceans, their wavering dynamics remain obscure. The international collaboration of the LifeWatch and JERICO-NEXT projects enabled to study plankton in the southern North Sea with state-of-the-art infrastructure at an optimal coverage.
WoRMS featured in Blue Planet II
"Covering almost three-quarters of the Earth's surface, the world’s great oceans are home to an incredibly diverse web of life. The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) currently lists just under a quarter of a million species, with new ones being identified all the time. But even as we begin to...
Finding Ocean Health in a sea of data
Ever wondered how the Ocean Health Index gets data for its global assessment of the entire ocean? There's more to it than you'd guess! And Marine Regions is part of the answer!
The Big Seashell Survey
Before the Big Seashell Survey started, there was little quantitative information on the species and numbers of shells that wash ashore at the Belgian coast. However, beached shells can say a great deal about climate change, environmental pollution, impact of human activities at sea and changes in...
Assessing the state of the oceans
The second World Ocean Assessment – WOA II – is a global exercise by hundreds of marine scientists to evaluate trends and identify knowledge gaps in the world ocean. Two chapters of WOA II have made use of several components of the LifeWatch Species Information Backbone.
Observing plankton to understand ocean health
Increasing human activities are putting the ocean under stress, threatening the ecological health of marine ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Since plankton are sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and are short-lived, they can be used as early warning systems for the...