Deadline Extended for IEAM Call for Papers: Monitoring Marine Biodiversity for Nature-Based Solutions
The SETAC journal Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management is now accepting papers on the topic “Quantification and modeling of the biodiversity footprints of management in the marine environment – improvements in biodiversity monitoring, analysis and validation for marine construction and nature-based solutions.”
Purpose of Special Series
With growing awareness of the global biodiversity crisis, reporting frameworks to measure impacts on biodiversity as part of coastal and offshore developments in the marine environment are being scoped out, but there are not yet consensus monitoring and analytical techniques.
The compensation of nature, in the form of nature-based solutions or for biodiversity credit purposes, is now a common component of environmental management strategies during project implementation. However, effectively measuring and documenting the positive (and negative) impacts and trade-offs in terms of biodiversity from such efforts requires new standard measures, and predictive methods/models. The ability to pinpoint useful and meaningful measures that can validate positive biodiversity impacts, and their trade-offs, will support the identification of quality nature-based solutions.
Taxonomic diversity, which gives insights into species-level diversity, has been the standard for many reporting bodies. The ability to extrapolate beyond taxonomic diversity in order to understand general ecosystem functionality is required to support ecosystem-based management. New approaches to describing an ecosystem in terms of its individual components and their interactions, leading to the functionality and complexity – and hence, the resilience – of the ecosystem of choice need to be proposed.
For new standard biodiversity monitoring and analysis techniques to emerge, it is necessary that we have a common understanding of the concept of biodiversity. Solid, system-specific guidelines on which biodiversity components should be measured, and at what depth, to ensure ecosystem integrity are required. For example, impact assessments of coastal and offshore developments require a solid baseline to be able to describe the biodiversity status and impacts. How can we change from building in nature to building with nature?
Call for Papers
IEAM invites papers describing how new monitoring and analysis technologies and tools can support the realization of standardized biodiversity quantification, prediction and reporting to support coastal and off-shore development projects and nature-based solution efforts. Submissions should address the need for biodiversity footprint measurement and analysis in the marine environment, ideally supporting the formulation of standardized solutions that can be globally applied.
Successful submissions will benefit from international visibility through publication as guiding examples of the current challenges and possible solutions aimed at the future of biodiversity footprint analysis in the marine environment.
Scientists and professionals are invited to submit papers about new developments in marine monitoring and modeling concepts. Papers may describe case studies on projects or programs based on new approaches as well as conceptual and opinion pieces that embrace the task of quantifying and describing parameters that should be included in biodiversity footprint analysis. The scope is not limited to local solutions but rather is open for solutions that allow for regional- and global-scale extrapolation, where applicable.
Keywords
Biodiversity quantification, Functional trait ecology, Ecosystem functionality, Nature-based solution evaluation, Environmental monitoring, Marine environment, Nature-based solutions
Dates to Remember
- Deadline to submit abstracts: 1 October 2023
- Deadline to submit manuscripts: 1 February 2024
Instruction for Submission
Please submit an abstract (max 250 words) to the Guest Editor: Lars O. Mortensen at lamo@dhigroup.com. Upon acceptance of the abstract, authors will be invited to submit their manuscripts to the journal. Papers should be prepared as Brief Communications, not exceeding 15 double-spaced pages (including text, tables and figures), and will undergo the journal’s standard, double-anonymous peer-review process. For more information, please see the IEAM Author Guidelines.