Welcome to BIVALVIANET

Coastal marine ecosystems change naturally, but in the context of climate change external forces or stressors can influence the types and the rates of those changes, posing risks to these ecosystems and to resources and services they provide. Several economically-important bivalve species are harvested along the Greek coastline. Also, mussel farming has a major impact on the economy of Greece. While mussel farming and demand for increased bivalve production have remained strong, the impacts of multiple climate change stressors on this sector, and subsequently on the economies of local communities, are difficult to ignore and therefore they should be assessed. The aim of BIVALVIANET is to apply multidisciplinary research in order to understand the combined effect of multiple stressors on the economically important bivalve species distributed along the Greek coastline. This would allow for the incorporation of multiple-stressor research into a risk assessment framework.

Facts

Coastal marine ecosystems are among the most ecologically and socio-economically systems vital on the planet

In the context of climate change and anthropogenic activities external forces or stressors influence the coastal ecosystems and pose risks to resources and services they provide

The environmental stressors resulting from human activities can fall into five general categories–pollution, invasive species, extreme events, land and resource uses and climate change

Researchers are still learning about the impacts of each stressor individually, but it has become increasingly important to tackle the challenge of understanding the combined effects of multiple stressors