MERCES has explored the potential of restoration actions in shallow waters and on deep-sea habitats at pan-European scale, from Norway to Turkey, implementing a systemic approach to deliver tangible benefits on European Green Deal actions for climate (mitigation, adaptation and disaster risk reduction), biodiversity, health and wellbeing. Restoration studies have focused, through pilot actions, on the most fragile and vulnerable habitats, including seagrass meadows, algal and kelp forests, coralligenous outcrops, cold-water corals, canyons, seamounts and fjords in 25 different pilot areas. More than 20 protocols (species translocation and transplanting, seedling and grazer removal, artificial and biodegradable substrates) for restoration have been tested to increase restoration efficiency and to identify the criteria for the selection of target species and habitats. Both, the success as well as failures of the MERCES pilot restoration actions allowed the identification of best practice for restoration actions, and have clearly established the methodologies that can contribute to the development of a restoration industry, given the major extent of degraded marine habitats in the European seas. MERCES demonstrated that marine restoration is feasible under a number of conditions and that baseline knowledge, synergistic interventions (mitigation and conservation) and stakeholder involvement are crucial for the restoration success (Deliverables: D5.3 D6.4 and D7.5). The involvement of selected stakeholders, if adequately planned and supported by experts, is critical to increase public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the need for their involvement in large-scale restoration interventions (Deliverables: D7.2 D7.4 D8.4 describing citizen-science campaigns in the EU seas). The MERCES project disseminated the results to a very large audience, with special attention to industrial stakeholders, policy makers and general public (more than 300 events, >20,000 citizens involved). Different tools were employed: 1) webinars and newsletters (5 for the large audience and 3 tailored for business); 2) international meetings (UN Ocean, Oceans and Climate Change Governance, OECD, BLUEMED, Blue Economy research & industry dialogue and All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance); 3) scientific conferences (World Conference on Marine Biology, SER–both European and International- and 4) a story map of the project (
https://arcg.is/0aXGq9(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Public engagement has been a priority of MERCES and several initiatives have been organized with the enthusiastic participation of scientists and public (EU Research nights, Citizen Science and Ocean literacy, training and summer schools to test different restoration protocols for students including those of the IMBRSea International Master).
