Brown Bag Lunches have so far focused on the topics Food from the Oceans, Marine Spatial Planning, Marine Stations, Blue Carbon, Offshore Freshened Groundwater, Carbon Capture and Storage and Marine Habitat Mapping.
17 June 2024: Marine habitat mapping to meet biodiversity, conservation and restoration objectives
This 7th EMB Brown Bag Lunch event served as the launch event for the the European Marine Board's Future Science Brief No. 11 on 'Marine habitat mapping'. The event highlighted key scientific and policy recommendations for advancing marine habitat mapping including the latest technology to increase the quality and resolution of maps, how to better represent biology and the complexity of marine ecosystems, prioritisation of key habitats to map and costs involved. It also addressed how marine habitat mapping can best support key European and international commitments on marine biodiversity, conservation, restoration and management. The Future Science Brief was written by the EMB Working Group on Marine Habitat Mapping, consisting of 14 experts from 11 European countries. The Chairs of the the Working Group, Prof. Simonetta Fraschetti (University of Naples Federico II & Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), Italy) and Dr. James Strong (National Oceanography Centre (NOC), UK), presented the key messages from document, with a specific focus on links to the proposed Nature Restoration Law, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats and Birds Directives. The event ended with an interactive discussion between the audience, the Chairs of the Working Group and additional Working Group members.
Find out more about the event here.
Download the slides here and Watch the opening remarks and presentation on the EMB YouTube channel.
23 February 2023: Carbon Capture and Storage
EMB 6th Brown Bag Lunch was on the topic of Carbon Capture and Storage. Professor Doug Connelly, Associate Director for Research at the National Oceanography Centre in the UK, gave a talk on "Assuring the integrity of offshore Carbon Capture and Storage". His presentation linked to the last large EU project he coordinated, the STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage). This project looked at using existing and newly developed approaches for monitoring offshore carbon capture and storage reservoirs.
You can re-watch his presentation here and find more about this event here.
13 June 2022: Offshore freshened Groundwater
On Monday 13 June 2022, EMB hosted its 5th Brown Bag Lunch on the topic of "Offshore freshened Groundwater: An unconventional water resource in coastal regions". Freshwater resources in coastal regions are under enormous stress due to population growth, pollution, climate change and political conflicts, and many coastal cities have already suffered extreme water shortages (e.g. Cape Town, Chennai, Sao Paolo, Shanghai). Offshore freshened groundwater (OFG) has been proposed as an alternative source of freshwater to relieve water scarcity, provide a buffer to increased demand during periods of intense drought, and mitigate the adverse effects of groundwater depletion and climate change. There is an urgent need to identify where OFG is located and in which volumes, delineate the most appropriate approaches to characterise OFG, identify the most cost-effective strategy to utilise this resource, and assess the environmental and legal challenges to sustainable OFG use.
Prof. Aaron Micallef, Senior Scientist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre in Kiel, gave a presentation on this topic, outlining a roadmap to address these needs and transform Europe into a global leader in OFG utilisation. A recording of the talk by Prof. Micallef can be viewed here and you can find out more here.
14 February 2020: Blue Carbon
EMB hosted its 4th Brown Bag Lunch on 14 February 2020 on the topic of "Blue Carbon". Blue Carbon refers to organic carbon that is captured and stored by the oceans and coastal ecosystems. In particular, the vegetated coastal ecosystems of seagrass meadows, tidal marshes, and mangrove forests sequester and store more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests and are now being recognised for their role in mitigating climate change. Prof. Hilary Kennedy from the University of Bangor (UK) is one of the leading experts in Europe on this topic and she provided some insight on the latest developments in this field.
The Blue Carbon Ecosystems have caught the attention of diverse stakeholders outside the scientific community, as it can play a crucial role in many societal challenges, not only through their potential to mitigate climate change, but also by providing coastal protection and fisheries enhancement. Therefore it is crucial to address knowledge gaps and uncertainties relating to this topic to further inform conservation and private sector organizations, governments, and intergovernmental bodies committed to marine conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Prof Kennedy touched upon some key questions and challenges that need to be addressed to consolidate progress in Blue Carbon science to inform current the debate and set future research agenda's. Her presentation was followed by an interactive discussion on this topic with the speaker and the participants. The presentation given is available here, and a recording of the talk by Prof. Kennedy can be viewed here.
2 October 2019: Why marine stations are essential to address societal challenges?
EMB organized it's 3rd Brown Bag Lunch session on the role of marine stations in the 21st century and how they contribute to address the societal challenges. Dr. Matthew Frost, MBA Deputy Director and President of the European Network of Marine Stations (MARS) started the conversation on this topic by highlighting the importance of biological observations and the work that is done in marine stations. The event took place at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels in the VIP room. Address: Vautierstreet 29, 1000 Brussels. The presentation from Matthew Frost is available here. Please note that the pictures used in the presentation are credited to the rightful owner as far as they are known to the autor of the presentation. The presenter does not claim any uncredited pictures, but would like to attribute them to the rightful owners.
6 February 2019: Ecosystem-based management and the role of MSP
The second EMB Brown Bag Lunch was held on 6 February 2019 alongside the ExCom meeting, at the BELSPO offices in Brussels. Vanessa Stelzenmüller (Thünen Institute, Bremerhaven) gave a talk on "Ecosystem-based management and the role of MSP", and this was followed by an informal discussion between the participants. The event, for which over 30 people registered, was attended by a mix of people for marine networks, NGO's and the European Commission, and was well received. EMB intends to hold 2 Brown Bag Lunch events each year, on different topics of importance to the marine community.
28 September 2018: Food from the Oceans
Following on from one of the discussion topics from the meeting with Commissioner Vella, EMB organised its first ‘Brown Bag Lunch’ (BBL) session on “Food from the Oceans” on Friday 28 September in Scotland Europa House in Brussels. EMB vice-chair Mark James (MASTS, UK) opened the discussion with an analysis of the “Food from the Oceans” Report of the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM). In his presentation, he highlighted the "Key drivers and challenges for the Food from the Oceans". His talk was followed by an informal discussion. The BBL was attended by 22 persons from the European Commission, academia, NGOs and others.