5 th SCIENTIFIC-EXPERT CONFERENCE
Climate Change and Preservation of Marine Ecosystems of the Adriatic Sea with international participation
The main topic: Interdisciplinary approach to considering adaptations, measures, and good practices in resolving issues caused by climate change
Zadar, September 26th to 29th, 2024
The Adriatic Sea is very small in relation to the surface of all seas, constituting only 4.6% of the total surface of the Mediterranean Sea. The Adriatic is a semi-enclosed and shallow sea, extremely sensitive to the increasingly intense impacts of human activities: tourism, fisheries, maritime traffic, mariculture, hydrocarbon exploitation and also to the strong impacts of climate change. With the increase of sea temperature in the Adriatic, various non-indigenous thermophilic species of fish, 3 algae, bacteria and gelatinous organisms are more frequently appearing. We are witnessing extremely high sea temperatures, like up to 30°C in July 2022, which has not been recorded until nowadays. Phytoplankton blooms appear earlier and more frequent, and various pathogens cause mass mortalities of organisms. There is also a change in the abundance and the distribution of species within the Adriatic Sea. The changes are visible in sea currents as well as in inflows of freshwater and nutrients from rivers, resulting in salinity changes. The sea level is also rising, and the circulation of water in the Adriatic is changing. Due to human activities, larger amounts of nutrients and various harmful substances with tendency of bioaccumulation and biomagnification reach the sea and become part of the food web.
The Adriatic Sea is a natural resource necessary for life, both, for organisms as for humans. The changes that are taking place impact the economy and the quality of human life. So, the implementation of active protection of the Adriatic Sea is vital and only solution to support sustainable development. However, in order to effectively implement the protection of the Adriatic, it is necessary to understand the connection between the functioning of all sea-land processes and to present scientific knowledge to decision makers at all levels. It is also important to educate the broader community, including the youngest members, about the basic knowledge of the impact of climate change on the sea, processes and living organisms, and potential consequences of our insufficient knowledge of this issue for.
To achieve the awareness of the broader social community about the impact of climate change in combination with other negative human activities on the Adriatic Sea, and in the context of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 (Ocean Decade), we plan to organize the V. Scientific-Expert Conference with international participation: Climate Change and Conservation of the Marine Ecosystems of the Adriatic Sea. The conference will address the negative impacts – from human activities to climate change – on ecosystems of the Adriatic Sea, as well as possible adaptations to rapid changes occurring in the seas and the necessity of active protection of marine ecosystems.
The conference’s emphasis is on scientific research, educational, socio-economic, and humanistic approach to considering adaptations, measures, and best practices in addressing issues caused by climate change, particularly from the perspective of protecting and conserving marine ecosystems. The organizers aim to motivate participants to exchange ideas, knowledge, and experiences with the possibility of collaboration on existing projects and initiating new multi- and interdisciplinary projects and to disseminate knowledge to the broader community, especially to local and statelevel governance bodies.
Clearly defined conclusions of the Conference on the importance of these topics will be presented to the general public through the media and brochures, with the aim of raising awareness of the need to implement blue and sustainable development.
The programme of the Conference will include plenary sessions, oral and poster presentations in the field of natural, biotechnical, technical, social and humanistic sciences addressing the following topics:
- Adaptations to rapid changes that are happening in the seas
- Examples of good approaches to climate change, possible adaptations to climate change and measures in practice, blue economy
- Climate change and its impact in the Adriatic Sea
- Marine pollution, including noise and bio pollution with invasive non-indigenous species
- Exploitation and overexploitation of natural marine resources
- Mechanical destruction of marine benthic habitats and benthic communities
- Climate change impact on marine ecosystems in school curricula
- Marine ecosystems and climate change in the legislation of the Republic of Croatia
- Adaptation strategies and measures for preservation of habitats and species of the Adriatic Sea
- Ocean literacy, Citizen science, and Synergy between Science and Arts
- Social ecology and social mechanisms of climate change
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES OF THE CONFERENCE ARE CROATIAN AND ENGLISH