Marine and freshwater: areas of research interest

Glossary of Terms

Adaptation: The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its

effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.

Aquaculture: The farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans, and aquatic plants, typically for food production.

Areas of Research Interest (ARIs): Statements by government departments about evidence gaps and research questions that would support policy development and implementation.

Biodiversity: The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems.

Biodiversity net gain: An approach to development and/or land management that aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand.

Blue carbon: The carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, including saltmarshes, seagrass beds, and kelp forests.

Blue Economy: An approach that recognises the interconnections between economic, societal, and environmental challenges in a holistic way, focusing on sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of marine ecosystems.

Bycatch: The unwanted fish and other marine species caught during commercial fishing

Carbon sequestration: The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide to mitigate climate change.

Climate change: A change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.

Co-existence: Multiple marine activities or sectors operating in the same area or sharing the same resource in a managed way that minimises conflicts and maximises synergies.

Co-location: The deliberate placement of multiple marine activities in the same spatial area, as distinct from co-existence which may be less intentionally planned.

Cumulative impacts: The combined effect of multiple pressures on the environment, which may be greater than the sum of individual effects.

Diadromous fish: Fish species that migrate between freshwater and saltwater environments during their life cycle, such as salmon and sea trout.

Ecosystem: A dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit.

Ecosystem-based approach: An integrated approach to management that considers the entire ecosystem, with the goal of maintaining healthy, productive, and resilient ecosystems. Ecosystem restoration: The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

Ecosystem services: The benefits people obtain from ecosystems, including provisioning services (e.g., food, water), regulating services (e.g., climate regulation, flood regulation), cultural services (e.g., recreational benefits), and supporting services (e.g., nutrient cycling).

Environmental DNA (eDNA): Genetic material obtained directly from environmental samples (soil, sediment, water) without any obvious signs of the biological source material.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): The sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, extending two hundred nautical miles from the coast.

Good Environmental Status (GES): The environmental status of marine waters where these provide ecologically diverse and dynamic oceans and seas which are clean, healthy and productive within their intrinsic conditions, and the use of the marine environment is at a level that is sustainable.

Harmful algal blooms: Proliferations of algae that can produce toxins harmful to humans or marine life, or that can harm the environment through excessive growth, habitat alteration, or oxygen depletion.

Hydrographic conditions: The physical conditions of oceans, seas, and coastal areas including currents, waves, and tides.

Intelligent monitoring: Advanced monitoring approaches that utilise new technologies, automated systems, artificial intelligence, and integrated data systems to collect, process, and analyse environmental data.

Just transition: A framework that encompasses a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' rights and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production, particularly regarding climate change and environmental policies.

Marine heatwave: A prolonged period of anomalously warm water in a particular location.

Marine Protected Area (MPA): A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated, and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

Marine spatial planning: A public process of analysing and allocating the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic, and social objectives.

Natural capital: The stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water, and all living organisms. Natural capital provides a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services, which make human life possible.

Nature-based solutions: Actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, which address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.

Nature-positive: An approach that halts and reverses the loss of nature and biodiversity, resulting in the natural world being in a better state than it was previously.

Net zero: Achieving a balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken out of the atmosphere.

Ocean acidification: The ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Ocean deoxygenation: The decrease in oxygen content of the oceans due to climate change and nutrient pollution.

Ocean literacy: Understanding of the ocean's influence on humans and human influence on the ocean.

OSPAR Convention: The mechanism by which 15 Governments and the EU cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic.

PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances): A group of synthetic chemicals that are persistent in the environment and in the human body, with potential adverse environmental and health effects.

Regenerative practices: Approaches that go beyond sustainability to actively improve and restore ecosystems and their functions.

Resilience: The ability of a system to absorb disturbances and reorganise while undergoing change to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedback.

Social license: The level of acceptance or approval by local communities and stakeholders

for organisations and their operations.

Stakeholder: Any person, group, or organisation with an interest or concern in something, such as marine management or policy development.

Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Transformational change: Fundamental, systemic change that disrupts established patterns and leads to a significantly different state or condition.

UK Marine Strategy: A framework for achieving or maintaining Good Environmental Status in UK waters, established under the Marine Strategy Regulations 2010.

Wellbeing economy: An economic system that prioritises human and ecological wellbeing, rather than focusing primarily on economic growth or GDP.