Environment, monitoring and assessment

Biodiversity research activities within Marine Scotland Science (MSS) are focused on two principal objectives:

Understanding the ecological processes which differentiate what the top-predators need to survive
Understanding the processes which control the numbers and relative abundance of species which co-exist together

Understanding the ecological processes which differentiate what the top-predators need to survive is crucial to the development of a rounded and balanced ecosystem.

Understanding the processes which control the numbers and relative abundance of species which co-exist together is necessary if fisheries managers are ever to reconcile single-stock fisheries management goals with wider community, or ecosystem, level targets, such as conserving species diversity.

Achieving such balancing acts will soon be a requirement for fisheries managers tasked with adopting an ecosystem approach to management. The need to maintain, conserve and restore biodiversity, and protect top predators competing with fisheries, is explicit in much of the legislation that the European Commission and UK Government intend to adopt over the coming years.