Copyright : Laboratoire LEMAR- 2018
Johann Lavaud et Betty Queffelec (UMR AMURE)
International
ISblue Flagship
Start Date
01/07/2024
End Date
01/07/2024
Diatom microalgae support numerous essential Arctic Ocean (AO) ecosystem services, including the production of metabolites with significance to human health and blue biotechnology applications in Nordic countries and beyond. On-going environmental shifts, due to climate change, endanger diatom ecosystem services, including the potential decrease/loss of metabolites with unknown bioactivities. Up to now, microorganisms have not yet been covered by environmental legislation to protect biodiversity. Expanded use of this natural resource raises governance questions over its conservation and sustainable management in a complex framework of States sovereignty and jurisdictions, and indigenous people rights. Unique bio-chemo-diversity of Arctic diatoms could provide strong leverage for implementation of legal regulations to protect their AO habitats, especially sea-ice. In order to protect diatom bio-chemo-diversity, because of rapid environmental shifts in the AO, transdisciplinary approaches are urgently needed for informed development of legal strategies based on the most advanced science on the impact of climate change on diatom-sourced AO ecosystem services. This is the framework of the ARDCO project which specific objectives are: 1- ‘Prospection’: to explore Arctic diatoms for bioactive metabolites and bioactivities; 2- ‘Production’: how their synthesis might be impacted by the new AO environmental features and how abiotic parameters could be manipulated to enhance their synthesis in a biotechnological context, and, 3- ‘Protection’: to propose legal and policy strategies to protect Arctic diatom bio-chemo-diversity and beyond. Our project’s positioning relative to other recent and on-going arctic research initiatives is unique and complementary in analyzing current policy, proposing innovative environmental Law approaches and policy assessments on the conservation of microorganisms, in a biodiversity context and as a resource of bioactive metabolites for health and blue biotechnology purposes. Expected scientific and R&D outcomes include the understanding and the management of the AO on two specific issues: 1) to understand concrete issues at stake in the AO, from the sustainable use and indigenous property rights of a microscopic marine bioresource to its strict protection and conservation as an essential ecosystem element; 2) to reveal crucial applications with potential strong socio-economic value for Arctic States and beyond, including: i) human health for new nutraceuticals/cosmeceuticals, etc.; ii) blue biotechnologies, for ex. anti-biofilm properties for the development of ecologically inspired anti-fouling agents applicable to cold waters, particularly interesting for Northern maritime routes.
Laboratory Members
Contributors
–Anne Choquet, Emmanuelle Quillérou ; UMR 6308 AMURE-Aménagement des Usages des Ressources et des Espaces marins et littoraux, UBO-Université de Bretagne Occidentale.
–Tristan Montier, Tony Le Gall ; UMR 1078 Génétique, Génomique Fonctionnelle et Biotechnologie, UBO.
–Nathalie Bourgougnon, Anne-Sophie Burlot ; Laboratoire de Biotechnologie et Chimie Marines, Université de Bretagne Sud.
–Elodie Nicolau, Thomas Lacour ; laboratoires GENALG/PHYSALG, IFREMER Nantes.
–Christophe Brunet, Clementina Sansone ; Marine Biotechnologies Dept, Statione Zoologica A. Dohrn, Naples, Italie.
–Nele Matz-Lück, Tony Cabus; Walther Schücking Institute for International Law, Kiel University, Allemagne.
–Charlotte Volpe, Marianne Nymark ; Fisheries and New Biomarine Industry Dept, SINTEF Ocean, Norvège.
–Rémi Amiraux, Sébastien Guérin, Marcel Babin ; IRL 3376 Takuvik CNRS/Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
–Aldo Chircop ; Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
