
MAPMAKER: MArine Plankton diversity bioindicator scenarios for policy MAKERs [ICP 2020]
Project summary
Global marine biodiversity supplies essential ecosystem services to human societies. To protect them, information on the impact of climate-mediated loss of biodiversity on their function needs to be produced and taken into account in international agreements and policy documents.
Based on new observational data and novel machine learning algorithms, MAPMAKER will project future changes in plankton biodiversity and develop novelw impact metrics. It will build visualisation tools to inform data-driven decision- making on marine biodiversity conservation at the international level.
The crucial role of marine biodiversity in the regulation of Earth’s climate is neglected in many international agreements and policy documents on climate change. Future projections of marine plankton diversity changes are highly uncertain, notably due to the paucity and biased nature of global observational data. Machine learning tools can be used to compensate for biases and to extrapolate data in space and time.
To inform international decisions on marine conservation and climate change mitigation, adequate information must be provided to policy makers, implying that biodiversity projections need to be translated into novel, quantitative ecosystem impact metrics (biomes, hotspots of change).
Project holders have already mapped the biogeography of thousands of plankton species for the present ocean, using a range of species distribution models. These models will be projected into the future based on different emission scenarios, and biodiversity indices will be tailored to target international policy needs.
This project aims to build an interactive web tool for policy makers that visualizes projected ecosystem impacts and changes in global plankton diversity as a function of societal decisions.
International decision-makers are informed on potential future changes in global marine plankton and start addressing challenges to marine biodiversity conservation in international policies.
- Multi-stakeholder interactive process to co-design, discuss and test novel biodiversity metrics and visualization products;
- Multi-stakeholder workshop to discuss outcomes, outreach strategy, dissemination activities and scaling activities;
- Publications, communication and dissemination activities in key international policy and scientific fora and networks
- MAPMAKER visualisation tool now online !
- GSPI announcement
- Access MAPMAKER
- MAPMAKER multimedia story
- Presentation of the project during a discussion at the Ocean & Islands Pavilion at the World Conservation Congress of IUCN, Marseille, September 2021
- Presentation of the project at the Geneva Blue Talks in the run-up to the UN Ocean Conference (June 2022, Lisbon): Global Ocean and Coastal Observation: From Science to Decision-Making, Geneva, 17 May 2022
Duration
Project core partners
ETHZ Department of Environmental System Sciences (lead)
IUCN, Global Marine and Polar Programme (co-lead)
Contact
Dr Meike Vogt, Senior researcher, ETHZ: meike.vogt@env.ethz.ch
Dr. Aurélie Spadone, Senior programme officer, IUCN : aurelie.spadone@iucn.org
Dr Frédérique Guérin, Executive Officer, GSPI: frederique.guerin@unige.ch
Other Projects:
Satellite imagery as evidence in international justice proceedings [ICP 2022]
Collaboration project
A global diabetes research agenda [ICP 2022]
Collaboration project
This project seeks to address the research-policy gap in the field of diabetes by developing a policy-relevant, scientifically rigorous global research agenda on diabetes that can be acted upon by the newly launched WHO’s Global Diabetes Compact.
A toolbox for measuring immigrant integration and inform programming [ICP 2022]
Collaboration project
This project seeks to bring more effective policy expertise in the management of migration in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region in order to address migrants’ needs and increase social cohesion between migrant and local communities.
Mitigating the unintended humanitarian impacts of UN targeted sanctions [ICP 2021]
Collaboration project
This project seeks to bring together UN Sanctions scholars with global humanitarian actors to explore ways to ameliorate the humanitarian consequences of UN targeted sanctions.
Building resilient migration management systems: Developing a World Migration Report digital toolkit for policy officials [ICP 2021]
Collaboration project
This project develops an interactive digital toolkit for policy officers to support them in leveraging migration research for evidence-based policy-making, drawing lessons for the scientific community for brokering knowledge in policy circles.
Disruptive technologies and rights-based resilience [ICP 2021]
Collaboration project
This project aims to facilitate a multistakeholder consultative process to identify knowledge gaps, generate new evidence and co-design evidence-based tools to support regulatory and policy responses to human rights challenges linked to digital technologies.
Supporting Multilateral Environmental Agreements on chemicals and waste with scientific evidence [ICP 2020]
Collaboration project
This project aims to foster engagement of the scientific community to support informed policymaking and effective implementation of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
REDEHOPE: Reliable Data for Evidence-Based Housing Policies [ICP 2020]
Collaboration project
Based on the rigorous study of existing data ecologies, the project intends to develop a diagnostic tool to help countries identify issues in their housing data ecology, respond appropriately to such issues and access appropriate datasets to formulate more robust, evidence-based housing policies for the benefit of people.
Establishing a Consortium for “Public Good” Data on the Politics of Energy Transition [ICP 2020]
Collaboration project
Promoting coordination and synergies between practitioners, scientists and policy actors to produce relevant “public good” datasets is key to support more informed and efficient transition policies.
Digitizing Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Childhood Illness in Primary Care in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)
Collaboration project
In order to improve the quality of care and optimize medical prescriptions to treat children’s acute illnesses in LMICs, several humanitarian and development organisations and scientific institutions have developed electronic versions of the clinical pathway prescribed by the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI).