NELOS divers will now access WoRMS from their digital dive log

NELOS divers

NELOS, the Flemish diving federation, has recently integrated WoRMS (the World Register of Marine Species, supported by LifeWatch Belgium), into its internal platform DIVES: a Digital Verification System used to log tens of thousands of dives each year.

This integration marks a very important achievement, because divers will now be able to record the marine species that they come across during their observations, in direct connection with the WoRMS database!

The WoRMS database provides an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, controlled by taxonomic and thematic experts and continuously updated. Its editorial management system, in fact, includes one expert for each taxonomic group, who controls the quality of each entry. The editors can also invite specialists of smaller groups to revise specific species.

An interesting characteristic of the new integration with DIVES, is that the platform adapts to common marine species names used in Dutch, and through a built-in search function, it automatically provides the scientifically correct version of the name.

This integration has a great potential to support future research by becoming a valuable data source, supporting citizen science and marine biodiversity through simple digital tools.

Read more about this on LifeWatch Belgium:

https://www.lifewatch.be/news/nelos-divers-use-worms-digital-dive-log-step-toward-citizen-science

MARBEFES Autumn School 2025: Call for Applications now open!

Great news! The MARBEFES Autumn School 2025 has now opened its Call for Applications, giving 20 participants the possibility to book one of the limited places by 31 August.

MARBEFES (MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services) is a EU-funded project aiming to evaluate and characterise the links between marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services and the resulting societal goods and benefits in coastal communities.

The Autumn School “Protecting marine biodiversity for nature and humans” will take place in Seville (Spain) from 8 to 10 October 2025. It will offer participants travel, accommodation and lunch (see terms and conditions), for the duration of the programme, and has the objective of presenting one of the main project’s results: a set of easy-to-use-tools to help practitioners and policy makers maximise the ecological value and optimise a sustainable socio-economic use of the marine system for current and future generations.

The school programme will consist of four training modules:

  1. Assessing biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services
    1. Assessing ecological structure and functioning
    2. Biodiversity and climate change
    3. ARIES tool (assessment component)
  2. Risks and impacts
    1. Assessing risks and hazards to marine biodiversity
    2. Broad-scale measures of biodiversity and habitat quality 
  3. Valuing nature
    1. Ecologically valuing biodiversity – system levels
    2. Socio-cultural valuation and biodiversity 
    3. Socio-economic valuation of biodiversity
    4. ARIES tool (valuation component)
  4. Decision-making for management
    1. Social-ecological systems analysis in marine management
    2. Biodiversity management and the role of decisions support systems DSS

If you are a student, early career scientist, young researcher or early career practitioner interested in biodiversity and ecosystem assessment and measurement, and ecological, social and economic evaluation, apply from this page: https://www.lifewatch.eu/marbefes-autumn-school-2025!

Environmental Challenges and Open Science: online course by ENERGYTRAN

Energytran Environmental Challenges and Open Science

As part of the EULAC-ENERGYTRAN project, we are excited to announce the launch of the pilot e-learning course “Environmental Challenges and Open Science”, which will take place from 22 to 26 September 2025 in  San José, Costa Rica.

This hybrid course will be delivered in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation into English and Portuguese, and is free of charge, offering a unique opportunity for participants to explore how open science practices can address global environmental issues, with a special focus on the Latin American and Caribbean context.

Location: In person, San José (Costa Rica) – 25 seats available. Online: 15 virtual seats.

Registration: by 15 August 2025 from this registration form.

For more information contact energytran@oei.int, download the course brochure here [Spanish], [English], [Portuguese], or read more here: https://www.campaign-index.com/view.php?J=iv7892t04fzb2djrGkjA10gfLSBA840oUpoOQCUrJE7rs&C=MPSlNSIgSS8OmvptUmZEiA

RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series: training for scientists and policy makers

RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series

Join the RESTORE4Cs Autumn Series of trainings for scientists and policy makers in November 2025!

RESTORE4Cs assesses the role of restoration action on wetlands capacity in terms of climate change mitigation and a wide range of ecosystem services using an integrative socio-ecological systems approach.

The trainings will take place in Malaga (Spain), from 3 to 6 November, and they will focus on the main project output: a digital Decision Support System (DSS) that will provide stakeholders and wetland practitioners at all levels with more reliable estimation of cost and benefits in order to drive and prioritise wetlands restoration actions.

The two programmes are tailored respectively for researchers and wetlands and restoration managers (as early users of the toolbox), and for experts involved in decision-making processes concerning coastal wetlands and protected areas:

  • RESTORE4Cs Autumn School 2025 for the Scientific Community: November 3-6, 20 participants
  • RESTORE4Cs Training for Policy Makers: November 5-6, 10-15 participants

The Call for Applications will open in August. For more and upcoming details on the detailed programme, travel conditions and applications, follow up on the RESTORE4Cs website: https://www.restore4cs.eu/restore4cs-autumn-series-2025-save-the-date

Weever fish sevenfold increase reported by SeaWatch-B might be linked to warmer waters

weever fish

SeaWatch-B (https://www.vliz.be/projects/seawatch-b), the VLIZ citizen science project supported by LifeWatch Belgium, has observed that the weever fish counts were seven times higher this year, compared to the same period of time (April to June) of 2024. This venomous species buries itself in the sand and stings through its dorsal or gill-cover spines, and its surge along the Belgian North Sea coast seems linked to warmer waters.

The aim of the SeaWatch-B beach observation network is to address the lack of reliable long-term data that allow to identify trends in the ever changing landscape of the North Sea. In fact, during the last 50 years, the North Sea has noticeably changed, warming twice as fast as the global average for ocean and seas.

This fast change has affected especially cold-water species, causing an increase in animals and plants originating from the Atlantic Ocean or further south. Through the description and evaluation of the long-term evolution of this shifts, SeaWatch-B can provide science with the necessary data to inform and advise policy.

Trained volunteers have been conducting standardised surveys along various costal transects, four times a year since 2024, to provide data on beach usage, marine life, sea temperatures, pollution and early dune formation, and they will issue a report in 2026.

Read more about the weever fish increase on the LifeWatch Belgium website: https://www.lifewatch.be/news/sevenfold-increase-stinging-weever-fish-observed-seawatch-b

New release of Metadata Catalogue!

Metadata Catalogue

We are thrilled to announce the new release of the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue (https://metadatacatalogue.lifewatch.eu), a standard-based information management system based on GeoNetwork 4.2.11.

The system is designed and implemented to enable access to several resources from a variety of external providers, represented in the Catalogue as “groups”, through descriptive metadata, enhancing and promoting the information exchange and sharing among organisations and research infrastructures.

The Catalogue is operational since 2020: its main goal is to increase collaboration within and among organisations, in order to reduce duplication and enhance information consistency and quality. It also aims to improve the accessibility of a wide variety of resources along with the associated information, organised and documented in a standard and consistent way.
Moreover, the LifeWatch ERIC Metadata Catalogue allows (upon validation and verification) the creation of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for resources that do not have it, by exploiting the GeoNetwork – DataCite connection.

The system allows to manage metadata related to five kinds of resources: Datasets, Research Site, Services, Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and Workflows by using the EML 2.2.0 and a customised ISO 19139 standards respectively. The new release adds a sixth one to the list, that is the “Training resource”, whose metadata schema is based on the EOSC training profile to ensure and improve the resource discoverability.
This version also includes significant performance improvements, bug fixes, and user interface upgrades to make your experience smoother and more intuitive.

Moreover, with this release, you can now explore several new functionalities:

  • a more user-friendly editor with new functions to easily create metadata records (copy to function, prefill utility, validators, etc.);
  • a direct connection with EcoPortal Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies to address the metadata inconsistency or incompleteness challenge;
  • a full redactional workflow to support and validate the entire publication process with appropriate roles and email notifications;
  • an easy and improved approach to require the DOI;
  • the FAIRness assessment tool, that allows to assess the FAIRness of the entire catalogue, by resource type and on specific metadata record;
  • the continuous monitoring on reachability of URLs;
  • the possibility to create new metadata profiles via user interface;
  • more info for the users in terms of metrics and KPIs;
  • direct connection with the LifeWatch ERIC Help Desk knowledge base to show the relevant FAQs.

The APIs are available here (https://metadatacatalogue.lifewatch.eu/doc/api/index.html). The new version of the documentation is under development and will be published soon. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us at service.centre[at]lifewatch.eu.

That’s a wrap! “Marine SABRES in Fairs” at FIMAR 2025

marine sabres in fairs at FIMAR 2025

On June 6-8 2025, LifeWatch ERIC and ULPGC-ECOAQUA (University Institute for Research in Sustainable Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems) presented the project Marine SABRES at FIMAR 2025, the Feria Internacional del Mar (International Sea Fair) in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, co-organising one of the “Marine SABRES in Fairs” series events.

The event, which symbolically ended on World Oceans Day, was a truly inspiring international event, confirming itself as an important event for the blue economy of the Canary Islands and the other archipelagos of the Macaronesia: the estimated number of visitors at FIMAR 2025 over the weekend was around 14,000 people (as declared in digital press and social networks of FIMAR 2025). World Oceans Day fitted perfectly with the philosophy of FIMAR 2025, which was organised with the important vocation of disseminating scientific knowledge accumulated around the oceans. This event not only invites us to reflect on the challenges facing our oceans, but also reinforces our collective commitment to their conservation through innovation, education and responsible action.

Approximately 1,000 visitors, including students, families with children, and the general public at large, stopped by our stand and learned more about the importance of marine biodiversity and ecosystems, or how to restore marine biodiversity and support a sustainable blue economy by increasing the uptake of ecosystem-based management.

More in detail, the “Marine SABRES in Fairs” event highlighted the activities carried out in the Macaronesia DA in the framework of the project Marine SABRES, with a special focus on the marine biological corridor between the Azores, Madeira and Canary archipelagos, as well as ecotourism best practices that partners aimed to promote in this area to foster a sustainable blue economy.
Researchers of the ECOAQUA-ULPGC team got a chance to show Macaronesian rich biodiversity and valuable marine ecosystems in the Canary Islands through samples and other materials, e.g. telling people about the importance of rodolith beds as a benthic habitat for biodiversity conservation.

The team also showed the videos realised by the LifeWatch Italy Multimedia Production Centre in the framework of Marine SABRES documentary activities; research aims and results achieved so far were also presented with the help of a project brochure and a poster.

For more information about the project, visit Marine SABRES official website:
www.marinesabres.eu

Have a look at our photogallery, enjoy all the moments of this incredible event exploring marine biodiversity and ecosystems, sustainability and blue economy!

Watch our documentary trailers on LifeWatching YouTube Channel and WebTV platform

European Agroecology Partnership members meet in The Netherlands

agroecology partnership meeting

LifeWatch ERIC actively participated in the in-person WP5 European Agroecology Partnership meeting, “Accelerating farming systems transition: agroecology living labs and research infrastructures”, held at Wageningen University & Research from 18 to 20 June 2025.

The meeting, co-organised by WUR and LifeWatch ERIC, brought together key partners to review progress on monitoring and data management strategies for assessing agroecological transitions in Europe. A central focus was on enhancing cross-task collaboration to support the design and implementation of sustainable farming systems across the continent.

Hosted at the WUR Impulse Building, the meeting included plenary sessions, cross-task workshops, and a field visit to the organic dairy farm De Hooilanden and market garden De Lichtveen.

Representing LifeWatch ERIC, José Manuel Ávila and Iria Soto, leaders of Work Package 5, coordinated and moderated several sessions, facilitating strategic discussions to shape the Partnership’s second phase.

The Agroecology Partnership, funded under Horizon Europe, supports multi-actor innovation through a unique integration of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures. It fosters collaboration among scientists, farmers, advisors, policymakers, and citizens to co-create resilient and sustainable food systems.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem responses to Climate Change: scientists in Lecce discuss the invisible cost of the ecological crisis

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Responses

The international workshop “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change” took place on 12–13 June 2025 at MUST Museum in Lecce.

The National Biodiversity Future Centre (NBFC), Italy’s first national research and innovation centre for biodiversity, funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) through NextGeneration EU funds, organised the workshop in collaboration with LifeWatch ERIC’s Working Group on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change.

Climate change is deeply altering the living conditions of organisms across the planet, influencing their geographic distribution, abundance, and even the daily cost of survival. These effects are especially severe for species which cannot regulate their body temperature and must expend more resources to maintain metabolism and behaviour in warmer, more unstable environments.

The consequences of these changes extend far beyond the ecological sphere. They impact key ecosystem functions that support human well-being, potentially affecting economic growth (GDP) and the achievement of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Acknowledging that climate change does not act in isolation but reshapes entire ecological contexts, the workshop focused on assessing possible ecological responses and exploring ways to integrate them into adaptation and mitigation strategies.

One of the central questions guiding the discussions was: How will biodiversity’s response to climate change affect our economy and society in the coming decades?
The reflection was based on a simple yet crucial premise: we cannot safeguard our well-being without first safeguarding the ecosystems we depend on.

The full programme remain available at:
https://www.lifewatch.eu/thematic-services-working-groups/wg-climate-change/meetings/workshop-biodiversity-and-ecosystem-responses-to-climate-change

Marine SABRES in Fairs – at FIMAR 2025

Marine Sabres in FAIRS FIMAR

On June 6-8 2025, LifeWatch ERIC and ULPGC-ECOAQUA (University Institute for Research in Sustainable Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems) will co-organise one of the “Marine SABRES in Fairs” series events, at FIMAR 2025, La Feria Internacional del Mar (International Sea Fair).

This year’s edition of FIMAR focuses on the sustainability of the Canary islands’ coastal border: an important event for the nautical and marine-maritime sector of the Canary Islands archipelago organised by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Ciudad de Mar Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Infecar Feria de Gran Canaria.
FIMAR is, in fact, a key opportunity for companies and professionals, as well as a great chance for marine and coastal researchers and experts to communicate the importance of these ecosystems to the general public.

The last edition counted more than 10,000-15,000 visitors, mainly citizens from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, but also tourists and people from other regions of Spain and Europe.

LifeWatch ERIC and ULPGC-ECOAQUA will contribute to the programme and engage with its participants at their exhibition booth. The initiative will highlight the activities carried out in the Macaronesia DA in the framework of the project Marine SABRES, with a special focus on the marine biological corridor between the Azores, Madeira and Canary archipelagos, as well as ecotourism best practices that partners aimed to promote in this area to foster a sustainable blue economy.
Researchers of the ECOAQUA-ULPGC team will get a chance to show Macaronesian rich biodiversity and valuable marine ecosystems in the Canary Islands through samples and other materials.

The team will also get a chance to share the videos realised by the LifeWatch Italy Multimedia Production Centre in the framework of Marine SABRES documentary activities; research aims and results achieved so far will be also presented with the help of a project brochure and a poster.

For more information about the project, visit Marine SABRES official website:
www.marinesabres.eu

Watch our documentary trailers on LifeWatching YouTube Channel and WebTV platform:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyXexZtV6trRxFOOO7EvgIPUQ3lhwXD9Y
https://www.lifewatching.tv/tv-show/marine-sabres/

Further details about the event can be found on the official website:
https://feriainternacionaldelmar.com/