The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service as a platform to map marine ecosystem services: a Lithuanian case study

Oceans and seas have always played an important role in supporting human wellbeing through the deliverance marine ecosystem services (MES). Nevertheless, the anthropogenic driven environmental degradation coupled with changes in socio-economic dynamics affected the capacity to deliver MES in quantity and quality. While it is of the utmost importance and need to map and assess MES, data deficiencies, data standardization, lack of knowledge on the functioning of multiple MES and poor spatial and temporal coverage, hinder its operationalization. The objective of this work was to test the applicability of databases and platforms like the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) to be used as a unified point to map and assess MES in Lithuanian marine area. To map different indicators of MES such as wave weight and direction as well as chlorophyll-a concentration, data was extracted from physical and biogeochemical model outputs within CMEMS, covering the whole extent of the Lithuanian Exclusive Economic Zone. From a user perspective, the use of CMEMS to map and assess MES, allows: (1) to overcome complex challenges such as ecological modelling, utilizing outputs directly; (2) to cover spatial and temporal extent in areas where information is scarce and (3) to have vertically resolved data, important for the understanding and mapping of MES. In this perspective, CMEMS plays and will potentially play a higher role towards the operationalization of MES, contributing to better and more informed decision in the sphere of marine environmental management.

This work has received funding from the European Social Fund project Lithuanian National Ecosystem Services Assessment and Mapping (LINESAM) No. 09.3.3-LMTK-712-01-0104 under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT).