Marine ecosystems in climate regulation

This book deals with the role of marine and coastal ecosystems, whose importance in climate regulation is often underestimated and misunderstood. They also play a role in mitigating the impacts of climate change: wave and swell damping, erosion control, tsunami mitigation. Plankton in all its diversity, the herbivores in the Mediterranean, mangroves in tropical regions, reefs and macro-algae are in the spotlight.

The climate is changing at an unprecedented rate in human memory, and the ocean and coastlines are undergoing lasting alterations and changes. While it has long been understood that the ocean plays a fundamental role in regulating our climate, knowledge of this intrinsic relationship is very recent and still needs to be completed and shared.

At a time when the understanding of these processes is becoming crucial and in a context of insufficient legal framework binding for high seas, initiatives and institutions such as Tara Expeditions and the French Fund for the Global Environment (FFEM) are mobilizing to foster research and development dynamics with developing countries.