The Traversing European Coastlines expedition (TREC) will wrap up on July 30 after visiting countries across Europe through 2023 and 2024. During its final month, the expedition visited Greece with a one-day stop at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Crete.
Since it kicked off in April 2023, TREC has visited marine habitats in 21 countries around Europe to study how marine and coastal ecosystems across the continent are responding to natural and human-made changes in their environment.
40% of Europe’s population live within a coastal region so it’s important to understand the role these ecosystems play in keeping our planet healthy and learn how to protect them from potential threats, such as climate change.
From tiny molecules to community-wide impacts, this expedition looked at the effects of pollutants, carbon fixation pathways, molecular adaptations to climate change and antimicrobial resistance in wild organisms. With extensive experience in ocean observation, EMBRC’s marine stations were perfectly placed to support this ambitious expedition.
Over the course of the expedition, researchers especially gathered water, soil, sediment and aerosol samples and environmental data at more than 120 land-sea transects in 21 European countries, including 12 EMBRC sites. They also conducted time-series measurements at some sites to see how regions are changing from year to year.
Copyright Georgios Kotoulas, HCMR, the TREC team sampling in Psatha, Greece
At each site, samples are taken and analysed in a standardised fashion so the data from all locations is comparable. This will make it possible to review data across Europe instead of a regional or national system in a way that was not previously possible.
EMBRC’s extensive support for TREC
Facilitating the visits took intense preparation. CIIMAR, which hosted a TREC “super stop” in Porto, allocated 12 members of its team to the project. “Three people were fully dedicated to the expedition (a liaison officer, communication technician and fieldwork biologist), plus we had support from the board and wider teams, such as legal, financial, communication, sampling, research, science and innovation and the lab,” says Carla Domingues, Head of Technology Transfer and Business Development at CIIMAR. “We also organised a team of about 30 volunteers to support TREC’s sampling and scientific engagement activities.”
Copyright EMBL, TREC team sampling in Porto, Portugal
The scale of the expedition required huge amounts of planning by the marine stations to determine what visiting researchers needed and how to provide the best possible logistical support. This included deciding which sampling sites were the most appropriate, setting budgets and building a detailed service offer for the TREC team.
“We helped choose and describe land and coastal sites to ensure the success of the sampling mission”
says Ana Margarida Amaral, Project Manager at CCMAR, which hosted 11 TREC researchers in Faro, Portugal. “Together, we collected soil and aerosol samples from specified coastal and inland spots and model species in the Ria Formosa lagoon using boats and scientific diving support.”
“Close support was given on-site for all the needs of the expedition, including dealing with unexpected situations and last-minute logistics,” adds Domingues.
Hosts also organised scientific seminars, workshops and engagement activities as well as promoting the expedition to local, national and international press. “We had a full weekend of engagement activities with about 620 participants,” says Domingues. There were school visits to the Advance Mobile Lab, Tara Schooner, and CIIMAR, TREC-related scientific activities in schools, at CIIMAR and for the general public at the Museum of Natural History and Science. We also put on TREC-related exhibitions in public places such as in shopping malls and cafes.”
Essential access to services for visiting marine researchers
The TREC expedition provides essential support for researchers, particularly those working in marine studies and ocean observation. For researchers like Tobias Gerber at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the importance of facilitating access to these sites can’t be understated. EMBL is based in central Germany, far from the coastline, so without collaboration with EMBRC and TREC, he wouldn’t be able to sample his model marine organisms.
TREC helped Gerber and his team to sample a marine ragworm called Platynereis dumerilii, “platy” for short, at various EMBRC sites across Europe. By studying populations from different sites around European coastlines, Gerber is learning how different cell types adapt to environmental variation. “We want to understand how they can adapt to different places,” he explains. EMBRC’s unique access to a variety of marine environments is critical when studying how these organisms respond to diverse changing conditions.
Through the expedition, Gerber benefited from local research facilities. The logistics, such as accommodation, and relevant legal issues, such as Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) were covered too.
“That helped me to get access to a marine station, to the sea and also to use their facilities and the little boat they have at Kristineberg,” he says.
“At the sites, the station took us onboard their research vessel or used their local connections to help us find suitable partners who could take us out on the water at night, which was so valuable”.
Making sure the process was easy and streamlined as possible, meant the expedition team could focus entirely on their projects. “We took care of obtaining all required permits and approvals for field sampling and processing, ensuring we followed all rules and regulations,” says Amaral. “We also supported arrangements for samples to be sent to EMBL's shipping company and provided EMBL researchers with access to necessary facilities, desk space, parking, utilities, and sampling vehicles.”
Working with EMBRC and TREC was “very straightforward,” says Gerber. Contacting the EMBRC team directly to discuss his plans, the best locations to visit and the logistics of his stay made everything really easy. “They were very helpful and I was very happy it worked out,” he says.
EMBRC’s value as a TREC partner
EMBRC is known for its quality and range of services and facilities – one of the reasons it made such a perfect partner for TREC. “We offered conditions to handle and preserve samples, storing them at different temperatures (-180ºC, -20°C, 4°C, and room temperature) and granting access to labs and imaging equipment,” adds Amaral. This support gave researchers access to important scientific and technical infrastructures that are vital to study the sea and its lifeforms.
The TREC expedition was led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), in collaboration with the Tara Ocean Foundation and the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC). More than 70 European institutions were involved and provided their expertise.
Several EMBRC partners were involved: Station Biologique de Roscoff (SBR), Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Kristineberg Marine Research Station (KMRS), University of Bergen (UiB), Plentzia Marine Station (PIE), Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology, Lesina (CNR IRBIM), Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-mer (OOB), and Observatoire de Villefranche sur Mer (Sorbonne University).
TREC aims to initiate a new era of coastal ecosystems exploration, by combining scientific expertise, local knowledge of ecosystems and processes, and EMBL’s latest technology development and experience in examining life at the smallest scales.
“Our collaboration aimed to boost scientific cooperation, improve data sharing and make better use of shared resources,” says Amaral.
Thanks to the positive cooperation between these partners, researchers across Europe will be able to take strides forward in their research and better understand how climate change is impacting our ecosystems.
EMBRC was particularly happy to collaborate with EMBL and Tara, who are both highly respected for their marine biology expertise, in this ambitious expedition. We’re excited to learn more about our marine ecosystems once the researchers have analysed the data.
The TREC expedition benefits from Horizon Europe funding through the BIOcean5D project (GA#101059915).
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
