GES4SEAS at BEes 2025
At the BEes 2025 LifeWatch Conference in Heraklion, HCMR facilities in Crete, nearly 200 experts from diverse disciplines came together to explore biodiversity and ecosystem conservation challenges from an eScience perspective. BEeS is the LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference.
This year’s conference gathered researchers, policymakers, and experts to tackle the Triple Planetary Crisis (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution) through eScience and European Research Infrastructures (RIs). In particular, synergies were explored between LifeWatch ERIC services and emerging technologies to drive innovation for a sustainable future.
GES4SEAS was actively represented at the event. In the thematic session “EXPLORING BOUNDARIES OF LIFE HOSTING SPACES: HABITAT MAPPING” Dr. Heliana Teixeira (CESAM – University of Aveiro) addressed the challenge of mapping and characterising deep-sea habitats, which remain among the least assessed benthic habitats under marine environmental policy frameworks, such as the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), primarily due to limited knowledge of their diversity and spatial distribution. She also led a training session on the CIMPAL tool, part of the GES4SEAS toolbox, showcasing its role in assessing the cumulative impacts of invasive alien species. The CIMPAL calculator webservice is available through My LifeWatch platform https://www.lifewatch.eu
Dr. Irini Tsikopoulou (HCMR) presented recent advances in mapping seafloor integrity in the Eastern Mediterranean, emphasizing the importance of integrating local and regional indicators to address data gaps. Additionally, taking into account different ecosystem functions and using a suite of indicators and tools, such as those developed by GES4SEAS, will improve the assessments of benthic condition in line with Good Environmental Status MSFD objectives.
Together, these contributions illustrate GES4SEAS’s commitment to delivering knowledge for ecosystem-based management and enhanced marine spatial policy across diverse European Seas.
