Project is funded by GSRT and HFRI in the framework of the “1st Call for the support of Postdoctoral Researchers”. The duration is 30 months (November 2018 – November 2021) and the budget is 140,000 €. The project is hosted by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research – Institute of Marine Biology Biotechnology and Aquaculture (Greece).
The program is divided into 4 Work Packages (WP). The first work package relates to program management and dissemination of results, the second describes program preparation, third related to data collection, and fourth refers to data analysis and presentation of results.
WP1: Program management and dissemination
This WP comprises the strategic, organisational and economic management of the project with the aim to achieve all project objectives, reach milestones, timely submit the deliverables and within the budget and, finally, to ensure a high quality of all deliverables. In addition, WP4 will disseminate the project results to the target audiences (scientists, stakeholders and the wider public) through scientific publications, presentations in conferences and meetings and production of dissemination material.
WP2: Preparation
This WP will aim to concentrate all the available information/data from port authorities or other sources. To achieve this a communication between the port authorities and the project should be established. The available data (either biological or environmental) will used as a background for the selection of the sampling stations in each port. In addition in situ inspection using Scuba diving gear equipped with hd cameras will be performed with a view to identify the most representative sites of each port.
WP3: Field data collection
This WP has as a target to collect the field data. These data can be divided into two categories: a) biological and b) environmental. For the collection of the biological data will be used visual census and traditional sampling techniques. Those two different methodologies will be applied with the view to clarify the benefits of each methods. Each port will be sampled on a seasonal base. Alongside with the biological data, the environmental profile of each port will be created. This profile will be linked with the biological data as to identify if there is and to what extend a correlation between biological and environmental data.
WP4: Statistical analysis
This WP is composed by three different tasks: a) Assemble biological traits of most abundant NIS and IS, that means to assess the influence of NIS on native biota information on selected life cycle traits will be mined from the scientific literature, existing databases and expert judgement, b) Statistical analyses, info from WP3 will be used to analyse and produce distributional patterns patterns of NIS and their competition with the IS and c) Publication of data and results, all data will be submitted to the project’s web platform and the produced results will be will be published in international peer-reviewed journals.
