BarentsRISK

Assessing risks of cumulative impacts on the Barents Sea ecosystem and its services

BarentsRISK is the first unifying framework for risk assessment of multiple, interacting pressures related to climate warming, fisheries, petroleum, transportation and invasive species in the Barents Sea, also taking into account indirect, food web interactions. The project builds on the Ecological Risk Assessments (ERAs) framework and includes a structured approach to i) identifying the most critical present and emerging future pressures, with extensive stakeholder involvement across sectors and with natural and social scientists, ii) qualitative and quantitative approaches used in a hierarchical manner to assess current and future risks of cumulative impacts on ecosystem components, structure and functioning, including antagonistic and synergistic interaction effects, iii) efficiently and transparently communicate risks and associated uncertainties, and iv) determining how these ecological risks are linked to ecosystem services provided by the Barents Sea, and thus to societal aspects important for management and policy makers. Interaction between natural and social scientists and coproduction with stakeholders from management agencies and industry through the whole project is an essential part of Barents-Risk. Stakeholders are actively involved in all parts of the ERA, through workshops and one-to-one interaction with our scientists.

Time period: 2019-2022