REDRESS

Project Outline

REDRESS aims to provide a key contribution to the EU commitments towards restoring degraded deep-sea ecosystems. REDRESS will provide solutions to prioritize future restoration actions, extend deep-sea restoration to previously neglected habitat types, and demonstrate the feasibility, potential, and value for success of deep-sea ecosystem restoration. The project will focus on habitats that have great potential to contribute to carbon sequestration and climate mitigation but have been degraded by deep-sea fishing, especially trawling. Specifically, REDRESS will study vulnerable marine ecosystems, including sea pens and bamboo corals on soft sediments, coral gardens, cold-water coral reefs, sponge fields, and cold seeps. REDRESS will map degraded deep-sea habitats and identify habitat refugia to prioritize restoration efforts that will adapt to future scenarios of climate change. To adopt and adapt cutting-edge solutions for both restoration interventions and monitoring. REDRESS will offer nature-based solutions to public authorities and operators to advance ecosystem restoration in the deep sea following the EU’s marine restoration strategy. Finally, REDRESS will provide novel insights into the advantages and limits of active vs passive deep-sea restoration, and related cost-benefit analysis of restoration in different deep-sea habitats supporting policies and decision makers.