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• ACCESS project conclusions

The scientists who met from 24 to 26 February in Vilanova i la Geltrú in the framework of the European project ACCESS report that the volume of perennial ice is 75% smaller than 20 years ago. This reduction will open up new sea routes leading to cost savings in the international transport of goods, but the intensification of human activity in the area will lead to increased noise and atmospheric pollution.The scientists now believe that there is sufficient knowledge and technology to help political decision-making with a view to ensuring a better adaptation to the expected changes in the planet.

The Arctic is one of the last reserves in the world to be explored and it therefore has many resources to extract. However the researchers of the ACCESS project consider that monitoring by observatories and further research must be performed, and science base regulations be adopted to ensure that human activities in the area have the least possible effect on the ecosystem.

One of the most significant results of the contribution made by the Applied Bioacoustics Laboratory (LAB), based at the campus of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Vilanova i la Geltrú, has been the discovery of how the presence of ice, which creates a layer of water of different salinity and density, changes the properties of noise propagation. According to the researchers, this finding requires a review of the measures aimed at mitigating emissions from artificial sound sources, which can affect animals at a much greater distance than in other seas of the planet.

The UPC's LAB is the only representative of Spain and southern Europe in the ACCESS project, which has involved 110 researchers from all over Europe and Russia. LAB's task has been to monitor sounds of an anthropogenic and animal origin in the Arctic Ocean and to analyse their interaction. LAB and the rest of the international team of scientists in ACCESS set out to answer the following questions: how will the Arctic change over the next 30 years? How will these changes affect navigation, fishing, aquaculture and the extraction of oil and gas? How will the increased human activity affect populations of the Arctic? What legislation should be applied to ensure sustainable development?

To answer these questions, researchers from 27 public and private institutions were divided into five working groups. The first group focused on monitoring and modelling climate change in the Arctic Ocean, the atmosphere and the sea ice to make weather forecasts in this area more accurate. The second group studied the opening of northern passages to shipping in northern Europe and Siberia (the North-East Passage) and through the Canadian Archipelago (the North-West Passage), and the impact of these transport activities on marine ecosystems and society. The aim is to facilitate navigation on the northern sea route, thus reducing fuel consumption and pollution.

The third group examined the impacts of climate change on fisheries in the Arctic, aquaculture and livelihoods, particularly in areas such as the Barents Sea. The threats caused by air, noise and fuel pollution as a result of increased human activity were also assessed. The fourth group analysed the relationship between oil and gas extraction and climate change, as well as the prevention and mitigation of oil spills.

Finally, the fifth group examined the options for government action in the area arising from the results of the other groups. Gaps in legislation were identified and management tools were designed, including indicators to regulate fishing and oil and gas extraction with a view to ensuring sustainable development in the Arctic. The effect of the increase in infrastructure in the area was also studied.

The reduction of the Arctic sea ice covered area provides new economic opportunities, such as the opening of new trade routes which will bring considerable savings in time and cost. It also has a direct effect, for example, on the local population and biota, on local and global weather patterns, on pollution and on risks. Increased industrial activities will also have a socio-economic impact beyond the Arctic itself.

That is why the European Commission launched the ACCESS project four years ago, under the coordination of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris). The conclusions and recommendations presented now will allow the Arctic Council (composed of the United States, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden) to establish the governance of the area for the next 25 years.

The UPC's Applied Bioacoustics Laboratory (LAB), directed by Michel André, has studied in the ACCESS project how climate change can alter the lives of indigenous peoples who subsist thanks to activities such as whaling. Inevitably, whale populations will be affected by the consequences of climate change, such as the loss of ground cover or the reduction of biomass, which will be added to the increasing human activities. This situation will hinder the access of indigenous populations to resources. The collaboration between scientists, governments and indigenous hunters is therefore essential, not only to maintain the fragile balance of these unique ecosystems but also to learn from the experience of managing these populations when the ice disappears for most of the year.

One of the biggest risks of increased human activity in the area and the associated increase in noise levels is the effect that it may have on animals. Artificial sound in the marine environment is one of the most serious threats to the balance of the oceans. LAB's task was to study how increased sound affects animals. To do so, it focused on cetaceans as bio-indicators, because their survival depends almost exclusively on acoustic information from their sense of hearing.

After an exhaustive compilation of the distribution of marine mammal populations in the area, LAB monitored and analysed how they live today with the presence of sounds from human activities. Based on this study, it has developed simulators to predict future effects of the expansion of oil exploration, commercial shipping traffic, tourism and fishing, among other activities. The researchers also studied mammal feeding routines, relationships, migration, and changes in these behaviours. This information on sound will be used to determine whether these changes are a result of the appearance of anthropogenic sounds in their ecosystems.

The research team has already shown in previous studies that cetaceans and cephalopods can suffer serious hearing damage due to continuous exposure to low frequency sound levels. These species use the sense of hearing to navigate, hunt and interact, so their life rhythm and the balance of the food chain in general may be altered by the future situation in the Arctic.

To conduct the research, the UPC researchers installed a set of seven hydrophones at strategic points in the Arctic to record sounds continuously for a year. This is a pioneering innovation in the world, because the sensors identify the source of sounds produced tens of kilometres away, record them and classify them automatically and in real time, according to whether their source is anthropogenic, natural (earthquakes, for example) or animal. This technology is therefore an essential tool for ensuring the sustainable development of the offshore industry because it warns of the presence of sensitive species and provides solutions for immediate mitigation.

The system allows researchers to follow the evolution and interaction of sound sources in real time via the Internet. The team of scientists were able to manage the information captured by hydrophones in the Arctic from the group's headquarters in Vilanova i la Geltrú. The sensors installed in the Arctic are added to the network of hydrophones that LAB has already installed around the world to monitor global changes in noise levels.

The ACCESS project, which forms part of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development, started in March 2011 and is now coming to an end with the presentation of conclusions at a scientific meeting organised by the UPC's LAB. It is one of three initiatives of the call The Ocean for Tomorrow to develop projects that determine areas in which action is necessary to know the future of the oceans.

In four years, the ACCESS consortium has produced 136 scientific articles and 11 newsletters; it has organised general assemblies in Paris, Stockholm, Cambridge and Vilanova i la Geltrú, and a large number of workshops; and it has co-organised international conferences with institutions such as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London in February 2014, Arctic Frontiers in January 2014 in Tromso (Norway), the Arctic Observation Summit (AOS) in Finland in 2014 and the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Japan in 2015.

ACCESS is part of the organisation Oceanoise 2015, which in May will bring together 300 Scientists from 27 countries in Vilanova i la Geltrú to discuss, for the first time, the environmental, industrial, social and legal consequences of increasing noise in the marine environment.

Based on the UPC's campus in Vilanova i la Geltrú, LAB is one of the most internationally recognised groups studying the impact of noise pollution on animals. It is the first scientific centre for controlling ocean noise in the world and has already shown in previous studies that prolonged exposure to low-frequency sound levels causes severe injuries to the auditory structures of cephalopods. Unlike marine mammals, cephalopods do not use sound information to perform activities, but noise affects their ability to eat, reproduce and maintain their equilibrium in the water column.