Chapter 24 Conclusions: Notes on a Research Agenda for the Region

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, oceanographic and marine environmental investigations in the Basque Country have increased substantially; this has involved various research groups, in Universities and institutions, i.e. AZTI Foundation, Insub, etc. Some of the results of these investigations are published in scientific international journals; others have remained unpublished, or are not easily accessible to the international research community. Throughout this book, many of these research results are presented, providing an overall perspective of the state of knowledge of marine disciplines in the Basque Country. The data provided from the region assist in the development of a general understanding of ecosystems functioning in the Bay of Biscay; this shows, in turn, global interrelationships between their various components. Hence, the climatology of the area is influenced by the orography of the Basque region, together with relationships between the ocean and atmosphere, but oceanographic phenomena are related to those produced throughout the Bay. This fact conditions the biological response, at different trophic levels (from phytoplankton to fishes, or even seabirds and mammals) in the southeastern part of the Bay of Biscay. A difference in the Basque region, compared to others in the Bay of Biscay, such as Asturias and Cantabria in Spain and Aquitaine in France (see Figure 1, in Preface, for locations), is the high anthropogenic influence (including different uses of the sea, industrial and urban pollution, overfishing, etc.), which is the highest in the Bay. High levels of contamination occur within different matrices (water, sediment and biota); nonetheless, they are of different intensity, depending upon the locations considered. From the extensive data set provided in this book, various conclusions can be drawn, as outlined below.