Introduction of ECOLOC-TICAS

In 2008, under the frame of the Chinese-German Cooperation in Marine Science and Technology, the interdisciplinary LANCET (Land-Sea interactions along Coastal Ecosystems of Tropical China: Hainan) project was initiated to improve scientific knowledge on land-sea interactions in tropical China with regard to the impact ofanthropogenic environmental change.
The results of the LANCET project have provided baseline information on the status of Hainan’s coastal ecosystems and highlighted the need for further investigations on the response of coastal ecosystems to natural and
anthropogenic forces.
Building on these findings, the second interdisciplinary Sino-German project ECOLOC (Environmental change affecting COastal ecosystems of tropical China during the Anthropocene: Landward vs. OCeanic influence) was started in 2015 to provide more comprehensive knowledge required for a sustainable management of Hainan’s coastal resources.

Focus was placed on (i) the natural andanthropogenic factors controlling the physicochemical and biogeochemical environment and (ii) the response of organisms and coastal habitats to the input of landderived anthropogenic substances.
It is important that non-scientific stakeholders can access, interpret and integrate new scientific knowledge into decision-making processes via efficient and effective knowledge exchange among scientists and societal
stakeholders.
In this context, an additional project aiming at a better societal use of research results entitled TICAS (Tackling environmental change Issues of China’s coastal Aquatic Systems: networking, capacity building and knowledge exchange) was launched in 2017. It serves as an interface between science and society and establishes a dialogue between scientists and societal stakeholders, including policy-makers, civil societies, and industrial companies.

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