Our Mission
Knowing the seas to safeguard our future
Oceans store 90% of the heat/energy generated by the greenhouse effect.
NIOZ, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, is the national oceanographic institute and the Netherlands’ centre of expertise for ocean, sea and coast. We advance fundamental understanding of marine systems, the way they change, the role they play in climate and biodiversity, and how they may provide sustainable solutions to society in the future. Oceans, seas, coasts, deltas and estuaries make our blue planet liveable. They give us oxygen, food and raw materials. They regulate our climate, by taking up more than 25% of our annual fossil fuel emissions and storing 90% of the heat/energy generated by the greenhouse effect. They harbour the largest ecosystems in the world with a wealth of marine species. A large proportion of these remain undescribed. Oceans, seas and coasts are humanity’s heroes.
Oceans, seas, coasts, deltas and estuaries regulate our climate, by taking up more than 25% of annual fossil fuel emissions.
Humanity relies on the seas for food.
There are strong signs that the oceans and coastal seas are changing at unprecedented rates. Oceans are victims of overfishing, plastification and other forms of pollution, with severe consequences for biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. Their warming waters are driving extreme weather events, such as storms, floods and droughts, severely affecting our coasts. Acidification, deoxygenation and eutrophication are changing environmental conditions, resulting in shifts in species occurrence and threatening the wellbeing of dependent animal and human communities. At the same time, humanity relies on the seas for food and to provide solutions to the current climate and biodiversity crises.
Changing environmental conditions cause shifts in species.