The United Nations Regular Process is one of the key international mechanisms for preparing comprehensive assessments of the global state of the marine environment. Established after the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, with the aim of regularly connecting scientific knowledge about the ocean with decision making at the global level, it is one of the few processes that operates systematically under the auspices of the UN General Assembly and the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The work of preparing the assessment itself rests with the Group of Experts, a body of no more than 25 scientists, five from each UN regional group, selected with regard to geographical and gender balance. In the fourth cycle, the Group will prepare a new global assessment, as well as summary documents intended to support public policy development and other international processes related to the ocean.

It is precisely this kind of knowledge, based on measuring what is happening to the sea in the field, that underpins the work of Dr. Cukrov, whose research focuses on the biogeochemistry of aquatic systems and the traces that human activity leaves within them.

In his research, sediments function as an archive, a record of the history of pollution by metals and radionuclides, a topic to which he also dedicated his doctoral dissertation on the Krka River estuary. In freshwater systems, he has studied tufa as a record of environmental change in the Zrmanja, Krka and Cetina river basins. He has investigated the distribution of ecotoxic metals in areas ranging from the ports of Rijeka and Šibenik, Bakar Bay and Kaštela Bay to the national parks Krka, Mljet and Plitvice Lakes. In addition to trace metals, he has also studied the impact of submarine groundwater discharge into the sea and microplastic pollution.

It has been shown that submarine groundwater discharge can have a greater impact on the Atlantic Ocean than all the rivers flowing into it. For this reason, anchialine caves hold a special place in his work. These underground habitats, located at the boundary between freshwater and seawater, serve as windows into the subterranean estuary and coastal aquifers. On the eastern coast of the Adriatic, Dr. Cukrov was a pioneer in this field of research, developing methods for underwater cave sampling. This long standing field experience will now contribute to a global level assessment.

“Environmental assessments are only as valuable as the data on which they are based. For decades, we have been measuring what is happening with metals, radionuclides and other forms of pollution in the Adriatic, and this is the experience I can now bring to the work of the Group,” said Dr. Cukrov.

This appointment further confirms the international recognition of scientists from the Ruđer Bošković Institute and their contribution to understanding and protecting the marine environment, as well as to developing the scientific basis for the sustainable management of seas and coastal areas.