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Case Studies

NECCTON Case Studies

Small pelagic fish in the Bay of Biscay

Main Focus: Fishery Management

Goals:

• To understand and to simulate the past and future dynamics of small pelagic fish in the Bay of Biscay, including the effects of environmental conditions (temperature, plankton dynamics) and human pressure (fishing).
• To build robust projections by combining multiple higher trophic level and lower trophic level models and evaluate uncertainty (models ensemble)
• To identify the key drivers of the food web dynamics, and how they vary in time and space

Associated stakeholder: ICES Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas

NECCTON Products Used:

Small pelagic fish biomass, and unspecified fish biomass from:

  • Ecosystem models
  • Species distribution models
  • Species population models

Partners: Ifremer, MOi, DTU,PML

Marine Forecasting Center: NWS

Other Case Studies
Case Study Topic Ensemble of species distribution models to determine hot spots of aggregation in support of management plans and Marine Protected Area definition in the Mediterranean Sea
Main Focus Fishery Management
Goals Determine hot spots of aggregation to support:
  • Management plans
  • Fisheries Regulated areas (FRA),
  • Marine Protected areas (MPA)
Associated stakeholder Food and Agriculture Organisation - General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM)
NECCTON Products Used
  • ESD-MED (ensemble Species Distribution models) applied to the Mediterranean Sea
  • ESD-MED based on survey data coupled with biogeochemical (LTL) outputs from MED-BFM
NECCTON Partners OGS, HCMR
Marine Forecasting Center MED
Case Study Topic Mapping sources of pollutants transported towards Mediterranean aquaculture farm areas
Main Focus Fishery Management
Goals To explore the usefulness of new Copernicus Marine Service capability for mapping and forecasting pollutant transport for Mediterranean aquaculture farming
Associated stakeholder Food and Agriculture Organisation and Fugro
NECCTON Products Used New Copernicus Marine Service product that maps and forecast pollutants (micro-macro plastic, oil, trace metals, POPs) in marine ecosystems
NECCTON Partners UU, OGS
Marine Forecasting Center MED
Case Study Topic Natura 2000 marine protected areas in the Adriatic Sea
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals
  • Application of marine spatial planning methods to monitoring effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in a MPA in the Adriatic Sea (HR3000469 - Viški akvatorij)
Associated stakeholder Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation
NECCTON Products Used
  • Environmental conditions
  • Mapping of relevant benthos species 
  • Habitat maps for small pelagic and unspecified apex predator, multispecies distribution maps from Ecospace model 
  • Multiple pressure maps
NECCTON Partners OGS, HCMR, MINDS
Marine Forecasting Center MED
Case Study Topic Biodiversity conservation in the North West Black Sea 
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals Mapping the impact of fish trawling on ecosystem functioning in the north-western Black Sea.
Associated stakeholder ICES Working Group on Fisheries Benthic Impact and Trade-offs
NECCTON Products Used
  • Maps of benthic traits
  • Maps of benthic species biomass
NECCTON Partners NIOZ, UoL
Marine Forecasting Center BS
Case Study Topic Climate-smart Marine Protected Area planning in the North West European Shelf
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals • Spatial meta-analysis to show where a climate signal is projected to emerge for multiple parameters related to biodiversity conservation.
• Maps showing areas of climate change hotspots/bright spots, overlaid with locations of current/planned MPAs and other significant features.
Associated stakeholder UNEP - World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
NECCTON Products Used Projections of physics, biogeochemistry and Lower Trophic Levels for the North West Shelf
NECCTON Partners PML, HEREON
Marine Forecasting Center NWS
Case Study Topic Monitoring plankton diversity and dynamics in the Parc Naturel Marin d'Iroise (PNMI)
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals Phyto- and Zooplankton surveys by PNMI
  • Classical counting under a microscope (phytoplankton)
  • Quantitative imaging of zooplankton using Zooscan
  • Some Metabarcoding (eDNA)
Estimating zooplankton functional diversity
  • To inform the models
  • To test the correlation with sardine catch
  • Impact of zooplankton size on sardine stock
Associated stakeholder Office Français de la Biodiversité, Parc Naturel Marin d'Iroise (OFB)
NECCTON Products Used
  • physics & Lower trophic level outputs
  • Zooplankton diversity fields of the Copernicus Marine Service Global /IBI model 
  • Fish biomass fields of the Copernicus Marine Service Global/IBI model 
  • Correlation between the Ushant fronts (physics), zooplankton, and fish in the model
NECCTON Partners CNRS, SU, CLS, MOi
Marine Forecasting Center IBI
Case Study Topic Monitoring pollution of marine protected areas surrounding Svalbard
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals To explore & demonstrate that we can provide complementary information on the biogeochemical conditions, pollution and plastics, as well as biomass for zooplankton and fish at the sites of the protected marine Areas in the vicinity of Svalbard.
Associated stakeholder International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
NECCTON Products Used
  • Meso-zooplankton 
  • Dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM)
  • Fish biomass
  • Small pelagic biomass (GLO) (important for sea birds),
  • micro-plastic,
  • Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and emerging organic contaminants (EOCs). 
NECCTON Partners NERSC, HEREON
Marine Forecasting Center ARC
Case Study Topic Modelling and projecting fisheries potential in the arctic Atlantic Ocean
Main Focus Fishery Management
Goals Assess the consequences of climate change on fish biomass and therefore the fisheries potential in future climate scenarios.
Associated stakeholder ICES-WGINOR (Working Group on Integrated Ecosystem Assessments for the Norwegian Sea) and ICES-WGIBAR (Working Group on the Integrated Assessments of the Barents Sea)
NECCTON Products Used Fish biomass and small pelagics biomass
NECCTON Partners NERSC, HEREON
Marine Forecasting Center ARC
Case Study Topic Marine protected area monitoring and assessment in the Baltic Sea
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals Develop ways to use NECCTON (and Copernicus Marine Service ) products for Marine Protected Area monitoring and assessment in the German part of the Baltic Sea, with focus on biodiversity and fisheries.
Associated stakeholder HELCOM
NECCTON Products Used • Mesozooplankton biomass
• Dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM)
• Benthic biogeochemistry
• Small pelagic Biomass
• Unspecified fish biomass
NECCTON Partners BSH, HEREON
Marine Forecasting Center BAL
Case Study Topic Spatial Management of Tuna Stocks and Fisheries under Climate Change
Main Focus Fishery Management
Goals Provide a demonstrator allowing users (stakeholders) to run projections of changes (e.g., 30 years) of key tuna species with fishing scenarios including spatial management measures and selected climate IPCC scenarios of greenhouse gas release
Associated stakeholder Pacific community (SPC), International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, SF, IC,Food and Agriculture Organisation
NECCTON Products Used

Historical (hindcast) and future (projections under IPCC scenarios) simulations for ocean variables (temperature, currents, primary production, dissolved oxygen, zooplankton and micronekton)
NECCTON Partners MOi
Marine Forecasting Center GLO
Case Study Topic Monitoring marine mammals in the Azores region
Main Focus Biodiversity Conservation
Goals • Assess the feasibility of conducting a monitoring of the common and spotted dolphin
• Evaluate the impact of climate change on the distribution of the species
Associated stakeholder Azores Regional Directorate of Maritime Affairs
NECCTON Products Used
  • Pelagic lower trophic level products: mesozooplankton, micronekton 
  • The species distribution model: NAWH-cetaceans 
NECCTON Partners IMAR, CLS
Marine Forecasting Center GLO
Case Study Topic Forecasting climate change impact on potential catches of open ocean large pelagic fish
Main Focus Fishery Management
Goals • What is the future potential fisheries production in the open oceans?
• How will climate change impact the balance between functional groups (small/large pelagics etc.)?
Associated stakeholder Fish-MIP
NECCTON Products Used
  • FEISTY
  • SEAPODYM
NECCTON Partners DTU, EII, MOi, PML
Marine Forecasting Center GLO

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