The ocean’s biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food and nutrient cycling. However marine policy and resource management do not yet consider the latest scientific advances, even when the state-of- the-art operational models of the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) are used.
The project’s objective is to enable CMEMS to deliver novel products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems.
NECCTON will inter-link new models in the CMEMS systems, thus building novel capacities to simulate higher-trophic-levels, benthic habitats, pollutants, and deliver projections of climate change impacts. We will develop and exploit new data-processing chains, supporting CMEMS’ use of novel ecosystem observations, including new hyperspectral data from satellites, as well as available acoustic, pollution and omics data. We will fuse these new data and models by using innovative machine-learning algorithms to improve models and data assimilation methods. These developments will be applied in thirteen case studies, co-designed with fisheries and conservation managers as part of our pathway-to-impact, resulting in the demonstration of Technological Readiness Level 6 of NECCTON products.
The project objectives will be achieved by a team of twenty-three world-class organizations with track records for all the key project components. It includes the CMEMS Entrusted Entity and core developers, who will promote the final uptake of NECCTON by CMEMS. On project completion, NECCTON will provide CMEMS with the scientific and technical capabilities to sustain twenty-five new products in their operational portfolio, ultimately enabling users to make informed decisions on the exploitation of marine services, enhancing sustainability and conservation.
48 Months from 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2026
General aims
General objectives:
- to build CMEMS capability in HTL modelling, to deliver operational products for nekton communities that are relevant to ocean policy development and economic growth.
- to deliver physical, biogeochemical and LTLs products for the pelagic component of marine ecosystems, to improve support for HTL models.
- to build CMEMS capability to model marine pollution and to assess integrated pressures, to deliver operational products that are relevant to conserve biological communities.
- to provide CMEMS with the capability to perform both hindcast and climate change projections of products to be used in biodiversity conservation and food-resource management.
- to provide CMEMS with new capability in fusing numerical model simulations and new and consolidated types of observations, by using machine-learning (ML) techniques and advanced data-assimilation (DA) approaches.
- to develop a prototype modelling framework inter-linking the newly developed ecosystem-model components with all the existing CMEMS biogeochemical and physical models.
CMCC role
CMCC participates in WP1, WP2, WP5, WP6, WP8 and WP9
Activities
CMCC will develop modelling fundamental new components for modelling coastal ecosystems including modules for suspended particulate matter, sediment cohesion and erosion, benthic macrofauna, marine plastics and oils spill.
Expected results
Enhanced capability of CMCC’s modelling infrastructure for the representation of coastal ecosystems and coastal hazards.
Partner
- BOLDING & BRUGGEMAN APS (BB);
- STIFTELSEN NANSEN SENTER FOR MILJOOG FJERNMALING (NERSC);
- UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE (ULIEGE);
- INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE RECHERCHE POUR L’EXPLOITATION DE LA MER (Ifremer);
- STITUTO NAZIONALE DI OCEANOGRAFIA E DI GEOFISICA SPERIMENTALE (OGS);
- STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN (NWO-I);
- BUNDESAMT FUR SEESCHIFFFAHRT UND HYDROGRAPHIE (BSH);
- COLLECTE LOCALISATION SATELLITES (CLS);
- FONDAZIONE CENTRO EURO-MEDITERRANEOSUI CAMBIAMENTI CLIMATICI (FONDAZIONE CMCC);
- HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM HEREON GMBH (HEREON);
- DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET (DTU);
- HELLENIC CENTRE FOR MARINE RESEARCH (HCMR);
- LOBELIA EARTH SL (LOBELIA);
- ECOPATH INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE ASOCIACION (EII);
- UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT (UU);
- MINDS TECHNOLOGIES KAI EPISTIMES PERIVALLONTOS I.K.E. (MINDS);
- IMAR – INSTITUTO DO MAR (IMAR);
- CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE (CNR);
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS (CNRS)