European basin-scale analysis, synthesis and integration (EURO-BASIN) (38899)

EURO-BASIN was designed to advance our understanding on the variability, potential impacts, and feedbacks of global change and anthropogenic forcing on the structure, function and dynamics of the North Atlantic and associated shelf sea ecosystems as well as the key species influencing carbon sequestering and ecosystem functioning. Like the entire biosphere, marine ecosystems such as the North Atlantic and its associated shelf sea ecosystems can be characterized by emergent properties controlled by a dynamic network of interactions and relationships and not static entities. This system complexity is what Martin Luther King Jr. called "an inescapable network of mutuality" scientists today define as complex adaptive systems (CASs).

EURO-BASIN has represented the first attempt of creating future prognosis of marine ecosystem states sensitive to CAS dynamics using as its test case the North Atlantic. Long-term prediction of the status of these CAS systems, population dynamics of key species and hence management of marine systems requires the implementation and advancement of an ecosystem approach for the management of marine resources sensitive to CAS dynamics. What is the ecosystem approach? Unlike a single species approach, the ecosystem approach takes into account population and ecosystem responses to changes in the Earth's climate, fisheries, and interactions between them. In EURO-BASIN not only did we monitor and assess how North Atlantic marine ecosystems behaved in the past, but also predict how they will respond under possible future climate change scenarios. Hence, the results of this project have provided important recommendations for better marine resource management in the European Union.

The project had participants from 23 European universities and research institutions as well as collaborations with key institutions and Universities in the US and Canada.

The project was coordinated by DTU Aqua and funded by EU, Framework Programme 7.

Research area: Marine Populations and Ecosystem Dynamics
Research area: Oceanography
Research area: Marine Living Resources