MESOMED

Title: Marine environment and sustainable-fisheries: Observation-model in the Northern West Mediterranean Sea

Summary: Impacts of climate change and human fisheries on marine environment and resources are focused topics associated with our living environment and sustainability of economy.

To protest marine resources, we are seeking to develop:

• quantitative estimates of distributions and production rates of biota;
• predictive models for changes by an interdisciplinary approach integrating physical chemical biological socioeconomic processes, and sensor model development.

We are targeting the Gulf of Lions (GoL) in the Mediterranean Sea, and intend to reach the goals:

• to understand the transport retention and population dynamics of zooplankton and fish larvae in the GoL;
• to synthesize our findings with climate change and fisheries;
• to apply our results to marine resource management and policy making.

These studies will be conducted in both laboratories and field in the GoL by developing sensor packages and models including:

• A towed physical and biological sensor package;
• Size (biomass) spectrum mathematical models and theories, and
• Ecosystem models.

Drs. Zhou and Carlotti will form the team consisting of young Ph.D. students and post-doc scientists, and will cooperate with colleagues in LOB to ensure a long term cooperative relationship.

The success of this project will significantly improve:

• The capability to conduct surveys in multiple disciplines at high spatial and temporal scales for addressing interdisciplinary questions, and to model in situ rates and interdisciplinary processes;
• The capacity to conduct surveys in larger areas, and more frequently, to respond to events, and to produce data products in shorter time because the automatic data acquisition, developed codes for data processing and analysis, and models for process studies;
• Integration between in situ observations and models link scientific results from laboratory and field with marine resource management and conservation, and with policy making.

For more information, please visit EurOcean Knowledge Gate.