About the project
This project studied ecosystem functioning using the match-mismatch hypothesis as a framework and three different marine ecosystems with focus on seabirds as examples. The marine ecosystems chosen - the Southern Ocean, the Barents Sea and the Benguela Upwelling - are highly sensitive to climate variability, and the two latter are important fishing areas and thereby also subject to anthropogenic constraints. The project involves several collaborative national and international projects. Our main goal is to investigate the vulnerability of marine systems to environmental changes, using seabirds, which are among these ecosystems' main top consumers,as indicators. The main tool is statistical modelling of French, South-African and Russian seabird data, using the ecological, oceanographic and statistical modelling expertise assembled. Our project is also particularly timely due to the major role of these oceans in carbon cycling and the global climate, and because their ecosystems are among those with the largest production of fish biomass and seabird biodiversity on our planet.
Financing
This project is funded by the Research Council of Norway
Collaborators
World Wildlife Fund Russia
DEPE/CNRS (France)
IRD, CRH (France)
Marine and Coastal Management (South Africa)
Institute of Marine Research
Murmansk Marine Biological Institute (Russia)
Period
Start: 1.1.2008. End: 31.01.2012.