Topic 2: Coastal change
Mission
To reveal the consequences of global and regional change on the functioning and diversity of coastal systems in temperate and polar regions.
WP 1 "Food webs and diversity under global and regional change"
In Work Package 1 we will primarily cover temperate coastal ecosystems, from organisms to communities, including their interaction with the abiotic environment. Currently, climate change and over-exploitation are causing substantial alterations in many coastal ecosystems, beyond the normal ranges of variability, resulting in changes in species composition (both through local extinctions as well as the introduction of new species) and, as a result, changes in the linkages between different food webs components. These shifts, coupled with changes in the coastal habitat threaten marine ecosystem stability and recovery potential, with significant and potentially irreversible changes in its characteristics and services. In WP1, we will study these issues and translate major findings into our ecosystem model, which will be fed into the integrated system developed in WP4.
WP 2 "Integrating evolutionary ecology into coastal and shelf processes"
Work Package 2 addresses species-specific responses of selected representatives of groups of organisms, with respect to their ability to adapt and evolve within changing regimes, specifically in coastal and shelf seas. Both genetic and habitat factors will be studied to understand their effects on physiological mechanisms and gene expression. The challenges are to unravel different adaptation strategies of these selected organisms, especially by comparing responses along latitudinal and ecological gradients. The WP has strong internal links to WP1 and WP4, and will complement WP6 in TOPIC 1 with regard to polar coastal studies. The hierarchical systems approach integrates physiological, metabolic and genetic processes, from the molecular and cellular level to whole organisms and populations.
WP 3 "Coastal Systems under Global and Regional Pressures"
In Work Package 3 global and regional pressures will be studied with respect to geophysical and ecological components of coastal systems. Emphasis will be given to the issue of regional marine climate change. Discrimination between natural variability and anthropogenic driving forces is one of the challenges. Past, recent and ongoing coastal changes will be quantitatively described – with respect to ecosystem composition, regional climate and fluxes and deposition of matter; scenarios of possible future developments will be derived. Extension of the modelling system is planned – with respect to other compartments of the regional Earth System and other regions (East Asia, Laptev Sea, Baltic Sea).
WP 4 "Integrating observations for coastal management"
In Work Package 4 an integration of knowledge systems for coastal management is a final step towards applying our results to societal needs. New observational methods will be developed and implemented. A first step is the hardware under construction within ICON (Integrated Coastal Observatory). A new challenge will be to set up pre-operational models for assimilating the heterogeneous data streams. Extending the physical, sedimentary and biogeochemical variables resolved by the observational and modelling system will enable us to assess ecosystem health, for which we selected the wellbeing of top predators (marine mammals) as a proxy.