A singular evolutive extended Kalman (SEEK) filter is used to assimilate real in situ data in a water column marine ecosystem model. The biogeochemistry of the ecosystem is described by the European Regional Sea Ecosystem Model (ERSEM), while the physical forcing is described by the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). In the SEEK filter, the error statistics are parameterized by means of a suitable ba...

Model intercomparison studies in the climate and earth sciences communities have been crucial to build credibility and coherence for future projections. They have quantified variability among models, spurred model development, contrasted withinand among-model uncertainty, assessed model fits to historical data, and provided ensemble projections of future change under specified scenarios. Given ...

Agostino Merico*, Gunnar Brandt, S. Lan Smith and Marcel Oliver 1 Systems Ecology Group, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany 2 School of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany 3 Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Research Group, Research and Development Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan 4 CREST, Ja...

The advent of genomic-, transcriptomic- and proteomic-based approaches has revolutionized our ability to describe marine microbial communities, including biogeography, metabolic potential and diversity, mechanisms of adaptation, and phylogeny and evolutionary history. New interdisciplinary approaches are needed to move from this descriptive level to improved quantitative, process-level understa...

Phytoplankton are crucial to marine ecosystem functioning and are important indicators of environmental change. Phytoplankton data also are also essential for informing management and policy, particularly in supporting the new generation of marine legislative drivers, which take a holistic ecosystem approach to management. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) seeks to achieve Good Env...

Marine ecosystem protection and conservation initiatives rely on the assessment of ecological integrity and health status of marine environments. The AZTI's Marine Biotic Index (AMBI), which consists on using macroinvertebrate diversity as indicator of ecosystem health, is used worldwide for this purpose. Yet, this index requires taxonomic assignment of specimens, which typically involves a tim...

Despite promises that 'healthy' marine systems show increased resilience, the effects of ecosystem management strategies on invasion success in marine systems is still unclear. We show that resistance to the invasive alga, Sargassum horneri, in a temperate reef system occurs through alternate mechanisms in different ecosystem states. In an old marine protected area (MPA), invasion of S. horneri...

NEED TO ASSESS THE SKILL OF ECOSYSTEM MODELS Accelerated changes to global ecosystems call for holistic and integrated analyses of past, present and future states under various pressures to adequately understand current and projected future system states. Ecosystem models can inform management of human activities in a complex and changing environment, but are these models reliable? Ensuring tha...

Although overfishing has been recognized as responsible for the decline of major fish stocks, it has been less easy to demonstrate its indirect and detrimental effects on marine mammals, particularly dolphins. Competition with fisheries for the same food resources has been hypothesized to have led to the decline of several species of dolphins, including the endangered Mediterranean short-beaked...