NECCTON

The ocean’s biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food and nutrient cycling. However marine policy and resource management do not yet consider the latest scientific advances, even when the state-of-the art operational models of the European Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) are used. NECCTON objective is to enable the EU Marine Copernicus Service to deliver novel products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems.

NECCTON will develop novel capacities to simulate higher-trophic-levels, benthic habitats, pollutants, and deliver projections of climate change impacts. NECCTON will develop and exploit new data-processing chains, supporting the use of novel ecosystem observations, including new hyperspectral data from satellites, as well as available

acoustic, pollution and omics data. NECCTON will fuse these new data and models by using innovative machine-learning algorithms to improve models and data assimilation methods.

OGS is involved into all model development and artificial intelligent workpackages and contributes with two of the thirteen case studies on fisheries and conservation managements.