Contact conveners
The North Atlantic Ocean and its contiguous shelf seas are crucial for the ecological, economical, and societal health of both Europe and North America. The shelf and oceanic ecosystems are influenced at a basin scale by a common atmospheric forcing. The EU funded Euro-Basin project (2011-2014) was designed to further our understanding of past, present, and future ecosystem dynamics of the North Atlantic and associated shelf seas enabling improved management of the living marine resources in the region. Microbial loop players, copepods, euphausiids, small pelagic planktivorous fish (e.g. herring, mackerel, and blue whiting) and large piscivorous pelagic fish (e.g. Bluefin tuna) have been the focus of this basin scale study, as have key elements that influence carbon sequestering and structure the ecosystem via the trophic cascade.
The purpose of this session is to provide a forum for presentations on:
- The role of key species in the biological carbon pump
- The distribution of key species and ecosystem types
- Trophic pathways and production
- The dynamics of living resources and their utilization
- Modelling efforts that integrate the biological and physical characteristics of the region
The Euro-Basin project is an example only and the intention of the theme session conveners is to attract contributors presenting their results and experiences from other pan-Atlantic initiatives. This session will serve to encourage collaboration between the North American and European scientists by providing an opportunity for them to present and discuss findings on basin-scale dynamics of lower tropic levels, and to inform the community at-large of the advances in understanding that have occurred in the region.
