verso: ecosystem responses in the southern ocean
DESCRIPTION
General presentation of the BELSPO funded vERSO (Ecosystem Resoponses to Changes in the Southern Ocean) project. More information on www.versoproject.beTRANSCRIPT
vERSO Polar Day, RBINS Feb18, 2014
and another Accronym…
vERSO: Ecosystem Responses to global change: a multiscale approach in the Southern Ocean
Who’s onboard (partners)
• ULB (lead): Chantal De Ridder, Bruno Danis & Philippe Dubois
• UGent: Ann Van Reusel
• KUL: Filip Volckaert
• VUB: Frank Dehairs
• ULg: Gilles Lepoint
• RBINS: Anton Van de Putte
• MNHN: Marc Eléaume & Nadia Améziane
• UB: Bruno David & Thomas Saucède
Who’s onboard (followup)
• Hilde Eggermont (Belgian Biodiversity Platform, BE)
• François André (SPF Environment, BE)
• Steven Chown (Monash University, AUS)
• Huw Griffiths (British Antarctic Survey, UK)
• Julian Gutt (Alfred Wegener Institute, DE)
• Guillaume Lecointre (Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, FR)
Context
• SO experiencing fast-paced environmental changes
• Potential far-reaching modifications of ecosystem functions
• Multiple, interacting stressors: t°, pH, sedimentation, nutrients, food resources,…
• Little information on benthic systems
• RoI: WAP and TA
• New SCAR SRPs (AntERA, AntECO)
Objectives
• Assess the impact on various benthic taxa
• Multiscale, integrated approach
• Research on connectivity and adaptation, trophic ecology, sensitivity and resilience, modelisation
Workpackages
• WP1: Connectivity and Adaptation
• WP2: Trophic Ecology
• WP3: Sensitivity and Resilience
• WP4: Integrative modelling
• WP5: Valorisation
WP1: Connectivity and Adaptation
• identify the contemporaneous and past connectivities in nematods, amphipods, echinoderms and fishes
• identify and understand the dispersal-related processes that explain the distribution patterns and biodiversity
• assess relative importance of environmental and dispersal-related explanatory variables in determining distribution and biodiversity patterns.
• microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA markers
• specific spatio-temporal molecular patterns will be used to expand the predictive power and resolution of the models
WP2: Trophic Ecology
• delineate general trophic web structure and carbon pathways
• assess trophic variability
• estimate the adaptative potential of communities to future trophic changes
• characterise primary production and fluxes to the sea floor, energy flow through the benthic food web and trophic niches
• stable isotope tracing experiments or natural isotopic ratios and fatty acid compositions
WP3: Sensitivity and Resilience
• assess the combined effects of temperature, acidification, and food quality and quantity on nutrient fluxes, metabolism and functional structure
• prokaryotes, nematodes, amphipods and echinoids
• food sources enriched in heavy stable isotopes of C and N will be used to trace their fate in the trophic web.
• characterise energy metabolism and acid-base balance
• output of these experiments will be used in the interpretation of WP2 and WP4
• resilience analysis based on available long-term data and on modelling using sensitivity, connectivity and trophic ecology data
WP4: Integrative modelling
• run predictive models
• species distribution models (SDMs) and dynamic models
• integrate biogeographical, connectivity, trophic, sensitivity and environmental data
• fine-scale data will be used to validate predictive SDMs
• dual role in vERSO: science driver and integrator
WP5: Valorisation
• publication of scientific and Data papers
• transfer information to policy-makers, through Antarctic Environments Portal (www.environments.aq), CCAMLR, or the ATCM - CEP
• mentor young scientists and ongoing networking activities with APECS
• increase the use of new tools, methods and technologies
• create and maintain an attractive website targeting different (non-)expertise groups
• organise vERSO symposium, back-to-back with SCAR Biology Symposium 2017
More info
• http://biomar.ulb.ac.be/projects/verso/
• dedicated website yet to be deployed… stay tuned!