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ReDEcO - Regional Drivers of Ecosystem Change and its Influence on Deep-Sea populations in the Mediterranean

Summary information

Funding:MarinERA ERA-NET project
Ec contribution:924753
Start date:2009-04-01
End date:2012-04-01
Duration:36 months
Coordinator:Nikolaos Lampadariou (nlamp@her.hcmr.gr)
Organisation:Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - Greece
Project name:ReDEcO - Regional Drivers of Ecosystem Change and its Influence on Deep-Sea populations in the Mediterranean
Project summary:ReDEco brings together a consortium of six partners from four European countries with the aim to study the effects of regionally-driven ecosystem changes in selected deep-sea habitats of the Mediterranean Sea. The project focuses on key drivers of climate change such as temperature changes, shifts in surface productivity and cold water cascading, and examines their impacts on deep-sea populations. The principal objectives of the research programme are to:
• understand the effects of climate change on deep-sea ecosystems in relation to climate driven regional key factors and events;
• examine the variation of total particle flux to the seabed and understand how this may affect the micro-, meio-, macro-, and megabenthic communities;
• study benthic community responses to varying food supply;
• examine the effects of climate induced changes on deep-sea communities over shorter and longer (more than a decade)timescales;
• investigate historical demography and biogeography of selected species with distinctive dispersal capability and reproductive strategy;
• integrate available historical data, time series measurements and newly acquired data in a conceptual model to predict the impact of climate change on various physicochemical and/or biological parameters.
ReDEco will improve our understanding and prediction of decadal-scale fluctuations and their impact on biological communities and ecosystem functioning, which is essential for identifying vulnerable systems and pursuing options to enhance resilience and human well-being.