• The meeting takes place in Donostia-San Sebastian from 14-17 June and will be attended by about 40 climate change experts from all over Europe.
• AZTI-Tecnalia is looking at how various climate scenarios could affect commercial fishing species in the Bay of Biscay

(Pasaia, Basque Country. 14 June 2011). AZTI-Tecnalia, an R+D centre specialising in marine and food research, will be bringing together the main European scientists to analyse the evolution in marine ecosystems facing climate change This meeting falls within the European project known as MEECE (Marine Ecosystem Evolution in a Changing Environment) that uses prediction models to explore what effects are exerted on marine ecosystems by the different climate indicators (acidification, light, circulation and temperature) as well as those caused by human activity (fishing, pollution, invasive species, and eutrophication). The meeting takes place from 14 to 17 June at the Miramar Palace in Donostia-San Sebastian (Basque Country).

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is calling for an ecosystemic approach to be applied in the management of human activities. The scientific challenge is to research and understand the sensibilities and potential responses of marine ecosystems facing climate change and the direct effects of human activity.

Understanding how marine ecosystems function and how they are affected and transformed by human activities is one of the aims of the AZTI-Tecnalia R+D Centre.With this aim in mind, the centre is observing the ecosystem, studying the processes and developing models that enable the changes and effect of the corrective measures proposed to be simulated.

This project, funded by the European Commission and by the Department for the Environment, Spatial Planning, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community (region) (Sub-Ministry for Agricultural and Fishery Development), was started in 2008 and is set to run for five years. It aims to develop a model linked up to hydrodynamics (Nutrient-Phytoplankton-Zooplankton-Detritus-NPZD) for the Bay of Biscay. This model will be used with different scenarios of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to simulate and evaluate the future changes that could take place in exploited fishing species, and an operating model will be started to simulate the consequences of the various measures for management under different climate scenarios.

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