The project ‘Climate change and fisheries impacts on small pelagic fish: dynamic, spatially explicit models in the service of the ecosystem-based fisheries management ‘(CLIMAFISH) is funded by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (G.S.R.T.) and the Hellenic Foundation of Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) in the framework of the Action "1st Announcement of H.F.R.I. to support Postdoctoral Researchers ".

The duration of the project is 32 months 13/07/2018 - 12/03/2021 and the total budget is 199.650,00€.

Who

The Hosting Organization of the project is the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (H.C.M.R.), with Scientific Coordinator the Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Eudoxia Schismenou.

What

The ultimate goal is to develop a full life cycle model for the main pelagic resources in the Aegean Sea (anchovy and sardine), coupled with a lower trophic level ecosystem model in a 3-D configuration. The composite model will provide a powerful, highly innovative tool and will be used for identifying drivers of population variability, understanding the response of the pelagic ecosystem to climatic variability and for testing alternative management scenarios for the sustainable exploitation of the resources.

How

Α newly developed multispecies (anchovy and sardine) 3D fish full life cycle model,

• will describe the main features of small pelagic fish (anchovy and sardine) full life cycle, under the influence of trophic regimes provided by a coupled hydrodynamic–biogeochemical model
• will build up from the 3-D full life cycle model that has already been developed for European anchovy by Politikos et al. (2015),
• will be further elaborated with regard to a key aspect of small pelagic fish bioenergetics that is energy allocation strategies to growth and reproduction and
• will be tested and validated using data collected during the project as well as past data from the HCMR archives
• will then be used in a series of simulations under different climate change scenarios (e.g., temperature rise) and alternative management options for the pelagic fisheries (e.g., closed seasons/areas) in order to identify climatic and human-related drivers of population variability and sardine/anchovy shifts and
• will propose suitable strategies for the sustainable exploitation of the resources taking a step towards an ecosystem-based management of the pelagic resources

Why

The project will deliver new, state-of-the-art tools to address the ecosystem-based fisheries management. The proposed tasks will advance knowledge by:

• Improving our understanding on key aspects of the biology and ecology of small pelagic fish and the pelagic ecosystem at relevant spatial and temporal scales
• Developing innovative, dynamic and spatially explicit modeling tools essential for an ecosystem-based management of important fisheries resources
• Providing insights on the effect of climate variability and alternative management options through the development and evaluation of different environmental and fishing scenarios
• Providing forecast simulations of small pelagic fish as a proof of principle that coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical-fish models can be used to project the exploited stocks into the future under climatic change

Contact

Eudoxia Schismenou, PhD
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR)
Former American Base, Gournes
71500 Heraklion Crete
Greece
T: +30 2810 337831
E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.