Ecotab Predicting the effect of climate change on Arctic marine organisms

The goal of the ECOTAB project is to investigate how climate-induced changes in biological and environmental conditions will affect all Arctic marine organisms, plants and animals.

In the Arctic, climate change has repercussions linked to the dependence of marine ecosystems on ice. The reduction in sea-ice cover is expected to lead to a fundamental transformation of primary production: a decrease in ice algal production, and an increase in phytoplankton and microphytobenthos production.

This project will be run from the French/German research station in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway. Using existing data as a basis, it will apply a novel experimental approach to combine nutrient scenarios (such as ‘good/poor nutritional quality’) with environmental parameters (pH, salinity and temperature).

This project also aims to create sustainable international relationships between France, Norway, Germany and Canada so experts can bring and share their skills and expertise and thus gain a better understanding of how the whole Arctic ecosystem works.