NECCTON Logo NECCTON Data Viewer

NECCTON

NECCTON is transforming the European capability to predict and protect the biodiversity of marine ecosystems. New modelling products of fisheries, pollution and benthic habitats will enable the Copernicus Marine Service to better inform ocean policymakers, managers and publics

Why NECCTON?


The ocean’s biodiversity provides us with vital services: it sustains 32 out of the 33 known animal phyla and supports the livelihoods of over three billion people. These services are endangered by human pressures and climate change. To understand the pressures on the ocean and manage resources in a sustainable manner requires comprehensive, accurate and timely data.

The Copernicus Marine Service produces ocean monitoring products by integrating satellite and in situ ocean observations with marine models. However, the models currently applied are restraining the provision of information on biodiversity and marine food-webs.

Our vision is to build new and innovative models that will accurately simulate the marine ecosystem, including higher trophic level organisms and the benthic environment. NECCTON will use state-of-the-art techniques and incorporate new data streams to produce a fully integrated modelling system that more closely represents the functioning of the marine ecosystem.

Integrating our systems into the Copernicus Marine Service will enable a greater number of more reliable ocean products to be delivered to support biodiversity conservation and food security.

Learn more
NECCTON Illustration

Objectives

The overall objective of NECCTON is to enable CMEMS to deliver products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing innovative ocean ecosystem models and new data.

Biomass, production, migration and spatial distribution of marine higher trophic level organisms are intrinsically linked to environmental conditions and bottom-up trophic processes. NECCTON will link state-of-the-art higher trophic level models to current Copernicus Marine Service coupled physical-biogeochemical models. This will deliver operational products for nekton communities that support policy development and economic growth.

Biophysical interactions strongly influence habitat suitability for higher trophic level organisms. NECCTON will improve and extend the current Copernicus Marine Service capacity to deliver physical and biogeochemical products for the lower trophic levels of the marine ecosystem, which will improve support for higher trophic level modelling.

The benthic habitat is a vital and integral component of the marine ecosystem. NECCTON will build Copernicus Marine Service capacity on modelling benthic flora, fauna and sediments, to deliver products characterizing the variability of the biological communities.

NECCTON will build Copernicus Marine Service capability to model marine pollution and to assess integrated pressures, to deliver operational products that are relevant to protect biological communities.

Simulations of an ecosystem’s response to climate change scenarios are a valuable tool for marine management. NECCTON will develop capability for the Copernicus Marine Service to perform both hindcast and climate projections for biodiversity conservation and food resource management.

NECCTON will provide Copernicus Marine Service with new capability in integrating numerical model simulations and new and consolidated types of observations by making use of machine learning techniques and advanced data assimilation approaches.

NECCTON will develop a prototype modelling framework inter-linking the newly developed ecosystem-model components with all the existing Copernicus Marine Service biogeochemical and physical models. This will facilitate the sharing of models throughout the Copernicus Marine Service and enable model ensemble exercises to assess the reliability of products.

Case Studies

Read our case studies showing how NECCTON tools and products have been used and co-developed with stakeholders in the fisheries management and biodiversity conservation sectors.

fish

Ensemble of species distribution models to determine hot spots of aggregation in support of management plans and Marine Protected Area definition in the Mediterranean Sea

Fishery Management

aquaculture farm area

Mapping sources of pollutants transported towards Mediterranean aquaculture farm areas

Fishery Management

bottom of the sea

Natura 2000 marine protected areas in the Adriatic Sea

Biodiversity Conservation

Biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity conservation in the North West Black Sea 

Biodiversity Conservation

Whales

Climate-smart Marine Protected Area planning in the North West European Shelf

Biodiversity Conservation

Small pelagic fish

Small pelagic fish in the Bay of Biscay

Fishery Management

View all case studies

Want to learn more about the project?

NEWS AND PROJECT UPDATES

March 3, 2026|Project Update

NECCTON Highlights Ecosystem Forecasting Developments at European Ocean Days

NECCTON Presented at European Ocean Days: Supporting Ecosystem Forecasting for EU Marine Policy During the Marine Knowledge for Ocean Health session at European Ocean Days, the coordinator of the NECCTON project outlined how Europe is developing the capacity to produce operational marine ecosystem forecasts and why this capability is increasingly relevant for policy and management....

Learn more
February 27, 2026|Project Update

NECCTON Co-Organises Marine Ecosystem Modelling Session at OSM26

At the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 in Glasgow (22–27 February 2026), NECCTON co-organised the session “Advancing Marine Ecosystem Modeling for a Predictable and Sustainable Ocean” together with OceanPredict’s Marine Ecosystem Analysis and Prediction Task Team. ...

Learn more
October 20, 2025|News

Mapping 25 Years of Micronekton Dynamics Across Changing Ocean Provinces

This study defines environmentally similar “provinces” to map and track changes in micronekton biomass and vertical structure from 1998 to 2023, shedding light on the seasonal and year‑to‑year variability of these key mid‑sized ocean organisms that drive deep‑sea carbon export and feed many marine predators....

Learn more
Read all updates