Governments and marine authorities increasingly rely on accurate, forward-looking information to protect marine life, respond to climate impacts, and manage the growing pressures on our oceans.
At the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 (22-28th Feb, 2026), the EU NECCTON project and OceanPredict will host a special session demonstrating how the latest generation of ecosystem models is providing exactly this kind of actionable insight.
The sessions demonstrates how integrated ecosystem models — combining Copernicus Marine Service outputs, in situ observations, machine learning, and process-based approaches — are enabling anticipatory, science-based decision-making in the context of accelerating climate change and increasing cumulative human pressures.
Contributions address key priorities including:
- Operational oceanography for policy support - including hybrid AI–numerical approaches that enhance biogeochemical forecasts and enable early warning of ecosystem stress, and bias-corrected climate projections that improve confidence in long-term fisheries and habitat assessments.
- Biodiversity assessment and nature restoration - by resolving plankton, zooplankton, micronekton, and fish functional groups, and by improving representation of habitat quality, oxygen stress, and ecosystem functioning on continental shelves.
- Cumulative impact and multi-stressor assessment - using new operational tools capable of simulating pollution (mercury, plastics, POPs, oil spill risk), deoxygenation, acidification, marine heatwaves, and fishing pressure within a unified modelling framework.
- From observation to action - with models co-designed with stakeholders, validated against in situ data, and delivered as open, operational products supporting regional, European, and global ocean governance.
- Climate adaptation and resilience - featuring ecosystem–population modelling of anchovy in the Bay of Biscay and the Black Sea, revealing how climate variability, fishing pressure, and food-web dynamics influence population stability and recovery.
Together, these contributions show how ecosystem modelling is becoming a strategic capability for evidence‑based ocean policy, aligned with initiatives such as the European OceanPact, Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Nature Restoration agenda.
