The NECCTON project has reached an important milestone, unveiling a new generation of marine ecosystem models that promise to transform how we understand and manage our oceans.
By linking together models of plankton, seafloor habitats, fish populations, pollution pathways and climate stress, NECCTON has created one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of how marine ecosystems function and change over time. This integrated approach has allowed the team to deliver 27 new or significantly improved variables—ranging from seabed oxygen to tuna biomass to microplastic concentrations—many of which have now been validated and recommended for inclusion in the Copernicus Marine Service.
Read the full report here.
For stakeholders, scientists, managers, and marine industries, this represents a step change. The recommended variables will give users direct access to information that was previously unavailable or scattered—such as fish biomasses distributions, light conditions at the seabed, climate stress indicators for key species, or pollution dynamics across regional seas. These insights have practical value: supporting fisheries and conservation planning, improving risk assessments for pollution and climate impacts, and enabling more informed policy actions under the EU’s environmental directives.
Perhaps most importantly, NECCTON’s work demonstrates how modelling can fill persistent observational gaps, especially for hard to measure processes on the seafloor or within the food web. But observations remain essential for validating the models so they can be used with confidence, and NECCTON has highlighted key observational gaps.
As these new datasets are tested in real world case studies, many are expected to reach full operational readiness, marking a major advance in Europe’s capacity to monitor, manage and protect its marine environments.
