Climate change and European aquatic resources (CERES)

Description:

CERES advances a cause-and-effect understanding of how climate change will influence Europe’s most important fish and shellfish resources and the economic activities depending on them. It will provide tools and develop adaptive strategies allowing fisheries and aquaculture sectors and their governance to anticipate and prepare for adverse changes or future benefits of climate change. CERES will involve and closely cooperate with industry and policy stakeholders to:

• Provide regionally and industry relevant future projections of key environmental variables for European marine and freshwater ecosystems;
• Integrate the resulting knowledge on changes in productivity, biology and ecology of wild and cultured animals, and ‘scale up’ to consequences for shellfish and fish populations as well as their ecosystems and economic sectors;
• Assist in the adaptation of aquatic food production industries, including the development of early warning methods, new operating procedures, infrastructures, location choice and commercial markets;
• Assess relative exposure, sensitivity, vulnerability and adaptive capacity within the European fisheries and aquaculture sectors;
• Consider market-level responses to changes (both positive and negative) in commodity availability as a result of climate change;
• Apply innovative risk-assessment methodologies encompassing drivers of change and threats to fishery and aquaculture resources, barriers to adaptation and likely consequences if measures are not put in place;
• Formulate viable autonomous adaptation strategies within the industries to prevent perceived risks or to access future opportunities;
• Formulate policy guidelines and highlight management challenges where established governance structures may hinder successful adaptation to long-term climate change.

Available results of the project are scientific papers exploring possible adaptation strategies such as consuming jellyfish as novel food, or reporting stakeholder perception about climate change-aquaculture interactions.

Project information

Lead

University of Hamburg (Germany)

Partners

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (United Kingdom), National Inter-university Consortium for Marine Sciences – CONISMA (Italy), Technical University of Denmark (Denmark), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research – HCMR (Greece), Spanish Institute of Oceanography (Spain), French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea – IFREMER (France), Longline Environment Ltd (United Kingdom), National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (United Kingdom), Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute – SMHI (Sweden), University of Hull (United Kingdom), Vet-Aqua International (Ireland), West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin (Poland), Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (Portugal), Stichting Wageningen Research (Netherlands), Institute of Marine Research (Norway), Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development (Romania), Spanish National Research Council – CSIC (Spain), Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries (Germany), Mersin University (Turkey), Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association (Netherlands), KILIC (Turkey), Cooperative Kottervisserij (Nederland), Inskie Centrum Rybactwa Spolka Zoo (Poland), Sagremarisco-Viveiros de Marisco (Portugal)

Source of funding

Horizon 2020 Programme