About SESAME

SESAME is a 4-year European Union-funded project designed to study the Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystems and their abilities to provide goods and services with high societal importance, such as tourism, fisheries and ecosystem stability through conservation of biodiversity. The need for consistent information, together with the indispensable linking of natural and socio-economic sciences, on these two ecosystems have mapped out SESAME's research path. Both the Mediterranean and Black Sea have been experiencing intensive development and exploitation due to their strategic geographical position, and are equally susceptible to human pressures and climate change. SESAME has been suitably created to assess the changes that have occurred in these ecosystems over the last 50 years , while simultaneously predict changes in the ability of the two seas to sustain essential ecosystem functions in the next 50 years.