Activities

Over SESAME's four-year implementation period, existing information, models, simulations and scenarios will be integrated under several Work Packages (WPs). The models will embrace the broad spectrum of physical and ecological features and processes that characterise the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and will assess the combined effects of natural and anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems that have occurred over the last 50 years, as well as predict those which might occur in the next five decades. The resulting predictions will feed into socio-economic drivers, further used to develop sustainable management policies for the Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystem.

The goals of assessment, prediction, application, and training and information management, delineate SESAME's scientific objectives. The Work Packages are, therefore, split into the following categories:

Assessment

Historical and current multidisciplinary datasets will be collected, in order to analyse the signals of environmental changes in the past and validate the models. Simultaneously, new information will be gathered through oceanographic cruises, which will provide an overall picture of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, as well as essential data for further model validation.

Prediction

Basin and regional scale simulations with circulation-ecosystem models will be used to predict the responses of Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystems in the next fifty years. The models will be validated and upgraded through use of existing and new data. Furthermore, a limited number of scenarios, including socioeconomic analysis, will be chosen and later used to predict ecosystem changes resulting from each scenario.

Application

The impact of ecosystem variability on human welfare, in the form of two goods - tourism and fisheries- and two services - ecosystem stability and mitigation of climate change will be evaluated by socioeconomic models. The two goods are closely related to ecosystem quality, while the two services can provide information on the impact of climatic change on marine ecosystems and their response.

Training and Information Management

Training and educational opportunities will be provided across-the-board, through various activities. Most SESAME data will be available to all stakeholders, and effective mechanisms for the collection and availability of SESAME related historical data, newly collected data and model data will be implemented, while SESAME's proficient management will ensure the high quality of deliverables in the most efficient/scientific way.