Effects of fishing and climate changes on the demersal and pelagic ecosystems of the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean Sea): an end-to-end modeling approach

1 year post-doc position starting from 1st  September 2011 or 1st  January 2012

Location- LMGEM, LOPB, Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Université de la Méditerranée (Aix-Marseille II) Campus de Luminy, Marseille, France
 
Context- The postdoctoral position  is proposed  in the context of the EMIBIOS project (End-to-end Modelling and Indicators for BIOdiversity Scenarios) in collaboration with researchers from COM (LMGEM-LOPB), Ifremer (UMR EME Sète, Boulogne sur Mer, Brest), IRD (UMR EME Sète, University of Cape Town) and Plymouth Marine Laboratory – UK.

The  EMIBIOS  project (2011-2014), founded by “Fondation pour la recherche sur la Biodiversité”  (www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/scenarios), proposes an innovative end-to-end modeling approach to project future trajectories of marine biodiversity and associated ecosystem services under a combination of IPCC-SRES (climate scenarios) and fisheries management scenarios in six marine ecosystems (Gulf of Lions, English Channel, Adriatic Sea, gulf of Gabes, Southern Benguela and Northern Humboldt).

The end-to-end modeling approach  ensures  integration of the main components of the marine ecosystem from the physics, biogeochemistry, exploited fish species up to the fishes and associated management and socio-economic contexts, while taking into account feedbacks within the environment-human system.  This type of  models  enables  to better understand the complex ecosystem effects of key drivers such as fishing and climate in simulating how the future may unfold under various scenarios (Shin et al., 2010). These models produce various ecosystem indicators used for supporting ecosystem and fisheries management. For example, they contribute to analyze the influence of climate change and fishing pressure on  the  species composition, growth, reproduction, spatial and size distribution of fish and plankton.
 
Scientific objective- to study the effects of fishing and climate changes on the demersal and pelagic ecosystems of the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean Sea).  

Methodology  &  tools-  To fulfill the  scientific  objective an end-to-end  (E2E)  modeling approach will be used (Travers et al., 2009, Shin et al., 2010). The first part will consist  in building  the E2E model. A true –2-ways– coupling will be made between a biogeochemical low trophic level model implemented in the  Eco3M  platform and  the individual-based high trophic level (HTL) OSMOSE model. This technical part will benefit from works in progress on the coupling between HTL Ecopath and Ecosim models (Banaru et al., in review) and  the
implementation of  a one-way forcing of the OSMOSE model by  the LTL food fields from Eco3M in the Gulf of Lions (Banaru, Campbell & Diaz, in prep).

The Eco3M  (Ecological Modular Mechanistic Model) numerical platform for biogeochemical modelling developed at LOPB (Baklouti et al., 2006a,b) is a modular tool that handles multi-element multi-functional group biogeochemical models.  Regional studies  on effects of mesoscale physical structures  on the plankton distributions (Campbell et al., submitted; Eisenhauer et al. 2009) and on the origin of the accumulation of dissolved organic carbon in the stratified  layer of Med. Sea  (Mauriac et al., 2011) have used models of major biogenic elements (C, N, P, Si) and non-redfieldian  functional  types of plankton  implemented  in the Eco3M platform.  The  HTL model  OSMOSE  (Object-oriented  Simulator of  Marine ecOSystems Exploitation) is currently developed at IRD-IFREMER by Y.-J. SHIN and this is a multispecies, spatial, dynamic, individual-based model focused on fish species (fisheries perspective), details their  life cycle (growth, predation, starvation, reproduction, migration) (Shin et al., 2004).

Once the tool technically operationnal,  the candidate will validate the coupled model with field data (catches and biomasses) and perform sensitivity, responsiveness and specificity properties of biodiversity indicators (Travers et al., 2006). Global change scenarios will be tested and analyzed: climate, overfishing and marine protected areas implementation scenarios.  
 
Requested skills:
Programming & Softwares: R, Matlab, Java, Fortran 90, SPSS/R/Statistica (statistics).
Experience in using ECO3M, OSMOSE and Ecopath with Ecosim will be appreciated.
 
Languages:
English (and French)
 
Contacts:  
Daniela BANARU – LMGEM OSU-COM, Tel: 33(0)491829120; daniela.banaru@univmed.fr
Frédéric DIAZ – LOPB OSU-COM, Tel: 33(0)0491829337; frederic.diaz@univmed.fr
 
References-
Auger P-A., Diaz F., Ulses C., Estournel C., Neveux J., Joux F., Pujo-Pay M. Naudin J-J., in revision. Functioning of the planktonic ecosystem of the Rhone River plume (NW Mediterranean) during spring and its impact on the carbon export: a field data and 3-D modelling combined approach, Biogeosciences.

Baklouti M., Diaz  F., Pinazo C., Faure V., Queguiner B.,  2006a. Investigation of mechanistic formulations depicting phytoplankton dynamics for marine pelagic ecosystems and description of a new model. Progress in Oceanography, 71: 1-33.

Baklouti M., Faure V., Pawlowski L.,  Sciandra A., 2006b.  Investigation and sensitivity analysis of a mechanistic phytoplankton model implemented in a new modular numerical tool (Eco3M) dedicated to biogeochemical modelling.. Progress in Ocenography, 71: 34-58.

Banaru D., Mellon-Duval C., Roos D., Bigot J.L., Souplet A., Jadaud A., Beaubrun P., Fromentin J.M., (in review) Trophic structure and fisheries interactions in the gulf of Lions (north-western Mediterranean). ICES Journal of Marine Systems.  

Campbell R., Diaz F., Hu Z., Doglioli A., Petrenko A., Dekeyser I.,  submitted. Plankton spatial distributions induced by a coastal anticylconic eddy. Ocean Modelling.

Eisenhauer L., Carlotti F., Baklouti M., Diaz F., 2009.  Zooplankton population model coupled to a biogeochemical model of the North Western Mediterranean Sea ecosystem. Ecological Modelling, 220: 2865-2876.  

Mauriac R., Moutin T., Baklouti M., 2011. Accumulation of DOC in Low Phosphate Low Chlorophyll (LPLC) area: is it related to higher production under high N:P ratio? Biogeosciences 8: 933-950

Shin Y.-J., Cury P., 2004. Using an individual-based model of fish assemblages to study the response of size spectra to changes in fishing. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 61: 414-431.

Shin Y.-J., Travers M, Maury O., 2010. Coupling models low and high trophic level models: towards a pathways-oriented approach for end-to-end models. Progress in Oceanography, 84: 105-112.

Travers M, Shin  Y.-J., Jennings  S., Machu  E., Huggett  J.A., Field J.G., Cury  P., 2009.  Two-way coupling versus one-way forcing of plankton and fish models to predict ecosystem changes in theBenguela. Ecological Modelling, 220: 3089-3099.

Travers M., Shin Y.-J., Shannon L.J., Cury P., 2006. Simulating and testing the sensitivity of ecosystem-based indicators to fishing in the southern Benguela ecosystem. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 63: 943-956.