AtlantECO: Atlantic Ecosystems assessment, forecasting & sustainability

The ambition of AtlantECO is to develop and apply a novel, unifying framework for providing knowledge-based resources to design policies, support decisions making and engage with citizens to encourage responsible behaviour to manage the Atlantic system and protect its Ecosystem Services (ES) provision. AtlantECO aims to determine the structure and function of the Atlantic microbiome in the context of ocean circulation and the presence of pollutants, e.g. plastics, to assess its role in driving Atlantic ecosystem dynamics at basin and regional scales; its potential to be used as a sensor of ecosystem status and the mechanisms by which it drives the provision of 5ES. This is key to improving our predictions of future ES provision in the basin and to support the establishment of a sustainable Blue Growth strategy for a fully Atlantic community. To realise this vision, AtlantECO has four objectives, which are: 1) To assess the dynamics of the Atlantic marine ecosystems, their ES provisioning and the interaction of both with socio-economic activities; 2) increase knowledge and data on the microbiomes, plastids, plastifera and carbon fluxes that underpin ecosystems at the basin scale using best practices and integrative sampling strategies, novel genomics, imaging and biogeochemical methods, bioinformatics and modelling approaches; 3) assessing and predicting the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors on the state and dynamics of ecosystems and ES provision, identifying their drivers and their role in tipping points, assessing their changes in the recovery of ecosystem structures, functions and services and developing eco-socio-economic models to predict future trajectories and 4) deploying a systemic strategy to build capacity and transfer knowledge for seamless engagement between science, industry, policy and society. To achieve these goals AtlantECO brings together experts and pioneers from Europe, South America and South Africa with relevant resources, knowledge and experience.