Our original project description from 2001 is shown below.  Follow the links for achievements and highlights under each area of science.

Our Original Aims

The Northern Seas Programme took ecosystem response to environmental change as its central theme. Our overall aim in this project was to determine how behaviour and physiological processes in key species control dynamics of marine communities. We focussed mainly on control by grazers of macroalgae and predators of sessile filter feeders in shallow waters, and the effects of pelagic predators (fishes) on zooplankton behaviour, feeding and biomass.

Shallow water habitats have the largest contribution to energy budgets of coastal regions. Seaweeds and filter feeding animals dominate communities these habitats. Seaweeds produce 700 g C.m^-2.yr^-1, much more than a typical 95 gC.m^-2.yr^-1 for phytoplankton, so in coastal areas, macroalgal production may exceed pelagic production by a factor of two. Similarly, consumption by filter-feeders may be up to 150 gC.m^-2.yr^-1. Understanding the control of filter feeders and macroalgae by grazers and predators is essential to understanding and modelling whole sea-loch ecosystems.

Risk of predation by fishes is thought to drive diurnal vertical migrations (DVM) of zooplankton, and models of DVM that incorporate such risk successfully predict DVM patterns . Yet actual risk of predation is poorly understood. Presence of fish predators may also suppress feeding activity. Understanding the effects of predation risk on DVM is a key issue in pelagic systems.

How can we scale up from these processes to understanding of marine systems as a whole? One approach is to incorporate behavioural processes of key species into models of communities and ecosystems. Models of virtual organisms in physical flow fields deliver are much better than models based on average numbers. Community models based on behavioural processes (see Mike Burrows web page) can predict effects of grazers on rocky shore communities and predator-prey interactions on shallow water fish communities. Field determinations of community patterns and dynamics allow the consequences of these complex behaviours to be measured.

Analysis of synchrony in population change and spatially-resolved approaches to community dynamics can be used to determine the scale of the process causing synchrony.  The link between scales of variability in abundance and the factors affecting abundance, such as temperature or wave action, tells us much about how ecosystems are structured on larger spatial and temporal scales.

Ultimately, understanding species and community responses to change plays a large part in what we can deliver to coastal managers and policy makers. The project complemented the ‘Marine Biodiversity and Climate Change’ MarClim project (MBA/SAMS), a programme of modelling and field surveys of the UK coast looking at responses of intertidal species to climate change.

Objectives

1. To determine the importance of consumer foraging behaviour and the modifying effects of physiological challenge in top-down control of macroalgae and sessile filter feeders by key species of predators and grazers in shallow waters at sea loch margins.

2. To determine the impact of environmental variables on the interactions of fish predators and their prey as key species in sea lochs and implications for community structure.

3. To develop models of (a) shallow-water communities in sea lochs, (b) populations of zooplankton and pelagic fishes based on small-scale behavioural processes of predation and grazing, (c) integrated whole sea loch models that measure impacts of key species on ecosystem function and to validate these models by studying patterns and dynamics of populations and communities in natural conditions.