New Copernicus capability for trophic ocean networks

Project Information

NECCTON

Grant agreement ID: 101081273

DOI

10.3030/101081273

EC signature date 18 October 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 8 527 590,00

EU contribution

€ 8 527 588,75

Coordinated by

MERCATOR OCEAN
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NECCTON (New Copernicus capability for trophic ocean networks)

Reporting period: 2024-05-01 to 2025-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The ocean’s biodiversity supports the livelihoods of over three billion people, providing vital services, including food supply and nutrient cycling. However marine policy and resource management cannot yet exploit the latest scientific advances, even when the state-of-the-art operational models of the European Copernicus Marine Service are used.
Our overall objective is to enable the Copernicus Marine to deliver novel operational products that inform the conservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable management of seafood resources. The approach is to merge new data into innovative ecosystem models that integrate biological and abiotic components, habitats, and stressors of marine ecosystems.
NECCTON is inter-linking new models to the ones of the Copernicus Marine Service, thus building novel operational capacities to simulate higher-trophic-levels (fishes and marine mammals), benthic habitats, pollutants, and deliver projections of climate impacts on the ecosystem. We are developing new data-processing chains, supporting the use of novel ecosystem observations, including new hyperspectral data from satellites, as well as available acoustic, pollution and omics data. We are merging new data and models by using innovative machine-learning algorithms to improve models and data assimilation methods. These developments will be applied in thirteen case studies, co-designed with fisheries and conservation managers as part of our pathway-to-impact, resulting in the demonstration of Technological Readiness Level 6 of the NECCTON products.
The work is being developed by a team of twenty-three world-class organizations with track records for all the key project components. The work is being carried out under the auspices of the UNESCO-IOC, which endorsed the project as an action of the UN Decade of Ocean science for sustainable development, hosted by the Marine life 2030 Programme
On project completion, NECCTON will provide CMEMS with the scientific and technical capabilities to sustain twenty-seven new products in their operational portfolio, ultimately enabling users to make informed decisions on the exploitation of marine services, enhancing sustainability and conservation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project achieved a mature state of development of practices, models and collaborations, preparing solid ground for the next phases of model runs and case study applications.
In particular:
• All the new biogeochemistry and pollution (single pressure) modules and models have been developed and reported,
• The production chain for hyperspectral data has been fine-tune and tested,
• The NECCTON data-portal for dissemination has been developed and test-data have been loaded,
• The off-line simulation tools of the integrated modelling framework have been delivered.
Finally, several workshops and discussions for the standardization of the products, synchronization of the dependencies among simulations, output validation procedures and formatting for the portal have been held to get ready for running the models in the continuation of the project.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

NECCTON has produced a remarkable volume of high-quality scientific advances. A selection of key achievements published over the past year includes:
1. A novel global classification of micronekton distribution was developed based on biophysical ocean provinces, advancing our capacity to model mid-trophic levels in ecosystem simulations (Albernhe et al., 2024).
2. State-of-the-art machine learning (denoising diffusion models) was successfully applied to reconstruct missing satellite chlorophyll-a data, significantly improving ocean color data continuity in the Black Sea (Barth et al., 2024).
3. A hybrid covariance method was introduced to enhance resolution in ocean data assimilation, bridging gaps between high-resolution models and available observations (Barthélémy et al., 2024).
4. An innovative network-based prioritization approach identified critical gaps in the protection of Mediterranean seagrass habitats, contributing to spatial planning and biodiversity conservation (Baldan et al., 2024).
5. A new one-dimensional testbed (EAT v1.0.0) was developed for benchmarking data assimilation techniques in physical–biogeochemical models, fostering reproducibility and cross-model comparison (Bruggeman et al., 2024).
6. Empirical evidence was provided on the partial recovery of benthic macrofauna in the Black Sea, offering insight into long-term ecosystem responses to reduced eutrophication (Chevalier et al., 2024).
7. A systematic analysis demonstrated how biogeochemical observations constrain the accuracy of simulated marine ecosystem indicators, enhancing the design of observation-model systems (Ciavatta et al., 2025).
8. The ecological role of squid as key species in marine food webs was quantitatively analyzed, highlighting their influence on energy transfer and ecosystem metabolism (Denéchère et al., 2024).
9. A novel open-source toolset ("plasticparcels") was developed for simulating marine plastic dispersion, enabling reproducible parameterization and scenario testing (Denes and van Sebille, 2024).
10. A new method was established for deriving ocean biogeochemical properties from radiometric data via inversion of a three-stream irradiance model, improving remote sensing-based monitoring (Lazzari et al., 2024).
11. A modeling framework for rare, high-impact oil spills was created, supporting risk assessment and contingency planning in the Mediterranean Sea (Liubartseva et al., 2024).
12. The dual role of Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows as both sinks and vectors of microplastics was demonstrated, revealing implications for benthic ecosystems (Rigatou et al., 2025).
13. Aquatic deoxygenation was proposed as a critical planetary boundary, reframing its role in global Earth system stability and ecosystem regulation (Rose et al., 2024).
14. A novel method for estimating fishing exploitation rates was applied at global scale, enabling dynamic simulations of fish catches and biomass for both pelagic and demersal species (van Denderen et al., 2024).
15. Historical ecosystem modeling linked commercial whaling to seabird population shifts in the Arctic, providing insight into long-term trophic restructuring (Thepault et al., 2024).
16. The FEISTY Fortran library and R package were released to facilitate coupling between fish population dynamics and ocean biogeochemistry, significantly advancing model interoperability (Zhao et al., 2025).

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