TRIATLAS: Tropical and South Atlantic climate-based marine ecosystem prediction for sustainable management
Sustainable management of human activities affecting Atlantic marine ecosystems is critical to maintain its health and to support the blue economy of the bordering countries. TRIATLAS contributes to this by delivering knowledge of the current state and future changes of the Atlantic marine ecosystems. We achieve this goal through a basin-wide approach that integrates research from the North and South, and that closes critical knowledge gaps in the Tropical and South Atlantic that impede an understanding of the entire basin.
- 33 partners from 13 countries
- Project duration: June 2019 – May 2023
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578.
EXEBUS: Extreme Events in the Benguela Upwelling System
The Benguela Upwelling System of South Africa, Namibia, and Angola is one four Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems. It is bordered with warm tropical water of Angola in the north and by the Agulhas Current in the south. Changes in the coupled atmosphere marine climate, natural or anthropogenic, both within the Benguela upwelling and beyond, affect ecological and socio-economic important sub-systems, potentially affecting millions of people, residents of the coastline and those who derive their livelihoods and resources from the BUS. Our aim in the EXEBUS project is to understand the drivers of change in the BUS and its contribution to the changing variability of the system, with an emphasis on extreme events. Given that both natural and human induced changes to the functioning of the BUS occur at a range of time and space scales and are also interdependent, we seek to understand extreme events and their impact
PECO2
PIRATA
The Kizomba PIRATA buoy, is the south-eastern extension of the original PIRATA array of moorings. It was deployed in 4 100 m deep at about 6° S, 8° E in May 2013. On top of typical PIRATA sensor, the mooring is fitted with a surface currentmeter and an incoming longwave radiation sensor to have an accurate description of the net heat budget in the location of the mooring, under the stratocumulus desk of the South Atlantic, a region notoriously known for bias in ocean atmosphere coupled model. Mooring data and satellite remote sensing estimates of salinity indicates numerous intrusions of low salinity water from the Congo River since 2013. The addition of a current meter is of great value in interpreting the results. Moreover CTD transect from the coast to the mooring location during replacement offer new insight on the hydrography of the region.
GINA (Gliders in the Agulhas Experiment)
GINA is a multi-institutional project funded by CSIR-NRE (SOCCO, Coastal Systems and Ecosystem Earth Observations groups), Nansen-Tutu Centre for Marine Environmental Research, University of Gothenburg (Department of Marine Science), SAEON, ORI, DEA. Like drones, ocean gliders are autonomous robotic platforms which can be piloted from land. In June/July 2017, an SV3 Liquid Robotic Waveglider and a Seaglider will undertook a 2 month journey from Richards Bay to Port Elizabeth. On the 7 of September 2018, Another glider was launched off Richards Bay. Throughout their journey the gliders will measure a range of oceanic parameters. The collected information will in turn be used by marine scientists to improve our knowledge of how the Agulhas Current influences the coastal regions along the South African eastern shores.
PREFACE
PREFACE “Enhancing prediction of Tropical Atlantic climate and its impacts” was a climate change project with 28 partners across 18 countries in Europe and Africa, and 3 associate partners directly involved in the sustainable management of the three Eastern boundary large marine ecosystems of the Tropical Atlantic. PREFACE is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme Cooperation (ENV.2013.6.1-1: Climate-related ocean processes and combined impacts of multiple stressors on the marine environment), under Grant Agreement number 603521. It is ended in 2018
SCAMPI
This project aimed to carry out interdisciplinary research in the marine environment, addressing different scales of variability in the oceans off southern Africa and provided knowledge that allowed impacts of future climate change to be anticipated and adaptation strategies developed. The project spanned the “Environment” and “Climate System” thematic areas of the SANCOOP call. It built on the already-established, strong relationships between the University of Cape Town’s Marine Research Institute (including the Nansen-Tutu Centre), the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Bergen, and the University of Bergen and the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo.