IMMERSE: Integrated Macroecology and Modelling to Elucidate Regulation of Services from Ecosystems

Our knowledge of marine ecosystems is fragmented, and our ability to predict the consequences of various natural and human changes in those ecosystems is limited. To manage the marine environment we need to understand change and consequences of change over large areas and long time periods. In this project we will develop a whole-ecosystem approach to understand changes in marine ecosystems around the UK, and the services they provide.
Ecosystem services are the benefits that human society derives from the environment. These include food, recycling of materials and well-being. Coastal and shelf marine ecosystems are biodiverse and complex. They are highly productive, bringing huge benefits to humans. They are also under enormous pressure from human drivers such as fishing and climate change. The role of ecological structure in supporting key ecosystem services is not fully understood. Ecosystem services cannot be measured simply, and they vary in importance and magnitude according to how they are defined and observed. Understanding the ecosystem processes governing the way that services vary naturally, and in response to human pressures, requires a computer-modelling approach. NERC has good models, but these have limited ability to predict change in all but the lowest levels of marine food webs. Several well-respected modelling approaches focusing on food webs and larger organisms such as fish and mammals are commonly used, but gaps in knowledge hamper the inclusion of whole food webs into models that consider environmental and food web changes together. This is due to the way marine food webs have generally been studied in their separate components, at different scales or for specific applications such as biogeochemistry or fisheries.
We propose a highly integrated project to make best use of existing data spread among different data holders across the UK and beyond. The integrated data will be used for analyses based on the latest ecological theories to inform and improve a range of models. These models will be used collectively to examine changes in ecosystems and potential future consequences for the services they deliver. The geographical focus of the programme will be the western seas, from the western English Channel, through the Celtic and Irish Seas, to western Scotland, although relevant data from other parts of UK waters will be included where appropriate.
The novelty of this project is in using recent technologies to combine existing datasets into an integrated system with new experiments and field work for a genuine whole ecosystem analysis from phytoplankton to fisheries at whole shelf scales. We will include this new knowledge in models to examine how energy and materials move within food webs and how these are influenced by pressures. Model outputs will be translated to the services across the range of scales needed to inform management decisions.
The consortium brings together 28 key researchers from 10 UK organisations to integrate existing knowledge, data, models and new information, to allow us to understand how marine ecosystems will change in the future, and how those changes will alter the benefits humans derive from the marine environment. The project is part of a larger programme, and results and outputs will be crucial for supporting development of NERC's biogeochemical models, and application of model development to test the impact and efficiency of potential management interventions. The legacies of this project will include tools and combined datasets that will place the UK far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of our ability to conduct meaningful ecological and food web studies, and a world-leading capability to analyse and model whole ecosystems and understand the consequences of change in terms of ecosystems services.

The IMMERSE programme will have far reaching impact upon a diverse range of beneficiaries, including policy makers, environmental managers, marine monitoring initiatives and wider society. The programme outputs will place the UK as an international leader in macroecology and ecosystem modelling by improving understanding of the regulation of key ecosystem services, scale-dependence in the underlying processes, functional diversity at different trophic levels and the impact of stressors on the marine environment. It will also provide vital data for, and improvements to, UK marine modelling to explore the impact of environmental change on the structure, function and services associated with marine food webs across scales.
The research and outputs generated by the programme will primarily be of direct relevance and benefit to UK and European policymakers and environmental managers working towards the sustainable exploitation of the UK and Europe's marine environment. These include those working within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Marine Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales, Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), United Nations Environmental Programme, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and others. By using already well-established links with these organizations and developing these further, targeted outputs will be disseminated to policy beneficiaries to help refine current indicators of state and drivers, ensuring a common currency and, therefore, a smooth transition of robust science between the scientific and policy communities.

The novel, whole system approach employed in IMMERSE will also be of benefit to a wide range of organisations and networks with an interest or involvement in marine monitoring, resource management, marine planning, fisheries, aquaculture, energy provision, licencing, predicting ecosystem change, conservation and food security. The programme will consolidate a range of data sources to provide these organisations and networks with clean, rationalised datasets that are of meaningful and add value to their activities. These include: AFBI, British Ecological Society (BES), Celtic Seas Partnership (CPS), Cefas, Sea Watch Foundation, fisheries Regional Advisory Councils, RSPB, Valuing Nature Network, Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership, and data networking and integrating groups such as Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), National Biodiversity Network, Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), UK Integrated Marine Observing Network (UKIMON), European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO), UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy Evidence Groups, NERC Knowledge Exchange Programme on Sustainable Food Production, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, Ifremer and IUCN. Existing collaborations combined with new links will facilitate the dissemination and publicity of IMMERSE outputs to the benefit of these organisations and networks.

There is a wider public interest in the research of IMMERSE in that shelf seas are a source of food and energy that is susceptible to environmental change with subsequent socio-economic implications. This includes interest from educational institutes that often require societally-relevant, novel issues to provide context to the science curriculum. This programme will also demonstrate to wider interest groups the shift from individual, narrowly focused studies to "big picture" research endeavours, designed to feed into addressing large social challenges and illustrate how marine science can provide wide-ranging benefits to society.
Methods for engaging with stakeholders are described in the IMMERSE Pathways to Impact.