The CHASANS Project will deliver improved larval connectivity models necessary to provide guidance on decommissioning and derogation of artificial structures in the North Sea.

Team expertise in epifaunal ecology, oceanographic modelling, and population genetics will be used to generate a multidisciplinary dataset to validate biologically realistic models of larval connectivity between sites in the North Sea. These models will be used to predict how networks of hard substrate in the North Sea function in the dispersal and metapopulation structure of marine epifauna.

NOC modelling will be based on the existing Scottish Shelf Model and Scottish Shelf Waters Reanalysis Service. The ‘offline’ flow fields will feed the particle-tracking model runs to simulate the dispersal of planktonic individuals of the selected species (epifaunal community) from a set of Oil&Gas and wind platforms in the North Sea.

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Websites:

PI: Dr Joanne Porter, Heriot Watt University; Prof. Michael Elliott, University of Hull

PI/NOC contact: Dr Michela De Dominicis
Email: micdom at noc.ac.uk

Dates
–
Funding

NERC – INSITE programme

Aim

The aim of the CHASANS project is to enhance our understanding of the connectivity of populations of marine fauna colonising artificial substrates across the North Sea. One of the outputs of the research is a tool which will predict how the distribution of epifauna is affected when specific artificial platforms are removed or added into the network. Such information will help to provide environmental evidence to decision makers regarding whether artificial platforms should be removed or remain in place, as well as allowing projection of connectivity based on future climate-driven scenarios.