Talk Description

The increasing number and intensity of anthropogenic drivers have significant effects on the functioning of coastal ecosystems. Drivers interact with each other, leading to cumulative effects whose consequences on ecosystems may be difficult to predict. Using Ecospace, the spatial-temporal framework of EwE and ecological network analysis, Quentin will present a new methodology to quantify the potential effects of multiple anthropogenic drivers on the Seine Bay ecosystem functioning and resilience, in the Eastern English Channel. Drivers include the future Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind farm, climate change, and the potential effects of Brexit on fishing. Results indicate that interactions between drivers are heterogeneous across space, over time and among ecosystem functional properties, and that the potential structuring effects of some drivers have a preponderous role in cumulative responses. The work shows that it is important to carry out local functional studies of the effects of multiple drivers, so as to correctly predict ecosystem changes.

Bio

Quentin Nogues is currently completing a PhD thesis entitled: “Study of the cumulative impacts around the offshore wind farm of the Seine Bay: what are the consequences for the trophic functioning of the ecosystem, its resilience and ecosystem services?”. Through this work, Quentin has assessed the effects of multiple anthropogenic drivers on the ecosystem functioning using Ecological Network Analysis (ENA). An Ecospace model has been developed to consider the cumulative effects of climate change, an offshore wind farm, and fishing on the ecosystem. These effects have been mapped using ENA indices with Ecospace to quantify spatial changes of the ecosystem.