Physical changes, such as temperature, precipitation and ice cover lead to altered water circulation and ocean chemical composition that can influence ocean ecosystems. This session will examine climate change impacts on marine physical, chemical and biological processes and their interactions. This topic seeks contributions exploring multiple stressors such as temperature rise, salinity changes, ocean acidification, deoxygenation and their effects on physiology, ecology, species distribution, population and ecosystem dynamics.

Downscaling global climate and ecosystem models to regional and local scales is important for understanding small scale ecosystem structure. Contributions are welcome that focus on shifts, trends and variability in the marine environment and biota at seasonal, interannual, decadal, and century timescales.

Coastal areas are important for humans and marine ecosystems. It is there that water and land meet, marine life is rich and diverse, and human populations are concentrated and reliant upon services provided by the ocean. Climate change will have strong effects on coastal morphology and erosion through processes such as variation in sea‐level and related storm surges. This session seeks abstracts on topics related to the impacts of sea-level rise, upwelling and downwelling, altered nutrient cycling, wave energy and ocean currents on coasts, marine habitats and their biota.

The assessment of anthropogenic effects requires a sound knowledge base of the complex spatial and temporal relationships between human activities and the sensitivity of marine ecosystem components. The monitoring and evaluation of impacts such as pollution, including marine debris, petrochemicals and other toxics, coming from human activities, is essential. Particularly important are observation-based results demonstrating temporal trends, fates of pollutants, pollution sources, transport pathways (current, river, atmosphere, submarine groundwater etc.) and the impacts on the ecosystem.

Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) is a holistic approach to management that considers the entire ecosystem, including humans. Its goal is to maintain the ecosystem in a healthy, productive and resilient state while exploiting natural resources for the benefit of the society, and assuring that the ecosystem services it provides are available for current and future generations. This topic explores the assessment of direct and indirect effects of diverse human uses (e.g. fisheries, mariculture, marine energy, transportation and other sectors) on coastal systems. Abstracts are welcome that address the management of those effects in relation to ecosystem integrity and resilience.

This topic addresses the evaluation of management strategies/options and their consequences for marine ecosystems. With the implementation of links between science and management, future risks, conflicts or synergies (e.g. between wind farm development and aquaculture) can be identified, and trade-offs might be eased. Outcomes will offer decision support and thus facilitate the communication between scientists, stakeholders, planners and decision makers. Abstracts are invited that address how science will contribute to better management practices such as Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), and how science and policy need to interact to lead to wise decisions.

Marine biodiversity has a global conservation value and is an important factor in marine ecosystem functioning. This topic will embrace studies that characterize marine biodiversity patterns, describe biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationships and link community and species’ traits to ecosystem function.

Abstracts will address the ecology of individuals, populations and the interaction of species within marine communities using modeling and observation techniques. The session invites studies that link evolutionary and ecological dynamics, examine multi-taxonomic and/or multi-habitat interactions, such as bentho-pelagic coupling, and investigate other biological relationships in the ocean.

Marine ecosystems play a key role in the cycling of carbon and other important elements, but many biological processes directing these biogeochemical cycles remain poorly understood. This topic welcomes studies that explore the importance of biological processes for biogeochemical cycles. It will include studies on plankton dynamics, primary/secondary production processes, the microbial community, carbon transport to the deep (biological pump), and studies that link ecosystem models with biogeochemistry.

The forecasting of marine ecosystems under changing conditions will be explored in this session. Abstracts will be research focused on forecasting the changes in ecosystems that may result from environmental drivers, predicting how human populations may be affected by ecosystem dynamics, and dealing with uncertainty in projections. Additionally, investigations of various tools supporting ecological forecasting may be included.