Changing Ocean Ireland: Forecasting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Response. (CÓIR)

Climate change is one of the greatest societal challenges of our time, and a key priority outlined in national/international strategies and policies. The CÓIR project brings together an interdisciplinary group of marine scientists based at NUI Galway to work on an integrative national climate change project with colleagues at the Marine Institute and throughout Ireland via existing networks of marine researchers within the SFI centres iCRAG and MAREI. The work programme utilises the experience of the PI’s in marine and climate related aspects of the physical and social sciences to develop an integrative program for assessing climate change in the marine environment in Ireland and the impacts this has on biodiversity, ecosystem services and food webs.

Project Start date: May 2021

Project Duration: 5 Years

Funded by: Marine Institute (MI)

Funded Amount: €688,970

This project is designed to provide the link between current climate change research, on international and national scales, with the need to provide operational advice and support to stakeholders including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Irish Government, European Commission and international organisations (e.g. EuroGOOS, ICES, OSPAR). These goals will be achieved through stakeholder engagement and cooperation leading to the development of decision support tools to provide the critical relevant information for assessing sustainability in the marine environment to facilitate blue growth. The work in the project also forms part of Ireland’s contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and support activities undertaken in the course of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).  The overall objectives of the work programme are broken down into 4 main research areas:

1. Research Evaluation and Data Assessment.
2. Modelling Biodiversity and Ecosystem Response.
3. Risk and Uncertainty Assessment: Threats and Opportunities
4. Integrated Decision Support Tools

• Prof Peter Croot
• Dr Anthony Grehan
• Prof Stephen Hynes
• Dr Oisín Callery