On 16th April 2023, the PRIMUS team - comprising scientists across six international institutes from UK, Portugal, Spain and South Africa (PML, MARE/FC.ID, CSIC, IPMA, ULPGC, CSIR) - gathered online for the Impact Assessment Report (IAR) meeting with ESA-representatives, Roberto Sabia and Javier Alonso Concha.
Snapshot of the chlorophyll-a concentrations (proxy for marine phytoplankton biomass) distributions in the NE Atlantic Ocean (September 2019), including the Iberian-Canary Current EBUS regions off Iberia and NW Africa, taken by the PRIMUS web GIS portal
Among the main points of the meeting was to present an overview of the progress and project deliverables linked to WP5 Advancing Earth System Science, and WP6 Transferring Science into Solutions for Society, for which all Earth Science Case and Demonstrations leaders presented the work performed during the project.
Several papers are currently being prepared to delivers the results from the science cases (SC):
SC1 - Primary Productivity in the Atlantic EBUS region relation to upwelling and climate indices,
SC2 - High Resolution (300 m) PP from the MERIS/OLCI time series focussed on the Galician Rias,
SC4 - CO2 flux and ocean acidification impact of upwelling events,
SC8 - Comparison of sediment trap data in the Canary Upwelling System using standard and Lagrangian approaches to PP, and
SC10 - Comparing PP Models in the Canary EBUS.
Regarding SC7 “Relationship between PP and fisheries in the Iberian Upwelling system” led by Prof. Vanda Brotas (MARE-FC-ID), two papers have already been produced: one paper exploring the drivers of European sardine recruitment in Atlanto-Iberian waters (SW Europe) based on a 22-year analysis (Ferreira et al., 2023, Science of The Total Environment); and another recently accepted for publication, addressing the drivers of a recent surge in European anchovy recruitment off the Portuguese Coast (Ferreira et al., 2024, Marine Ecology Progress Series).
Steve Groom, PI of PRIMUS, presenting an overview of all the projects’ Earth science cases within WP5, and respective links to impact demonstrations to early-adopters and end-users.
Finally, the PRIMUS PI Prof. Steve Groom discussed the WP7 Scientific Roadmap, posing scientific challenges and observations gaps that need to be addressed over the 2023 to 2027 timeframe. The roadmap will focus on Atlantic EBUS, but also consider global applications of the PRIMUS results. A further aim is to consider ways forward with other ESA activities (e.g., SCOPE), and other international efforts (e.g., Future Earth Coasts).