World class scientists meet in Plymouth to predict the
future
19th June 2008
Nearly 150 world class scientists will be converging on Plymouth
this week to discuss the future of our oceans. The Advances in Marine Ecosystem Modelling
Research (AMEMR) Symposium has attracted leading researchers
from across Europe and as far afield as the United States and
Australia to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) meeting, to
discuss all aspects of model based marine ecosystem research from
climate change to algal bloom forecasts.
Jerry Blackford, from PML and one of the conference organisers,
summarised the challenges facing marine scientists: “The two key
challenges for scientists are to understand how natural systems
work and fit together, from the physical and chemical at one end of
the scale to fish and whales at the other, and how those systems
might change if circumstances are altered, by increases in fishing
pressure or climate change for example.”
The researchers use complex computer models to simulate
conditions in the oceans. By comparing what the computers show with
what we know is actually happening from observations, the
scientists can be confident in their models and understanding. The
next stage is to feed different scenarios into the models to
discover what might happen to the oceans as the environment
changes, and how accurate those predictions are likely to be.
Jerry Blackford continued: “By bringing marine scientists,
working on different aspects of the oceans, together we can
identify the gaps, learn from each other about the best methods and
start to predict how the oceans will change as we humans affect
them more and more. Armed with this knowledge we will be able to
manage marine resources in a far more sustainable way. Following
the success of the AMEMR symposium in 2005 PML is delighted to be
organising this event again and to be welcoming such a
prestigious gathering of marine scientists at a time when the need
for knowledge of the oceans and the ability to look at their future
has never been more important.”