2009 Research Programmes of the HCMR - Hellenic Centre for ...

BULGARIA (9) Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research Limited, IOLR, ISRAEL (10) Athens
University of Economics and Business - Research Center, AUEB-RC, GREECE (11) Bogazici
Universitesi, ECON-BOUN, TURKEY (12) National Council for Scientific Research, CNRSL-CNSM,
LEBANON (13) Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR (IBF, IAMC, ISAC, ISMAR, IRSA),
ITALY (14) Sofiiski Universitet “Sveti Kliment Ohridski”, Department of Meteorology and
Geophysics, University of Sofia, DMG-SU, BULGARIA (15) Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energia e
l'Ambiente, ENEA, ITALY (16) Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, FEEM, ITALY (17) INSTITUTUL
NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU GEOLOGIE SI GEOECOLOGIE
MARINA, National Institute of Marine Geology and Geo-Ecology, GeoEcoMar, ROMANIA (18)
Institut Francais de Recherche pour l’Exploration de la Mer, IFREMER, FRANCE (19) A.O.
KOVALEVSKIY INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY OF SOUTHERN SEAS - UKRANIAN NATIONAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, IBSS, UKRAINE (20) Institut za Oceanografiju I ribarstvo Institute of
Oceanography and Fisheries, IOF, CROATIA (21) Istituto Centrale per la Ricerca Scientifica e
Tecnologica Applicata al Mare, ICRAM, ITALY (22) Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica
Sperimentale, OGS, ITALY (23) Fondazione IMC – Centro Marino Internazionale-ONLUS, IMC,
ITALY (24) Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General Joint Research Centre,
EC-DG-JRC, ITALY (25) Institut National des Sciences et Techniques de la mer, INSTM, TUNISIA
(26) Marine Hydrophysical Institute, Ukrainian National Academy of Science, MHI, UKRAINE (27)
National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa”, Institutul National de
Cercetare – Dezvoltare Marina, NIMRD, ROMANIA (28) National Institute of Biology, Marine
Biology Station, Nacionalni Institutza Biologijo, NIB, SLOVENIA (29) Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e
Vulcanologia, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Climate Dynamics, INGV, ITALY
(30) The National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF, EGYPT (31) Panepistimio Kyprou,
UCY, CYPRUS (32) Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, SSC-RAS,
RUSSIA (33) Stazione Zoologica ‘Anton Dohrn’ SZN, ITALY (34) Tbilisi State University, Ivane
Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, UNITIBLISI, GEORGIA (35) Universitat de Barcelona, UB,
SPAIN (36) Universidad de Huelva, UHU, SPAIN (37) Universitaet Bremen, Uni-HB, GERMANY
(38) University of Crete, UoC, GREECE (39) Universita ta Malta, UoM, MALTA (40) Polytechnic
University of Marche, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, UNIVPM, ITALY (41) Université du
Littoral Côte d’Opale, ULCO, France (42) University of Oldenburg, Institute for Chemistry and Biology
of the Marine Environment, Carl von Ossietzky Universitaet Οldenburg, ICBM, GERMANY (43)
University of Plymouth, UoP, U.K. (44) Cyprus International Institute of Management, CIIM, CYPRUS
(45) CLU srl, CLU, ITALY (46) SOPAB BREST SA, OCEANOPOLIS,France.
Brief Description of the Program: The general scientific objectives of SESAME are to assess and
predict changes in the Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystems as well as changes in the ability of these
ecosystems to provide goods and services. The Mediterranean and Black Sea will be approached as a
coupled climatic/ecosystem entity, with links and feedbacks to the world ocean. The assessment of
ecosystem changes will be based on the identification of the major regime shifts in ecosystems that
occurred during the last 50 years. Mathematical models, validated and upgraded using existing and new
observations, will be used to predict ecosystem responses to changes in climate and anthropogenic
forcings during the next five decades. The new data will be gathered during multidisciplinary, multiship
oceanographic cruises in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. These will provide an overall picture of the
Mediterranean and Black Sea that does not yet exist as well as essential datasets for model validation.
SESAME will also study the effect of the ecosystem variability on key goods and services with high
societal importance like tourism, fisheries, ecosystem stability through conservation of biodiversity and
mitigation of climate change through carbon sequestration in water and sediments. The innovative
character of SESAME is reflected in the close merging of economic and natural sciences to study the
changes in the western and eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea within the period from 50 years in
the past to 50 years in the future. SESAME will create a platform for disseminating the research results
to all levels of society. It will stimulate and strengthen international cooperation in the Mediterranean and
Black Sea regions through the participation of research organizations from Member States, Associated
States, Associated Candidate countries, non-EU Mediterranean and NIS countries as well as international
organizations.
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