Download Importance of upwelling regions

PRESS RELEASE
From 2nd to 6th June 2008, an International symposium on “Eastern Boundary
Upwelling Ecosystems (EBUE)” will be held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Spain. The four main EBUEs, the Canary, California, Humboldt and Benguela
Currents provide over a fifth of the marine fish global catch, significantly
contributing to securing livelihood strategies and food in many countries of the
world. EBUEs are driven by intense and episodic winds resulting in important
ocean-atmosphere exchanges, which make them particularly relevant in the
context of anthropogenic global warming and its associated climate changes.
These changes are already affecting the dynamics of EBUEs, resulting in
changes in fisheries production and causing important social and economic
impacts. This symposium is an international effort to present the state-of-theart in our understanding of EBUEs, including integrating our knowledge from
climate processes to fisheries and comparing their dynamics across the world.
The ultimate goal is to identify and adapt to climate change impacts on EBUEs.
¾ Eastern boundary upwelling ecosystems are narrow strips of the ocean (10 to
200 km wide but extended on one or two thousands of km), located on the western
margin of the continents (eastern parts of the oceans), on each side of the Equator.
In these regions, intense trade winds combined with the earth rotation generate the
upwelling process. Upwelled waters come from the deep ocean and are cold but rich
in nutrients. The arrival of this nutrient-rich water in the superficial, sunlight-exposed
layer of the ocean, is equivalent to fertilisation on land. It feeds a food-web based on
microscopic algae with chlorophyll: the phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is mainly eaten
by small crustaceans which form part of the zooplankton, which sustain fish
production. Finally, fish are eaten by top-predators like tunas, sea birds and marine
mammals. This food-wed is much more complex than a simple linear food-chain, is
highly dynamic and easily impacted by environmental pressure and intensive human
exploitation.
¾ Geographical coverage & challenges. The symposium covers the four major
Eastern Boundary Upwelling Ecosystems. Two are located in the Atlantic Ocean
(Canary and Benguela ecosystems) and two in the Pacific Ocean (California and
Humboldt ecosystems). The countries bordering these ecosystems are Spain (La
Coruña and the Canary Islands), Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and
Gambia for the Canary ecosystem; Angola, Namibia and South Africa for the
Benguela ecosystem; USA and Mexico for the California ecosystem and finally Peru
and Chile for the Humboldt ecosystem. The coastal zones of these countries host
the most productive marine areas but this productivity is highly variable from year to
year and from decade to decade due to strong forcing factors like El Niño events and
exploitation by fisheries. Collaboration and cooperation between countries and
ecosystems is needed to face new challenges represented by climate change,
generalised overexploitation of marine resources, globalisation of the economy and
food security.
¾ Scientific focus. In the past, a number of international symposia and conferences
focused on Eastern boundary upwelling ecosystems, but none of these, however,
explicitly covered the four of them and considered all aspects of their dynamics,
structure and functioning. These aspects include climate and ocean dynamics,
climate change, physics of the ocean and atmosphere, biogeochemistry, ecosystem
production, ecology, food-web structure and dynamics, trophic interactions, fisheries
assessment and management. Furthermore, the comparisons between the four
ecosystems will allow a better understanding of the key processes responsible of
their productivity and dynamics.
¾ Partnership. The symposium is supported and organised by the European
network of excellence EUR-OCEANS, the French Institute of Research for
Development (IRD), the Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) and the
University of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (ULPGC). Additional sponsoring was
provided by IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research
project), SOLAS (Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study), BENEFIT (Benguela,
Environment, Fisheries, Interactions, Training programme), GTZ (German Society for
Technical Cooperation), SCOR (Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research) and
various Spanish local bodies. These grants allowed to fund 26 scientists and
students, mostly from developing countries, and to partly support 20 keynote
speakers. In total the programme includes 144 oral presentations and 170 posters
will be on display.
¾ Audience. We expect an audience of more than 400 people, coming from almost
40 countries from the five continents.
¾ Venue: Auditorium Alfredo Kraus, Paseo de Las Canteras s/n, Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria Island, Spain.
¾ Link: http://www.upwelling-symposium.org
¾ Press contact: xx (name; phone, fax, e-mail)
¾ Scientific contacts:
Dr Pierre FREON, IRD
Phone-Fax: +33 (0)4 99 57 32 02
Mobile: +33 (0)6 69 76 35 16
e-mail: [email protected]
Dr Manuel Barange, GLOBEC
Phone: +44 (0)1752 633160
Fax: +44 (0)1752 633101
Mobile +44 (0)781 8285754
e-mail: [email protected]
Dr Javier Arístegui, ULPGC
Tel: +34 928 452906 Fax: +34 928 454490
email: [email protected]