The four major upwelling ecosystems are located in the eastern boundary current systems of the oceans and include the Canary (including the Iberian Peninsula and NW Africa), the Benguela (SW Africa), the Humboldt (SW America), and the California (NW America).

Upwelling ecosystems are particularly relevant for the study of the impact of climate and anthropogenic forcing on pelagic ecosystems, because they support important fishing activities and display important inter-annual and inter-decadal fluctuations of the biomass corresponding to small pelagic fishes (sardines, anchovies). Moreover, their different geographical locations and ecosystem structure make it possible and promising to use a comparative approach – a major tool in disciplines such as fisheries science in which experiments are hard to perform.

EUR-OCEANS will focus mainly on three upwelling ecosystems (Canary, Benguela and Humboldt). However, the California ecosystem will be dealt with through co-operation with US scientists, and comparative studies.

Recent developments in modelling and computer sciences make it possible to couple physical and biological process models, which will lead to a better understanding of how ecosystems function and respond to climate and anthropogenic forcing. This should lead to the development of new (ecosystem-oriented) tools for a better management of marine resources.

In the Upwelling Systems we will couple physical, biogeochemical and ecological generic models to study the functioning of upwelling ecosystems.