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The particular threats of climate change to the coastal ecosystems in marginal seas had triggered the initiation of this comprehensive and comparative project. Hence the significance: by estimating the potential climate change impacts on the poorly-studied but unique Eastern Mediterranean benthic biodiversity, it will allow predicting its fate under the verity of climate change impacts and scenarios. The combined information from the different facets of the project is expected to enhance the predictive power of models of future changes in the ecology of this high-risk coastal system.
1. Studying the amplitude of diurnal and seasonal fluctuations of temperature and pH in the Mediterranean and Baltic subtidal ecosystems.
2. Establishing the sensitivity of ecologically important species in both systems to warming and acidification (singly and in combination).
3. Determining whether species from fluctuating habitats (Baltic) are more tolerant than similar species from more stable environments (Levant).
4. Understanding how biotic interactions shift under the influence of single and combined climate stresses.
5. Determining whether climate change will lead to a structural re-organization of coastal communities.
6. Quantifying the shifts in ecosystem functions associated with the community re-organization.
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