Ecosystem Services and Marine Spatial Planning

The course provides a thorough introduction to temperate coastal marine pelagic ecosystems. The course will give more specialized insights into organisms and ecological interactions of the pelagic realm of the North Atlantic focusing on the Skagerrak/North Sea regions. Mechanisms affecting abundance, seasonality and distribution of plankton and nekton in relation to the variability of oceanographic parameters will be discussed. Factors affecting survival, dispersal and distribution of fish during early life history stages will be detailed in relation to environmental variation and human activities.