The eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) is one of the most rapidly changing ocean basins on our planet impacted by both climate change and extensive anthropogenic pressures. The overarching aim of the international project is to use the EMS, from coastal to deep ocean, as a natural laboratory to gain mechanistic and quantitative understanding of biogeochemical and ecosystem transitions of a future (sub)tropical ocean (covering 40% of global ocean) affected by global warming and other anthropogenic pressures. The project entitled “The Eastern Mediterranean Sea Centre- An Early-Warning Model-System for our Future Oceans: EMS Future Ocean REsearch (EMS FORE)” began in 2022 and comprises the following scientific work-packages: 1) Ocean productivity, ecosystem structure and functioning, and carbon export in a changing EMS; 2) Seafloor processes and sedimentary records in a changing EMS; 3) Biogeochemical modelling of effects of gradual changes and stochastic events on ocean ecosystems and carbon export; and 4) Development and application of novel technologies for wide-scale ocean observations. The project is led by investigators from the University of Haifa, Israel and GEOMAR- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Germany and encompasses about 30 investigators and students from other institutes as well.   Here I will present an overview of the EMSFORE project and some of the initial data collected by the different work-packages to highlight some of the changes the EMS is undergoing due to climate change and eutrophication that will be used to examine ecosystem resilience and sensitivity.
 

Mediterranean Sea, global warming potential