Research projects and expertise: Climate Change
Effect of climate change on almost all aquatic ecosystems (freshwater, estuarine and marine) has been studied using different approaches: long-term time series analyses, empirical non-linear modelling, individual based modelling and experimental approach .
An interdisciplinary and innovative project coordinated by Sami Souissi between 2003 and 2006 using long-term time series in both marine and freshwater ecosystems entitled: Effects of Global Change on Aquatic Ecosystems in Western Europe: Role of Plankton Communities
This project is a pionneer in Europe that combined freshwater (i.e., peri-alpine lakes in France and Germany) and marine ecosystems (i.e., Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean) to study the effects of global change (mainly climate change) at western europe level. The project produced high significant papers in the top journals including Nature and Global Change Biology and was highlighted in GLOBEC International Newsletter April 2007 (get access to the article here).
FASCICLE : French Asian Study on global Change effects through
Inter-site Comparison of Limnic Ecosystems, is a pioneer networking project coordinated by Sami Souissi between 2011 and 2014 that promoted the inter-ecosystem comparisons at large scale.
Most partners of FASCICLE are activeley involved in the recent and larger networking project GEISHA (2015-2019): Global Evaluation of the Impacts of Storms on freshwater Habitat and structure of phytoplankton Assemblages. This project is still active.
The promotion of international cooperation at global scale by promoting inter-site comparisons, the combination between freshwater and marine ecosystems and the use of innovative data analysis and modelling tools is the best scientific strategy to better understand and mitigate the effects of global warming on aquatic ecosystems. Two recent papers co-authored by Sami Souissi and published in Global Change Biology (Chang et al., 2020) and Nature Communications (Chang et al., 2022) are good examples of the strength of this networking and international cooperation initiatives.
Sami Souissi made a significant contribution in studying the effect of climate change on estuarine and coastal systems and coordinated several projects in the framework of the research program Seine-Aval dedicated to the Seine estuary in France. These projects combined a global expertise on the effects of climate change on the Seine estuary (project CLIMAT 2008-2010) and targeted interdisciplinary studies using zooplankton ( ZOOSEINE 2008-2010; ZOOGLOBAL 2013-2017 and SENTINELLES 2017-2020).
The geographical situation of the Seine estuary (middle latitude in the northern Atlantic) and the compelte studies of the local and key zooplankton species were compared to different estuarine and coastal ecosystems in Europe (from Baltic in the North to the Portugal in the south) as well as north America (i.e., St Lawrenec estuary in Canada and the Chesapeake Bay in the USA). The comparative approach based on local sentinels (i.e., key copepod species) was extended to other ecosystems in Asia, North America and south America.
Sami Souissi was involved in several collective expertise projects such as the prospective national group of experts project ADAGE (The adaptation of agriculture and anthropized ecosystems to climate change).
He co-coordinated the project entitled ‘The effects of climate change in the context of global change. Collective expertise on the Seine estuary‘. This work with all experts from all disciplines provided some concrete recommendations that was transformed later into a call for proposals.
He was keynote speakers in large events related to Water & Biodiversity studies in the context of Climate change (i.e., Conference Water and Climate Change in Atwerpen, Belgium, October 2008; Delta Science Program and the UC Davis Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture (CABA) to open the Science Synthesis Seminar: Lower Food Web Dynamics in California’s Bay-Delta Ecosystem, Current understanding and future interactions in a changing landscape, UC Davis, CA (USA), Feb, 18, 2014.)
He also evaluated a high number of projects related to the study of the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems and their mitigation. He organised several international events (conferences, workshops and special sessions) to promote large networking projects and facilating sharing large databases, expertises and the advanced modelling tools.