Hydrodynamics and ecosystem dynamics in the Bay of Calvi

The RACE (Rapid Assessment of the marine Coastal Environment) project aims at developing diagnostic tools to detect and predict changes in the coastal ecosystems threatened by human activities.1-D simulations of the hydrodynamics were realized with, on one hand, local (Aanderaa Weather Station located nearby the bay) and high-frequency (~ 8.3 10-4Hz) atmospheric forcings, and on the other hand, with climate re-analysis from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), characterized by aregular spatial grid (2.5°) and a lower frequency (~4.6 10-5Hz). These General Ocean Turbulence Model (GOTM) runs were performed in order to represent, respectively, as well as possible the physical properties of the water column and their inter-annual variability. 1-D simulations of the ecosystem dynamics were realized by coupling offline the results of the hydrodynamics. Three different models, calibrated for the Ligurian Sea, were implemented within the Flexible Environment for Mathematically Modelling the Environment (FEMME) in order to test the complexity requirement, before implementing it in a 3-D framework. 3-D test-case simulations of the hydrodynamics were performed with the GeoHydrodynamics and Environmental Research (GHER) group model, in its nested version