FP6 - VEW project
Programme: FP6
Project Title: Development and application of the Virtual Ecology
Workbench (VEW 3.3) for the study of marine planktonic ecosystem
Acronym: VEW
Duration: 2005 - 2009
Total Budget :
Web site: http://virtualecology.org
Summary: The VEW 3.3 developed in the recent years creates simulations of the plankton ecosystem anywhere in the world ocean, using an individual-based (Lagrangian Ensemble) model of the plankton ecosystem, nutrient data collected from around the world and records of the weather during the last 40 years. Automation by the VEW reduces the time to create and analyse a virtual ecosystem, compared with traditional hand-coding methods.The VEW allows biologists quickly to create a virtual community of plankton species. The biological functions of each species are defined by phenotypic equations derived from laboratory experiments, which makes the biology credible. After these equations are entered into the system, and after specifying the geographical locations and dates for the experiment to run, the VEW automatically generates Java code, which can be run on any computer. So the user does not need to have skill in computer programming. The VEW uses the Lagrangian Ensemble metamodel, which allows computationally affordable individual-based ecosystem modelling. Then biofeedback and demography are emergent properties of the virtual ecosystem. The ongoing applications of the VEW 3.3 are for research on the impact of plankton on climate change, and on the epidemiology of cholera, and to test hypotheses about how climate change modifies the geographical distribution of phyto- and zoo-plankton. The VEW has recently being used to solve a classical problem in fisheries, namely predict how the weather affects the survival of fish eggs to become adult fish.
Contact person in ISMAR: elisabetta.schiano@ismar.cnr.it
Partnership:
- CNR IAMC
- Imperial College London,
- SAHFOS,
- Plymouth Marine Laboratory, NOCS
