Meet the MISSION ATLANTIC Scientists: Benjamin Planque, Co-Lead on Atlantic Ocean Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (WP1)

Where are you from and where are you currently based?

I’m originally French and work in Norway.

Academic background and research areas:

I have a PhD in marine ecology which focused on how climate impacts the planktonic copepod Calanus finmarchicus. I’m a quantitative ecologist and work with all kinds of models and analyses, from spatial distribution models to population dynamics or food-web models.

Current role and work within MISSION ATLANTIC:

I’m co-leading WP1 and I’m in charge of the Norwegian Sea case study. When we ranked the risks from different sectors on different parts of the ecosystem in the Norwegian Sea, we engaged in work that was much more tedious than I had anticipated. Fishing came out as the dominant stressor in this system, and on its own it exerts more risk than all other sectors combined. That is an important finding. I’m now engaged into two different modelling approaches (StrathE2E and Causal modelling) to address similar questions about the joint effects on climate and fisheries on small pelagic fish stocks in the Norwegian Sea. I’m really curious to see the results and if the two approaches will tell the same story.

Favorite Ocean fact:

Where I live, in Tromsø, there is no ice or polar bears, but swimming can be tough with temperatures dropping down to 1°C in February.

Contact details:

Email: Benjamin.planque@hi.no