AtlantECO Deliverable - D10.7 - AtlantECO Roadmap for future activities

Abstract

This Roadmap for Future Activities builds on the scientific, technological, and societal achievements of the AtlantECO project, outlining strategic directions for sustaining and expanding its impact beyond the project lifetime. AtlantECO has delivered an unprecedented, basin-scale understanding of Atlantic Ocean ecosystems by integrating observations, omics data, modelling approaches, and capacity-building actions across physical, biogeochemical, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions. By adopting an explicitly All-Atlantic perspective, AtlantECO has demonstrated that Atlantic ecosystems are highly interconnected, with processes operating across spatial, temporal, and disciplinary scales. The project’s results show that climate variability, biodiversity dynamics, carbon cycling, and human activities cannot be addressed in isolation, but must be understood as components of a coupled ocean–climate–society system. In addition to advancing scientific knowledge, AtlantECO has demonstrated the strategic value of integrated, basin-scale ocean research for addressing global sustainability challenges. By linking ecosystem processes, biodiversity dynamics, and socioeconomic outcomes, the project provides a robust evidence base for policies targeting climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable blue economies across the Atlantic basin. A defining feature of AtlantECO has been the integration of cutting-edge methodologies, including Lagrangian approaches, high-resolution numerical modelling, omics-based biodiversity assessment, and pluralistic valuation of ecosystem services. These innovations have generated Key Exploitable Results (KERs) that are directly relevant for advancing Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) developments, improving ecosystem-based management, and informing international ocean policy frameworks. The Roadmap also highlights theimportance of continuity beyond individual project lifetimes. AtlantECO shows that sustained investment inobservations, data infrastructures, and human capacity is essential to transform scientific advances intolong-term societal benefits, particularly in support of emerging initiatives such as the Digital Twin Ocean andthe UN Ocean Decade. AtlantECO has also made a substantial contribution to capacity building and equitable scientific cooperation across the Atlantic basin. Through Summer Schools, Hackathons, joint field campaigns, and open science practices, the project has strengthened transatlantic research networks and reduced barriers to participation for early-career researchers and institutions from underrepresented regions, particularly in the South Atlantic. This Roadmap identifies priority scientific, technical, and policy actions for the period to 2030 and beyond. It highlights opportunities to operationalise AtlantECO results, address remaining knowledge gaps, and support long-term Atlantic cooperation. The recommendations presented aim to ensure that AtlantECO’s legacy continues to inform sustainable ocean governance, climate mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and inclusive scientific collaboration at basin and global scales. Taken together, AtlantECO’s outcomes position the Atlantic Ocean as a testbed for integrated, inclusive, and policy-relevant ocean science, offering transferable lessons for global ocean governance and future large-scale research initiatives.