To begin, could you explain the core objectives of the EURO-BASIN project? The multidisciplinary EURO-BASIN team’s core objectives are resolving the impacts of climate and ﬁ sheries on the structure of North Atlantic marine ecosystems. Changes in ecosystem structure can lead to important consequences for the sequestration of greenhouse gases in the deep ocean, the production of ﬁ sh stocks and ultimately feedback to global climate. The North Atlantic is one of the key areas inﬂ uencing global climate and our understanding of its importance for climate is still in its infancy. The project’s activities will contribute to this understanding. What are the key challenges faced in understanding the dynamics of North Atlantic ecosystems and how does the EURO-BASIN project aim to respond to such challenges? There are many challenges facing us but probably the biggest is the vastness of the region, the complexity of the interactions and, with the spatial limitations of existing sampling techniques, our ability to examine only a small area at any one time. Think of it as the story of the blind men and the elephant. As they touch different parts of the elephant these men come to different conclusions about the animal. Similarly, we are looking at a vast area through a keyhole and trying to understand how the whole system is functioning. Add to that the fact that the whole system is in motion, while the biological and biogeochemical components in it are evolving in space and time. How do you intend to use modelling techniques to further our understanding of climate variability on marine ecosystems and the feedbacks to the Earth system? Coupled climate-physical oceanographic, single species and ecosystem models serve as the glue for developing our understanding of how these ecosystems will evolve as well as helping us overcome our problem of scale. For example, models use relationships derived from experiments and observations on the effects of temperature and food availability on an organism’s feeding and growth. The models allow us to extrapolate process mechanisms so we can better understand how our key species control the ﬂ ow of carbon through an ecosystem and ultimately inﬂ uence the storage of carbon in the deep ocean. They also allow us to simulate how ecosystems and their key species will fare under different future scenarios. Models serve as the state of our predictive art; without them, our understanding of the evolution of the system and its feedbacks to climate would be little more than a guess. Can you highlight how the project aims to develop understanding and strategies that will improve and advance ocean management? To manage our oceans we must understand how populations of key species, some of which we harvest, will change as their habitats evolve due to climate. Our laboratory and ﬁ eld activities deﬁ ne the habitats critical for their survival, while our coupled climate-physical oceanography-ecosystem models allow us to simulate the occurrence of these habitats and, as a result, the success of these species in the future. This information will empower managers to modify harvesting practices to preserve these key species and the services they provide. Furthermore, by identifying these key habitats, ﬁ sh spawning grounds, for instance, we can provide environmentally-based advice for shipping and the placement of offshore energy facilities, as well as understanding the consequences of mineral extraction. Finally, our understanding of the effects of marine ecosystem structure on greenhouse gas storage is rather rudimentary. The project supplements and extends our knowledge in this area with the potential to better understand the role of marine ecosystems in climate regulation, thereby developing better management strategies to enhance the role of marine ecosystems in climate. How is the EURO-BASIN project linked with other similar projects internationally? EURO-BASIN was originally planned to form part of a transatlantic co