The objective: a combined model

The ERSEM model was applied to several European regional seas, to the whole Mediterranean, directly coupled to hydrodynamicmodels (PML application for the Western Shelf Seas, to the Adriatic sea to the global ocean model. The impossibility to get funding for an organization responsible for 'a standard version' and the consequent lack of coordination between these follow-on projects has lead to a number of different flavors/versions of ERSEM.  The ERSEM-GETM version was set-up initially to quickly develop an in-house modelling capability in CEFAS. The objective was to have an ecosystem model coupled with a sophisticated hydrodynamical model which is able to reproduce especially the processes in the shallow coastal regions of the North Sea and which may be used to study benthic-pelagic coupling, first and foremost in the Southern North Sea.