CASANOVA

Climate change exerts an extreme pressure on the shellfish socio-ecosystem, a major resource worldwide and especially in Normandy. Indeed, it is highly prevalent in coastal areas where important shifts in temperatures and in water column parameters (pH, salinity, oxygen…) may have severe impacts on the oyster physiology, a keystone species of the ecosystem, both directly and indirectly through biological interactions with forage phytoplankton and/or pathogens (holobiont). Therefore, climate change threatens oyster intertidal production areas with potential dramatic impacts on the shellfish sector. Besides, near-coastal off-shore sites beyond the intertidal zone are expected to be less subjected to environmental variations due to inland inputs and tidal cycles. The CASANOVA project proposes an innovative multidisciplinary approach to investigate the impacts of climate change on the shellfish socio-ecosystem in Normandy and to question whether submerged oyster production could be a sustainable adaptive strategy to mitigate climate change consequences. For this objective, the CASANOVA project consortium will (i) record the current and preview the future climate-environmental context of intertidal production areas (IPAs) and potential submerged production areas (SPAs) ; (ii) characterize and anticipate the biological resilience of the oyster living compartment by envisioning its physiology and interactions in the frame of the holobiont concept in the present and future IPA and SPA contexts ; (iii) assess the socio-economic consequences of climate change and potential SPA production adaptive changes on the shellfish sector in Normandy. Using a highly complementary consortium reuniting biologists, climatologists, economists, geographers, ecologists, modellers, sociologists and professional stakeholders, the CASANOVA project aims at generating innovative fundamental knowledge on the present conditions and future scenarios of the shellfish socio-ecosystem in Normandy under integrated environmental, biological, and socio-economical aspects. The results on the relevancy of submerged production will also be usable to help public policy decision-making processes in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the oyster resource thereby contributing to the sustainability of the shellfish socio-ecosystem in Normandy.