Rapport
Résumé : ContextEnvironmental changes are now vastly documented for large areas of the Southern Ocean. The response of marine organisms and ecosystem processes to these changes are still not well understood. In this framework, insights in resilience, thresholds and tipping points for species, communities and ecosystems are of paramount importance. Addressing these endpoints is however highly complex, and requires robust, interdisciplinary and collaborative research networks to progressively reach a holistic understanding.By design, the vERSO project was intended to forge ahead and identify key areas of research in this respect, and in line with the SCAR priorities. Building on the experience gathered by its long-term partners and taking advantage of the overlap period with another BELSPO-funded project (rECTO), the vERSO developments were intentionally novel and ambitious (in experimental, field and integration facets).ObjectivesThe goal of the vERSO project was to assess the impact of the main stressors driven by global change on benthic Antarctic ecosystems using an integrated multiscale approach including different representative size classes of the benthos. Two principal regions with current contrasting responses to global change have been considered, namely the Western Antarctic Peninsula and the East Antarctic. To reach this goal, researches on connectivity and adaptation, trophic ecology and sensitivity and resilience were conducted by all partners and integrated using state of the art modelling techniques.Results and conclusionsvERSO has globally reached its proposed objectives, paving the way for its sister project, rECTO. vERSO members have participated in 11 expeditions to the Antarctic. Specific efforts were devoted to involving several consortium partners in the fieldwork to optimize the exchange of know-how and crosslinkages using the obtained results. This is reflected in the authorships of the papers and datasets published so far. Most of the experimental work has been carried out successfully, including in logistically-challenging conditions. Some of the explorative, long-term experiments, are still ongoing in the framework of rECTO.A dedicated Information System was setup and has been merged in various long-term initiatives, dedicated to the discovery and publication of raw data. To date, vERSO has published 52 papers and book chapters and submitted 4 others. Over 50 datasets have been generated and are being documented and published. vERSO was represented 97 times in international conferences.The unique opportunity offered by the rECTO/vERSO overlap period allowed efficient synergies which have been largely exploited to maximize data and know-how flows. The visibility of the projects peaked in July 2017, during the SCAR Biology Symposium, which will be held in Leuven. This conference gathered 402 people from 32 countries.

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