Staff Spotlight: Dr Elizabeth C. Atwood - Earth Observation Data Analyst

Image caption: Elizabeth, or more affectionately known as Liz here at the laboratory, as a young researcher in southern Chile collecting benthic species samples in her role as the station research assistant for the Fundación San Ignacio del Huinay Scientific Field Station. Image credit: Dr Atwood.

Dr Atwood, who works within our Earth Observation Science and Applications Group, describes some early childhood memories that influenced her path into the world of environmental, and more specifically, marine science. 

“A surviving “artwork” of mine from kindergarten states that I wanted to be a zookeeper or a vet when I grow up, which I take as the earliest signs of interest. I grew up in the coastal mountains of California and always felt a deep connection with the ocean, both for playing in the waves as well as snorkeling to discover creatures below the surface.” 

“We were members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and a favorite pastime of mine was evening events where the aquarium was less full and nocturnal animals (like the octopus) would come out of their hiding places. It was in a marine biology course in high school, where I found out about the communication systems of cuttlefish, that I really became interested in following this as a career.” 

Image caption: A photo from Monterey Bay Aquarium, California. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

 “Studying at UC Santa Cruz, with one of the mostly highly regarded marine ecology and oceanography university programs on the West Coast, solidified this path.” 

Image caption: A beach in Santa Cruz, California. Liz says the university and location along with her love of being on and in the ocean, solidified her path into working on marine issues. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

Liz comes from a multidisciplinary background, gaining her earlier degrees in Mathematics, Marine Biology and Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management before specialising in Remote Sensing. In between her Bachelor and Master studies, she worked for one year as station research assistant for the Fundación San Ignacio del Huinay Scientific Field Station.  

Image caption: Liz and a colleague working on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Alaska during her Masters. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

She earned her doctoral degree from LMU Munich while concurrently working at a small consulting firm, RSS – Remote Sensing Solution GmbH (Munich, Germany). There she completed her thesis on plastic pollution detection and quantification in river and coastal waters, and thereafter was employed as project manager on both marine and land topics. 

Image caption: Liz SCUBA diving with colleagues in Fiordo Comau, Chile, back when she was working as a scientific diver.  Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

Image caption: Liz sorting taxonomic samples after a full day of collections on SCUBA during the Huinay Fiordos 3 expedition through Central Patagonian Zone (Puerto Natales to Golfo de Penas, Chile) in March 2006. The collections from this, along with up to 10 other expeditions, led to the publication of the first illustrated field guide of benthic species in the Patagonians fjords. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

She describes when she joined the laboratory here in Plymouth, what her role involves, and some of the things she is currently working on. 

“I joined PML in 2020, smack in the middle of the pandemic. This was an interesting start, but I was immediately well supported by an amazing community in West Hoe. PML has long been on my radar as a globally recognized leader in marine and oceanographic research, and I was excited for the opportunity to bring my background and skills to the team with the goal to support excellent and impactful science.” 

“I work on improving our ability to monitor transitional water systems (i.e., deltas, lagoons, estuaries, river mouths) from satellite. Using a method called Optical Water Types, we classify distinct water masses that exhibit different characteristics in terms of chlorophyll, sediments and dissolved organics. Thereafter optimal performing algorithms for each Optical Water Type class are blended to produce a seamless product that can be used to measure health of these water bodies – from freshwaters through to the open ocean. This system is currently being implemented in the DOORS, FOCUS and Vis4Sea projects, as well as the UK Earth Observation Climate Information Service (EOCIS).” 

Image caption: Dr Atwood presenting her work on the DOORS project ’Developing Optimal and Open Research Support’ for the Black Sea. The project is a €9m EU research project linking science, policy and industry for critical Black Sea regeneration. More information on her work in this project here >> 

“I am also currently working on mass coral spawning detection in a PML-funded research project this year, CorSSMoS (Coral Spawning Slick Monitoring System), which involves coordinating with teams in Mozambique, the Red Sea, and the Great Barrier Reef. It has been an exciting year trying to capture this fleeting event using novel very high-resolution satellite data with a commercial provider.” 

Image above: Once a year, on cues from the lunar cycle and the water temperature, entire colonies of coral reefs simultaneously release eggs and sperm into the ocean. 

Image caption: A satellite image processed by Dr Atwood showing coral spawning in the Southwest Indian Ocean for the Coral Spawning Slick Monitoring System project. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

Dr Atwood’s work is especially interesting as it spans so many different environmental issues, and, in addition to the aforementioned water quality monitoring and coral spawning detection, it was announced last year that Dr Atwood’s OSCSAR project – ‘Understanding Oil Spill dispersal dynamics in complex Coastal systems from high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar’ – was funded in the PML advanced research fund. The fund exists to provide PML scientists with a fully internal funding source for high-reward, cutting-edge, novel science that would be challenging to fund elsewhere. 

“The PML Advanced Research Fund has allowed our team of Earth Observation researchers to address the high risk and high impact topic of oil spill detection with novel very high-resolution SAR imagery in coastal regions. The novel algorithm developed in OSCSAR will allow a better understanding of nearshore oil spill dynamics, and place PML in a unique position to respond to future incidents.” 

Image caption: A satellite image processed by Dr Atwood showing the dispersal of an oil slick in the Gulf of Guinea as part of the OSCSAR project – ‘Understanding Oil Spill dispersal dynamics in complex Coastal systems from high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar’. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

Indeed, oil spills can have devastating impacts on aquatic ecosystems, wildlife and economies, with multifaceted consequences. Sadly, thousands of oil spills occur globally each year, totaling an approximate 700 million gallons of oil entering our ocean annually. 

Although data shows that the number of large oil spills have significantly reduced since the 70s, dropping from over 20 spills per year to under two spills on average per year, smaller oils spills continue at an alarming rate, and many go unreported due to their often remote location.   

Monitoring where oil spills occur, and how they disperse, is of critical importance to developing a swift and effective response, as well as estimated compound impact of reoccurring small spills to particular habitats. 

Dr Atwood describes how advancing technology supports solutions, but only if we take advantage of them. 

“With recent advances in Earth Observation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems, which offer very high resolution imagery and provide multiple acquisitions in a single day, it is now possible to design a system able to monitor directly how oil slicks are dispersing in the nearshore environment over a timescale of hours, regardless of cloud conditions.” 

“Where oil spill slicks disperse along sensitive or populated coastlines is a primary concern when considering clean-up and containment strategies responding to a disaster. The new multi-platform SAR systems provide a high risk/high reward opportunity to overcome the challenge of determining oil spill dynamics in hydrodynamically complex coastal areas.”
“Despite these technical advances, demonstration of SAR-based oil slick detection with very high-resolution data providing multiple separate acquisitions per day has not yet been demonstrated. As part of OSCSAR, a small team at PML is now working to address this together with Capella Space.” 

“We have some exciting updates! Together with Capella Space, we have been able to collect an extensive oil slick dataset together at three sites across the globe. Each site is covered by 1.5 months of daily – sometimes even subdaily – imagery, and shows how these slicks are dispersing without having to rely on hydrodynamic models. Using these data, we are now in the final stages of building the high-automated detection machine learning model for this novel very high-resolution satellite imagery.” 

WATCH NOW: PML’s Dr Atwood on oil spill detection using satellite technology 

Above: Dr Liz Atwood speaking at the recent Marine Research Plymouth (MRP) Alliance milestone event – on behalf of the MRP Executive Group – which celebrated three years of impactful collaboration, science and innovation between the MRP organisations: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Marine Biological Association and the University of Plymouth. Image credit: the Marine Biological Association.

To round up the interview, Liz describes her interests and things she likes to do to unwind after a busy day in the laboratory. 

“Best for me is to get out for a walk or jog to enjoy the view and sunset after a long day sitting at the desk. I am an avid sailor, helping out with club racing on two boats during the warmer months (and practicing in the colder ones!).” 

Image caption: Liz securing the mast onboard the yacht Duchess for the downwind leg of a Friday evening Plymouth Yacht Club race in Plymouth Sound. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

“I also love getting out for long exploratory bike rides in the surroundings of Plymouth on the weekends, searching for those hedge roads with signs “No HGV”. You do a lot of elevation meters but what you discover makes it all worthwhile, and helps justify the large Sunday Roast dinner!” 

Image caption: Liz taking her bike across Fowey harbour on a water ferry, during a long cycle from Falmouth back to Plymouth. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

Image caption: Dr Atwood says the views make all the effort worthwhile. Image credit: Dr Atwood. 

“I love the nearness to the sea, I try to get out for an early morning swim 2-3 times a week. Plymouth is so special that we have this. I also love the artist scenes around Plymouth, it is a city where creatives still have space to explore.” 

“Getting to buy seafood directly from the fishermen is also so amazing, I don’t think many Plymouthians realize how lucky they are to have this. The organic and fresh produce from Riverford also are huge pluses.”