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Western Channel Observatory showcased at international marine monitoring workshop
07 October 2024
This week Prof. Steve Widdicombe is showcasing the Western Channel Observatory at the Marine Monitoring for Action workshop in Singapore.
The Marine Monitoring for Action workshop provides a platform to explore how effective marine monitoring at various scales of space and time can help shape marine management and policies, and how marine monitoring can help facilitate the implementation of various national, regional and international legislations and initiatives.
This years’ workshop (MMA2024) has been organised by the St. John’s Island National Marine Laboratory (SJINML) and Marine Environment Sensing Network (MESN), with support from the British High Commission Singapore, the Conservation Artists Collective and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. It has also been officially endorsed as a UN Oceans Decade activity.
PML’s Director of Science, Professor Steve Widdicombe presented an introduction to the Western Channel Observatory: an oceanographic time-series and marine biodiversity reference site in the Western English Channel, hosted at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in partnership with the Marine Biological Association and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
What is the Western Channel Observatory?
The Western Channel Observatory (WCO) is a collection of sampling sites in the Western English Channel, off the coast of Plymouth, UK.
Marine data collection in this area dates back to 1903 and is the longest running, near-continuous marine dataset in the world, with a proven track record of supporting science and policy development.
The WCO is a truly interdisciplinary operation and draws in expertise from ecologists, biologists, chemists, physicists, ecosystem modellers and Earth observation scientists. The data and knowledge generated at the WCO allows us to better understand the causes and consequences of some of the largest environmental issues we are currently facing, such as climate change, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and pollution. This is achieved by measuring the key environmental and biological variables that are crucial to the functioning of the marine ecosystems. These include:
• Light
• Temperature
• Salinity
• Oxygen
• Chlorophyll
• Turbidity
• Organic and inorganic carbon
• Organic nutrients and matter
• Biodiversity (from microbes to plankton and seabed macrofauna)
• Atmospheric gases
In-situ measurements are taken weekly at a coastal sampling station L4 (measurements since 1988 at 50° 15’N; 4° 13’W) and fortnightly at the open shelf sampling station E1 (measurements since 1903 at 50° 02’N; 4° 23’W), with seabed samples taken every month. These are carried out aboard the RV Plymouth Quest.
These direct sampling activities are complimented by two state-of-the-art buoys, which send near-real time data back to Plymouth Marine Laboratory on environmental conditions, such as sea surface temperature, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, air temperature, humidity, windspeed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) fluorescence, nitrate and light.
In addition to the in-water sampling, there is an atmospheric chemistry observatory located at the mouth of Plymouth Sound, which monitors gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, and methane in air. The land-based observatory is in close proximity to the WCO marine sampling stations, enabling better understanding of the ocean-atmosphere gas exchanges.
The various aspects of the WCO combined with the long-term knowledge of this body of water provides an exceptional marine and biodiversity reference site.
With the massive amount of data being generated, it is vital the data is well organised, consistent, safely curated and openly available to ensure it can be used to support the generation of knowledge and subsequent action and decision making. Data management for such an undertaking requires significant effort and resource but well worth it considering the critical contributions the WCO has made in gaining a better understanding of how marine ecosystems function and respond to human pressures.
Read more about managing WCO data at:
https://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk/news/Western-Channel-Data.php https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5701/2023/
WCO is also embracing novel technologies that will allow the observation of biodiversity more quickly and efficiently than ever before. New in-water imaging technologies that can capture images of plankton are being deployed at some of the main sampling stations, with artificial intelligence (AI) being used to rapidly turn those images into useful biodiversity data. Molecular tools are also being used to sample the environmental DNA that is in the ocean and on the seabed. This provides evidence of species that are hard to capture with traditional sampling.
WCO has also been the location for considerable pioneering and world-changing science, such as the early marine plastic pollution research, which helped raise the profile of this ubiquitous and concerning environmental issue internationally as well as being the site of many novel experiments focused on tackling the issue.
Prof. Steve Widdicombe, Director of Science at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, commented on the importance of the WCO:
“We are very proud to manage such an important resource, not only for marine scientists locally but for environmental scientists across the globe.”
“The area of the WCO is one of the most studied bodies of water in the world. This has enabled an extensive understanding to be built on the functions and processes of the western English Channel’s dynamics, as well as providing an unrivaled case study reference site for international research”.
Prof. Tim Smyth, lead scientist of the WCO and PML’s Head of Science for Marine Biogeochemistry and Observations, added:
“There are multiple reasons why the WCO is unique and so valuable, including: the longevity of the dataset; the breath of science across domains; the inclusion of key ecosystem variables at all levels of the marine food web, and clear seasonal differences between the well-mixed autumn/winter water column and the more stable, layered spring/summer water. But it doesn’t stop there. The data is then fed into ecosystem models and satellite algorithms as well as being used for validation and calibration of monitoring technologies. This end-to-end analysis enables us to understand the physical, chemical and biological processes in the ocean, whilst identifying long-term trends and predicting future changes”.
This unique and highly valuable dataset brings together a plethora of scientific disciplines and is an exemplar for long-term marine monitoring and collaborative ocean science. The WCO has global significance as an integral part of an international, directed observation effort to help improve our understanding of the ocean, how it functions and how those functions may be affected by environmental and climate change.
Related information
Western Channel Observatory (WCO)
Marine Monitoring for Action workshop
Time-series: a collection of data points that are recorded in chronological order over a period of time. These data points are usually taken at regular intervals, such as seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years. Time-series data can be used to analyse and understand trends, patterns and relationships in data over time. It can also provide insights into how different variables change over time and how they may be related to each other.