UK Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)

Of the various elements of the initial observing system listed in the GOOS Annual Report the UK is actively engaged in the following activities. The location and details of many of these activities can be viewed and interrogated at European Directory of Ocean Observing Systems (EDIOS).

The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL) continue to operate a series of tide gauges, owned and funded by the Environment Agency, thereby maintaining the UK input to the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level component of GLOSS. POL will also continue its programme of observations in the Antarctic Drake Passage. This has been in progress for about 10 years, is directed at assessing the transport of water by the Antarctic current and involves routine recording of sea level, bottom pressure and inverted echo soundings.

The Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS), which operates the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) programme, is based in the UK and is funded largely by DEFRA and by NERC. It does however, receive essential financial backing from 10 (2001) other countries, plus the IOC. The Foundation operates an open access data policy, which is in compliance with GOOS data access requirements. Its database contains over 2 million records of plankton taxa covering the period 1946-2000; data for the period 1931-1939 is available in paper log-sheets. Although the majority of the Foundation's work is focussed on the North Atlantic, the CPR approach could well be applied on a wider scale as part of the Living Marine Resources module of the Coastal Oceans Observations Programme (COOP). Sister surveys deploying CPRs also operate in the Southern Ocean based on Tasmania, from Narragansett in the USA and in the Baltic based on Helsinki..Services were operated in the Gulf of Guinea (1995-1999), and in the Mediterranean (1997-1999). After a preliminary tow in the north-east Pacific in July 1997, a regular survey was initiated in 2000. The expertise of the Foundation’s staff can be made available for training workshops and for the provision of advice e.g. on the establishment of synoptic long-term plankton/environmental surveys at the scale of regional seas/ocean basins.

Research findings based on the 50 year monthly time series that can be generated over a wide area of the Atlantic from the CPR database, has documented pronounced long-term trends and step-wise changes in the abundance and composition of the plankton. These changes include evidence for a northerly retreat of ‘cold’ plankton and a northerly extension of ‘warm’ species in the eastern Atlantic, and the reverse situation in the west Atlantic. Pronounced changes in the plankton, fish stocks and physico/chemical variables in the North Sea circa 1988, have been considered as a regime shift. The survey also provides evidence to suggest that some changes in the southern North Sea previously attributed to eutrophication may be mediated through hydrodynamic forcing linked to increased flow of oceanic water.

The UK plays a full role in the ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) of the North Sea through the Scottish Executive’s Fisheries Research Services (FRS) Laboratory in Aberdeen in Scotland and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) Lowestoft Laboratory in England. CEFAS also currently co-ordinates the collection of sea surface temperature measurements at 16 stations around England and Wales. FRS have a similar activity collating temperature data from 5 coastal stations around Scotland and in addition currently undertakes routine hydrographic surveys between Faroes and Shetland. The Faroe Shetland Channel surveys maintain continuous records stretching back over a century.

FRS has also been monitoring Calanus finmarchicus and currents west of Shetland for at least 6 years in the Foinaven region where the current system is part of the Global Conveyor System. The Calanus monitoring programme has shown a decline in biomass over the last 6 years which appears to be linked to climate and circulation changes. In addition to these studies FRS also collect weekly ecosystem data at Stonehaven (near Aberdeen) which permits phytoplankton numbers and community structure to be linked to environmental parameters.

The Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory (DML), the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOC) and FRS collaborate to survey the Rockall or Anton Dohrn Seamount Section (also known as the Ellett Line) between the west coast of Scotland and Rockall. These surveys commenced in the 1970s and the data are available to GOOS if required.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs for Northern Ireland (DARDNI) has developed integrated sampling of the Irish Sea and in collaboration with The Environment and Heritage Unit monitor sea loughs of Northern Ireland which has been operating for up to eight years for physical, chemical and biological variables.