Long-term measurements of Marine Processes and Climate (MPC) data are crucial to plan and carry out the effective management of the UK's marine environment, by assessing its present state, identifying trends and changes and meeting future forecasting needs. (According to the UK’s Inter-Agency Committee for Global Environmental Change, long-term monitoring should be regarded as a scientific activity in its own right and funded accordingly (quoted in IACMST, 2000, 2001)). Since the last report on the status of the climate of UK waters (IACMST, 2001), several new marine monitoring networks have been set up, including the Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory, the Southeast Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme and the strategic wave-monitoring network for England and Wales (WaveNet).

However, there is concern over the insecure future of some of the existing observation networks or long-term time series. An example is the Met Office Marine Automatic Weather Station (MAWS) Network where two North Sea moored buoys (K16 and K17) have recently been taken out of service. There are no plans, at present, to reinstate them because the cost cannot be justified by the Met Office if the sole purpose is to meet its own requirements. The Met Office is currently reviewing all of its observing networks; this will be completed later in 2004. Another example is the long-running time series maintained by the Port Erin Marine Laboratory, which will be closed by Liverpool University in 2006.

Maintaining networks and data series can only be justified on the basis of a strong science case that assesses their value. But this should be in the context of value to the UK marine community as a whole. Inevitably, any assessment would have to include consideration of the future funding and operation of the measurements if the existing host organisation no longer has the resources. (Recently, the NERC Consortium Grant funding mechanism has been used to build a multi-institute team to run the Atlantic Meridional Transect out of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory).

Recommendation: Before a decision is made to close or reduce networks or long-term time series measurements, the host organisation should inform the IACMST; which should then take an active and pivotal role in arranging for an assessment to be made.

A considerable fraction of the data included in this report were not collected as part of any coherent national strategy or plan. Often in the past, regularly sampled time series have been maintained due to the efforts of dedicated individual scientists or single organisations. More recently, the GOOS Action Group has been working towards an Action Plan for the MPC sector of marine environmental monitoring which is aimed at producing a coherent and comprehensive programme of monitoring the marine environment around the UK as part of a Defra led activity following on from the Marine Stewardship Report ‘Safeguarding our Seas’.

Recommendation: The work undertaken by the IACMST GOOS AG in developing an Action Plan for the MPC sector input to a UK Marine Environmental Monitoring Strategy should continue and its recommendations implemented, including the development of headline indicators and standard protocols for collection and quality control.

It was difficult and time-consuming to obtain MPC data from some organisations; in fact some were not able to provide us with data known to exist. Also, most data is not collected, processed and quality controlled in a standard or consistent way. Therefore we consider that not all existing data is being used to its full potential. There are a variety of reasons for this, including lack of resources (time and/or money), especially if monitoring and processing data is not considered a high priority for funding, and barriers to low cost supply. Cowling (IACMST, 2004) is examining the present mechanisms of obtaining and supplying marine data and information in the UK, with recommendations to improve its accessibility and affordability. In the meantime, we repeat, and add to, a recommendation from the previous report.

Recommendation: Organisations should be encouraged and resourced to process and make available data in a timely and consistent manner to users and to national, regional and international data banks. Standardised metadata describing data holdings should be provided to recognised metadata directories (e.g. UK Directory of Marine Environmental Data, UK Inventory of Marine Monitoring Measurements).

The description of some MPC parameters was made easier because of the work already done in assembling, analysing and interpreting data. However, for all parameters, there is a need for a much more systematic integration and synthesis of all in-situ and remote-sensed observed data, including a thorough quality assessment. In some cases, the observed data should be integrated with output with data from numerical models, especially where the parameter is difficult to measure, e.g. waves and circulation, bearing in mind that caution is needed in handling model output. (The recent atlas of UK marine renewable energy resources (DTI, 2004) uses output from the Met Office’s UK waters wave model, albeit only from a three-year run of the model.)

Recommendation: For each MPC parameter, IACMST should encourage greater attention and effort to be given to synthesis of observed and modelled data in UK waters.

Most scientific analysis, interpretation and representation of MPC data is done without taking into account the needs of the data users from the marine environmental quality, fisheries, and nature conservation sectors; therefore resulting in ‘products’ which are not of immediate use. There is a clear need for additional interpretative work in order to deliver more usable products and management tools. For example, fisheries scientists/managers may be interested in a simple graphical representation of summer/winter temperatures over the years, or summary annual, seasonal or monthly statistics.

Recommendation: In consultation with user fora representing other marine sectors (e.g. CEFAS/FRS, JNCC and MEMG), IACMST should promote additional interpretative work on MPC parameters, including a workshop or symposium.

References:
Cowling (2004). Marine Data and Information – where to now? Report to the IACMST. (In preparation).

DTI (2004). Atlas of UK Marine Renewable Energy Resources: Stage 1. DTI Report R1067.

IACMST (2000). Review of Current UK Marine Observations in Relation to Present and Future Needs. Prepared by John Portmann. IACMST Information Document No. 7.

IACMST (2001). Climate of UK Waters at the Millennium: Status and Trends. Edited by Graham Alcock and Lesley Rickards. IACMST Information Document No. 9. (Also available at: http://www.oceannet.org/UKclimate-status).