A combined EMECO-NOOS meeting will be held in Lowestoft (UK) on the 2-3^rd June 2009. The meeting will start 10:00 on 2^nd June and finish on the 3^rd at 17:00 hours.

Meeting objectives are:

• To initiate a North Sea Observatory (under the umbrella of EMECO)

• To engage with policy colleagues to discuss the interaction between science, observations data and policy making and understand how EMECO information products will best meet current and future policy needs

• To review best funding opportunities and agree a plan of action

• To integrate EMECO plans into the NOOS-community longer term perspective on ecosystem health for the North Sea

Background to EMECO

EMECO is a consortium of organisations with responsibility for both monitoring and assessment of status and also for improving understanding through research in European shelf-seas. The consortium was formed in response to the challenges posed by the new Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the need to provide the improved evidence in support of the ecosystem approach.

The strength of EMECO is clarity about the rationale for integration of monitoring, modelling and research effort in European shelf seas. The focus is on putting in place the infrastructure to improve assessment of environmental status by building on current monitoring and modelling capability at regional scale. EMECO will provide the capability to generate timely policy relevant information products in a transparent way designed to promote international agreement about future environmental status and ecosystem health. This capacity will be augmented by the existing NOOS-network established in the NW-Shelf region by National Authorities responsible for monitoring and forecasting of hydrodynamics as storm surge, waves and water transport.

The Marine Strategy Directive (MSD) - compliance on GES Objectives

Consideration is required as to how the scale of each of the eleven objectives for Good Environmental Status (GES) will be applied when it comes to measuring compliance across European Regional Seas. We also needs to consider how regional level assessments be approached and how to address GES objectives in a cumulative manner.

The Directive requires that:

'Member States sharing a marine region...shall co-operate to ensure that...the measures required to achieve the objectives of this Directive...are coherent and co-ordinated across the marine region...'

In the interests of making EMECO as effective as possible this meeting will encourage timely discussion with policy end users of observational data - what information is needed; at which intervals; and on which scales? It will focus on requirements for the North Sea, and the design of a North Sea Observatory and also consider a proposed methodology for creating, in a transparent way, policy relevant information products that will underpin regional scale assessments of good environmental status.

Background to the meeting

Following the recent MarinEra workshop held in France several EMECO partners felt is was timely to review the current status of EMECO and plans bearing in mind potential for funding from the EU. As a result of discussion at the workshop it became clear that there is a need for greater visibility of the North Sea component of the EMECO initiative especially as there is much interest in extending to scope of EMECO beyond the North Sea. For example, Cefas together with other UK and European partners intend to launch a Western Shelf Observatory with a domain extending from the western English Channel, western shelf, Celtic and Irish Seas up to the Malin Shelf.

The meeting will provide an opportunity to evaluate prototype products such as 'internationally agreed maps of chlorophyll' for the North Sea and the methodology to develop this and other similar products. It is anticipated that some of the participants will have a policy background and the meeting will take the opportunity to create a dialogue with policy 'end users'.

Towards a North Sea Observatory

The North Sea Observatory will be a regional component of EMECO.

Whilst aiming to improve partners ability to meet current and future policy driven needs the meeting will also take time to consider some of the key science questions that can be addressed through the creation of a North Sea Observatory. Outstanding questions and issues include causes and consequences of North Sea 'regime shifts', changes in North Sea carrying capacity, occurrence sub-surface deoxygenation, and ecosystem consequences of changes in acidification. The list is not exhaustive and will be revisited and prioritised during the meeting.

Download the EMECO-NOOS meeting agenda

FerryBox systems contain automated sensors and samplers for measuring biological, chemical, and physical variables, which are placed on commercial ferries and ships of opportunities (SOOPS). Sensors and samplers are placed in a continuous flow system, through which seawater is pumped during sailing and provide real-time measurements that can be transmitted by back to shore by telemetry.

The FerryBox meeting had a truly International flavour, with presentations from Japan and Korea, the Untied States, and Western and Eastern Europe. The first European FerryBox programmes began in the Baltic Sea and have since spread to the North Sea, Irish Sea, Bay Biscay, the Mediterranean. The lengths of the routes range from 10 km to global.

European labs now operate over 30 routes and more are planned. The expansion of the FerryBox and SOOPs network has demanded significant technological advances since the European FerryBox Project began in 2002. Sensors and the systems in which they are used have become more robust to the marine environment and now require lower maintenance. David Hydes (NOCS) spoke about SNOMS (Swire NOCS Monitoring System) which has been funded by the Swire Group Trust. This has been specifically designed so that it can be maintained by the ships crew and to provide global observation of pCO2 in the oceans.

Expansion and improvements in FerryBox systems and marine environmental sensors in general has revolutionised marine monitoring, which in turn, has led to advances in science. Herman Ridderinkhof (Netherlands Institute of Sea Research, Netherlands) reported that recent Ferry observations in the Marsdiep inlet between the isle of Texel and Den Helder in northern Holland has changed our understanding of sediment transport into the Wadden Sea. Ute Schuster (University of East Anglia, UK) reported that integrated assessment of ship observations has improved our understanding of trends in the uptake of CO2 into the Atlantic Ocean since the 1980s. GKSS and the German engineering company, 4H have also developed the portable "Pocket FerryBox", which can easily be transported and used on smaller boats and in remote locations around the World.

Wilhelm Petersen of GKSS in Germany and David Mills from CEFAS in the UK led discussion on the further development of the FerryBox concept as part of integrated network of observing systems. Wilhelm presented the ICON and related COSYNA projects, describing plans to develop an integrated monitoring programme for the German Bight. David went on to describe the EMECO initiative and its bottom-up approach towards integrating of physical, chemical, and biological data collected over many years to meet the needs of policy makers, researchers, and modellers alike.

The theme of data integration continued in the EMECO workshop. The EMECO initiative continues to grow in enthusiasm and support with significant interest from the Baltic States, countries surrounding the North Sea and English Channel, and the Irish. As a result of the meeting, the partners have a number of plans for products that will demonstrate the benefits of EMECO's bottom-up approach to integrating observations for research, policy, and modellers.

Lobsters of takeable size are now nearly seven times more abundant in the protected zone than they are elsewhere around the island, or in fishing zones off the coast of north Devon and south Wales, says a survey by Natural England. In the other areas, a string of 10 lobster pots produces one lobster, on average; in the Lundy no-take zone the average is 6.7.

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Breeding pairs of the small seabirds have decreased on the National Trust-owned islands from 55,674 in 2003 to 36,500 this year.

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Read more about the debate

Sandy Park, Exeter, UK, 20th-22nd May 2008

Following the successful EuroGOOS conferences held in The Hague (1996), Rome (1999), Athens (2002), and Brest (2005), the 5th meeting will be held in Exeter, UK in May 2008.

2008 promises to be an important year for operational oceanography, with the FP6 projects in their mid-term, the start of FP7 and actions to establish the GMES Marine Core Service. The community must respond to the need for environmental information to support the EU Maritime Policy and implementation of the Marine Strategy Directive.

The EuroGOOS Conference will provide a timely opportunity to review progress, and to present and discuss plans for the future, covering all aspects of operational oceanography. EuroGOOS 2008 will cover all aspects of operational oceanography; progress to date and plans for the furture.

Download the Conference Schedule  

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising far faster than in other parts of the world. Climate models produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which are tuned to reproduce the human-made greenhouse effect, predict the region should have warmed by 1.4 °C between 1960 and 2000. In fact, the Arctic's average air temperature rose by 2.2 °C.

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The 10ft shark, a juvenile female found dead last week entangled in a gill-net in Kaipara harbour on New Zealand's North Island, will be examined by scientists, who will measure its internal organs and find out what it ate before it died.

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Watch the dissection

Climate-change researchers have found that air temperatures in the region are higher than would be normally expected during the autumn because the increased melting of the summer Arctic sea ice is accumulating heat in the ocean.

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A total of 4 Directional Waverider buoys have now been deployed around the Scottish coast. Their deployment is an important extension of the existing WaveNet network.

The WaveNet network currently consists of around 40 active buoys, that measure sea surface temperature, wave features (e.g. height, period, direction), and wind speed and direction. The data is transmitted to Cefas via satellite and is available on the WaveNet website in near real time.

The new buoys are located at Moray Firth and Firth of Forth on the east coast and West of Hebrides and Blackstones on the west coast. The buoys will aid the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in its development of coastal flood defence and forecasting. The buoys will also support SEPA in building an historical record of the wave climate around Scotland.

With 27,000 properties around Scotland at risk from coastal flooding and the suggestion that storms in the UK are becoming more frequent and severe, accurate and timely flood warnings are becoming increasingly important. Data from the Scottish buoys have already been integrated with the UK Met Office forecasting models and are showing promising results.

The chart below shows wave height measured by the Blackstones wavenet buoy (green line) compared with wave height forecast by the UK Met Office model (purple line) for 12-13th March 2009.

Real time and historical data and observation verses forecast data for all WaveNet buoys is freely available from the WaveNet website.

Around 40 scientists and policy makers for 7 countries bordering the North Sea attended the meeting, which was opened by Dr. Joe Horwood, President of ICES and Chief Scientist at Cefas.

The meeting reviewed the policy background to the initiative and in particular the needs of OSPAR, with regards to eutrophication monitoring and assessment and the future needs of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. A number of potential challenges were identified that EMECO was regarded as capable of meeting. These included:

• Improving spatial and temporal coverage of monitoring and improving effectiveness and efficiency

• Putting marine observations into wider context

• A focus on putting transparent regional scale information products into the policy arena

Other policy drivers that require long-term marine monitoring include the Water Framework Directive, Habitats Directive, the Common Fisheries Policy and Water Framework Directive. The meeting noted that a number of EU initiatives aim to provide data and information in support of policy and other end user needs. Examples include MYOCEANS, EMODNET, NOOS and WISE-MARINE. The meeting concluded that EMECO was well placed to make direct use of programmes such as MYOCEANS and EMODNET ensuring integration between the initiatives and providing an interface with end users.

The meeting considered the need for initiating a North Sea Observatory. In general it was felt that the greater North Sea was at the correct scale for addressing policy issues and some key science questions. Downscaling with EMECO and a North Sea Observatory would also facilitate meeting the requirements of other end users such as industry (e.g. aquaculture, water industry, fishing) or local authorities the public (e.g. beach goers, surfers, sailors).

Finally, opportunities for future funding of related work were discussed and in particular an EU framework 7 proposal (Jerico) to be submitted under the Integrated Infrastucture call. l

For more information download:

• The EMECO-NOOS meeting minutes

• The EMECO-NOOS meeting presentations

• See the EMECO-NOOS meeting photos

The UK is to invest £82m in the European Space Agency's flagship Global Monitoring for Environment & Security (GMES) programmes, and a new ESA facility is to be based in the UK.

Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of NERC, said, "I'm very pleased that the negotiations on the second segment of the GMES space component have had such a positive outcome. GMES and the associated Essential Climate Variables programme will provide vital observations of environmental change, informing UK policies. The new UK ESA facility will have a climate change component, representing a real opportunity for the UK environmental science community."

The GMES programme consists of five families of satellites, called Sentinels, which will monitor our oceans, atmosphere, land surface and polar-regions. They will provide unique information on the causes and impacts of changes to sea-level, glaciers, land cover, soil moisture, forest biomass, ocean circulation and atmospheric composition.

The Global Monitoring of Essential Climate Variables programme will provide data on a range of key climate and environmental parameters needed to inform the development of the policy agenda within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is envisaged that the new UK ESA facility will play an important role in the programme's implementation.

GMES has been developed by ESA and the European Commission to pull together all Earth observation data gathered from space and from non-space sensor networks on Earth. The programme is crucial to the understanding of how our climate is changing and for predicting and reducing the impact of natural disasters. It will provide the scientific evidence needed for policy-makers to develop environment and climate policies in Europe and globally.

The two-day summit is likely to prove controversial, as governments balance the needs of a rapidly shrinking industry with protecting fish stocks.

Thousands of jobs have been lost in Europe's fisheries in the last 10 years - including 4,000 in the UK.

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SMHI carries out monthly cruises with R/V Argos in the Baltic and the Kattegat/Skagerrak. Results from semi quantitative microscopic analysis of phytoplankton samples as well as chlorophyll measurements are presented in brief in this report.

Abstract

Sampling was not done in open Skegarrak due to the weather conditions. At the coast (Släggö), the phytoplankton diversity had gone down in comparison to the last expedition. Diatoms still dominated though, the most abundant being Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and Skeletonema costatum complex. The situation in the Kattegat was similar, but the total numbers of cells were lower at the station N14. At Släggö, the chlorophyll a concentration was enhanced, but within average which was the case in the rest of the Skagerrak and Kattegat areas.

Small species dominated the phytoplankton flora in the Baltic Sea. In the Southern (BY2 and BY5) and Southeastern Baltic (BCSIII-10) cryptomonads, Pyramimonas spp. and the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa rotundata were the most common, and the haptophyte Chrysochromulina polylepis was absent. At the rest of the stations C. polylepis was found in varying cell numbers in addition to the species mentioned above.

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This is substantially more than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in last year's landmark assessment of climate science.

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Research from the National Trust forecasts "dramatic changes" that will put at risk native wildlife along Britain's 9,040 miles of coastline and herald the arrival of new foreign species.

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The agency signed the £240m (305m-euro) contract with industrial partner Thales Alenia Space on Monday to provide the Sentinel-3 Earth observation satellite.

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British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.

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A new Marine Bill will set up a UK-wide planning system which will include measures to speed up approvals for offshore windfarms - at the same time as bringing in a new right of access to the coastline.

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Five Cuvier's beaked whales, a species rarely seen in British waters, were discovered on beaches in the Western Isles on succeeding days in February. Another animal from a related species was discovered at the same time.

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