EMECO

Monitoring

What is Monitoring and Why is it Important?

Monitoring can be regarded as an intermittent (regular or irregular) series of observations in time, carried out to show the extent of compliance with a set of environmental objectives. A number of the EMECO partners undertake such 'compliance' monitoring. In addition, EMECO partners undertake monitoring or surveillance, which is not directly tied into demonstrating compliance with policy derived objectives.

With sustained and longer-term monitoring that follows the variation in the ocean's biological, chemical, and physical conditions it becomes possible to detect changes in ecosystem status (health) and threats. The challenge is then determine the cause of change and whether it arises from natural causes or human activity and how best to manage it.

To be effective monitoring needs to be carried out at the appropriate time and space scales that can, depending on purpose,  range from millimetres to thousands of kilometres and seconds to decades. In order to achieve this degree of spatial and temporal resolution a range of strategies need to be adopted making use of a variety of monitoring tools.

Such tools include a range of platforms that carry measuring systems. Platforms include buoys that are used to make fixed point observations e.g. SmartBuoys, WaveNet buoys, or spatial measurements from specialised survey vessels or ships of opportunity e.g. FerryBox, Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR). Satellites and aircraft can also act as platforms on which measurement systems can be mounted (Remote Sensing). Data collected from these monitoring platforms may be returned in real-time (immediately or shortly after the measurement), published to the internet and made rapidly available to various end users.

Integrating data from a variety of platforms increases the temporal coverage of data collection, and enables validation of data collected by any one monitoring platform. Integrated data can also be used to validate models and facilitate international collaboration.

These benefits combine to give increased confidence in the data derived from the various monitoring programmes, improve our understanding of marine ecosystem and the factors that influence them, improve the confidence in the information available to environmental managers and policy makers, and maximise return on investment by increasing user uptake.

Case Study: Benefits of a Multi-Platform Approach to Monitoring Phytoplankton in European Marine Waters

Changes in phytoplankton can (but not always) effect the ocean food chain, the ability of the ocean to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, and/or reflect changes in nutrient levels.

In European marine waters, phytoplankton abundance, distribution, and species composition is monitored using automated buoys, ships of opportunity (SOOPS), and satellites. Integrating these data sets increase the spatial and temporal coverage and the confidence of the observations.

Combining data from the UK-Netherlands SmartBuoy, the Dutch RWS-WD research vessel, and the Modis Satellite that carry sensors for measuring chlorophyll a concentration or fluorescence at the Oyster Grounds in the central North Sea improves the frequency of sampling (Figure 1). The frequency of the ships sampling is low relative to the SmartBuoy and satellite. There were gaps in the satellite data during the cloudy winter months in both 2006 and 2007. The introduction of the SmartBuoy in June 2006 greatly increased the frequency of sampling, but downtime in the buoys leave gaps in the data they collect. By combining all 3 data sets there are no gaps in the data (Figure 1).

The 3 monitoring approaches operating in the Oyster Grounds show an agreement in both the timing and the size of the spring bloom that occurred in April in both 2006 and 2007 and the relatively small autumn bloom that occurred in October 2006 (Figure 1). Measurements taken from the Oyster Grounds suggest that the spring blooms of 2006 and 2007 were relatively similar in magnitude.

Integrating data from monitoring platforms that make spatial observations can validate data on the distribution of phytoplankton in the North Sea. For example, integrating chlorophyll a measurements from Modis satellite with the GKSS Cuxhaven to Immingham FerryBox route shows an agreement in the distribution high and low abundance on 11th April 2007 (Figure 2).