Cost and value of multidisciplinary fixed-point ocean observatories

Sustained ocean observations are crucial to understand both natural processes occurring in the ocean and human influence on the marine ecosystems. The information they provide increases our understanding and is therefore beneficial to the society as a whole because it contributes to a more efficient use and protection of the marine environment, upon which human livelihood depends. In addition the oceans, which occupy 73% of the planet surface and host 93% of the biosphere, play a massive role in controlling the climate. Eulerian or fixed-point observatories are an essential component of the global ocean observing system as they provide several unique features that cannot be found in other systems and are therefore complementary to them. In addition they provide a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary work, combining physical, chemical and biological observations on several time scales. The fixed-point open ocean observatory network (FixO3) integrates the 23 European open ocean fixed-point observatories in the Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea. The programme also seeks to improve access to key installations and the knowledge they provide for the wider community, from scientists, to businesses, to civil society. This paper summarises the rationale behind open ocean observatories monitoring the essential ocean variables. It also provides an estimate of the costs to operate a typical fixed-point observatory such as those included in the FixO3 network. Finally an assessment of the type of data and services provided by ocean observations and their value to society is also given.     

黄东海间遗传连通性多物种案例分析与启示

黄东海是太平洋重要的边缘海,拥有丰富的海洋生物多样性资源,但在气候变化及人类活动的双重胁迫下,黄东海面临生物多样性衰退等问题,亟需加强保护。保护区网络被认为可有效防止或减缓人类活动和气候变化对生物多样性的负面影响,但连通性作为保护区网络的重要参数却很难直接测量。因此,本研究希望通过梳理已发表的黄东海间遗传连通性文献来揭示黄东海区域内的保护区是否形成网络。通过搜集已发表的137篇文献,共获得175个研究案例。超过半数的案例(65.71%)认为黄东海之间具有显著的遗传分化,这也意味着跨生态区群体间具有较低的遗传连通性。在总结影响因素时发现长江冲淡水、生境异质性、空间距离、进化过程、生活史(较短的浮游幼体期)、洋流等6个因素阻碍了黄东海群体间的遗传连通性,而洋流、生活史(较长的浮游幼体期)等2个因素促进了遗传连通性。进一步分析发现黄东海群体间的遗传连通性与空间距离呈显著的负相关,而与浮游幼体期呈正相关。因此,根据本研究结果,建议未来保护区网络建设应针对黄、东海生态区分别构建网络,在网络设计时应考虑保护对象的扩散能力及保护区间的空间距离。本研究不仅为构建涵盖黄东海的海洋保护区网络提供理论基础,...     

南海及邻近海区科学数据中心资源建设初探

南海及邻近海区科学数据中心是国家地球系统科学数据中心的分中心, 其目标是通过联合热带海洋生物资源与生态、热带海洋环境动力领域和边缘海与大洋地质研究领域的优势力量, 建成具有南海特色的海洋科学数据资源共享服务平台, 促进海洋科学数据资源的开放共享与高效利用。南海及邻近海区科学数据中心资源在建设和实践过程中, 整合和共享了1985年以来南海水文、气象、生态、地质等多学科、多要素、多尺度的海洋科学数据资源, 一方面为南海海洋学各学科的科技创新提供精确、完整和可靠的海洋科学数据资源, 增强我国海洋科技创新能力; 另一方面为国家重大战略需求、海洋经济社会发展和相关决策活动提供数据基础支撑。     

The Long-term Ecosystem Observatory: an integrated coastalobservatory

An integrated ocean observatory has been developed and operated in the coastal waters off the central coast of New Jersey, USA. One major goal for the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO) is to develop a real-time capability for rapid environmental assessment and physical/biological forecasting in coastal waters. To this end, observational data are collected from satellites, aircrafts, ships, fixed/relocatable moorings and autonomous underwater vehicles. The majority of the data are available in real-time allowing for adaptive sampling of episodic events and are assimilated into ocean forecast models. In this observationally rich environment, model forecast errors are dominated by uncertainties in the model physics or future boundary conditions rather than initial conditions. Therefore, ensemble forecasts with differing model parameterizations provide a unique opportunity for model refinement and validation. The system has been operated during three annual coastal predictive skill experiments from 1998 through 2000. To illustrate the capabilities of the system, case studies on coastal upwelling and small-scale biological slicks are discussed. This observatory is one part of the expanding network of ocean observatories that will form the basis of a national observation network     

国际海洋观测技术发展趋势与中国深海台站建设实践

20世纪80年代以来,海洋观测呈现"多元化、立体化、实时化"的发展趋势,地区和国家的海洋观测系统在关键海域发挥着重要作用。随着技术的发展和理念的创新,区域海洋观测系统被广泛应用并得到不断完善。国际海洋观测台站如英国爱尔兰海区域、美国卡罗来纳州海区和加拿大维多利亚海底实验观测网的多元化观测系统(VENUS)都是值得借鉴的例子,他们把多元化、立体化的实时测量数据与海洋物理、生态和生物化学模式紧密结合起来,实现了海洋环境的可预报性。同时,美国、英德法等国和日本实施的一系列海底观测系统,使海洋观测更加完备化。在这种国际大背景下,我国积极推进的海洋观测研究网络工程中的第一个深海台站——西沙海洋观测研究站在2008年已经建设完成并投入运行,该台站实现了长时效的多参数海洋环境实时监控。西沙观测系统主要包括自动气象站、岛屿外缘坐底式海底和海底边界层观测子系统、生物捕获器、西沙上层海洋环境观测子系统和海洋光学监测子系统等。由于海洋环境结构复杂、工作环境恶劣以及资源缺乏等因素的影响,海洋观测一直是高风险的工作。最后希望通过比较国内外观测系统,中国海洋观测事业能够学习国外先进的思路和技术,自身取得更大进步。     

溢油扩展、漂移及扩散预测技术研究进展

海上溢油灾害会严重破坏中国近海海洋环境,还会直接危害我国经济发展。因此,开展溢油预测预警技术研究是非常有必要的,能够为海上溢油应急响应提供技术支撑。本文综述了溢油扩展、漂移及扩散数值预测技术的发展过程及相关研究成果,包括溢油扩展模型、溢油漂移与扩散模型、溢油预测预警系统,为未来开展溢油应急工作提供了理论依据和参考。     

Powering cabled ocean-bottom observatories

A critical and potentially difficult problem for ocean-bottom observatories is the electrical power sub-system. While huge effort and expense has gone into development of land power grids and ocean communication cable power, the characteristics of ocean-bottom observatories require different strategies. Ocean-bottom observatories terminate on the ocean floor where large variable loads are installed, whereas commercial ocean-bottom cables terminate on land and normally have relatively fixed loads. Design considerations such as whether to use a constant current or constant voltage source, choice of voltage and current levels and cable capacitance and impedance are considered. Ocean-bottom observatory science requirements in the future will demand multiple loads along the cable, cable branches, fault protection and redundancy. The realities of high cable capacitance and the negative dynamic impedance of switching power supplies require that rapid load changes either be anticipated or prevented. Without proper control, rapid changes in load can result in instability and collapse of the power system. The strategy suggested in this paper requires that each load point (or junction box where science experiments will be attached to the system) be "smart" enough to keep load variations within tolerance bounds     

海洋负排放技术及其生态治理功能前瞻

工业革命以来,人类活动导致的以二氧化碳为代表的温室气体持续排放,被认为与全球气候变化密切相关,引发诸多极端气候事件,导致海平面上升、海水酸化、海水暖化等一系列环境负面效应。海洋是地球最大的活跃碳库,增汇潜力巨大。为应对全球气候变化,人为干预海洋生态系统、促进其对大气二氧化碳额外吸收封存的海洋负排放技术体系成为国际研究热点。根据负排放技术的应用场景,目前海洋负排放技术体系涵盖侧重于生态保护和修复的滨海湿地蓝碳、侧重于环境友好型养殖产业的海水养殖环境碳汇和借助生态工程技术手段的负排放工程增汇。海洋负排放技术在实现人为增汇的同时,有望通过促进海洋生物的生长和繁殖、提高海洋生态系统的稳定性和抗干扰能力、促进海洋生态系统内部及其与陆地生态系统之间的资源循环利用,发挥其生态治理功能,从而应对海洋环流改变、海水酸化脱氧等全球海洋环境恶化以及人类活动污染的局部胁迫。     

把海洋开发作为跨世纪的国家战略

２１世纪将是全面开发利用海洋的时代，许多沿海国家将把海洋开发作为国家战略。我国是世界上人口最多的国家，陆地资源人均占有量少，更应该重视开发海洋，建设临海工业带，发展海洋农牧化，开发建设海运网络等。发展海洋经济必须走科技兴海之路，抓科技储备，改造传统产业，发展新兴产业，不断提高海洋开发生产力水平。     

Environmental controls on food web regimes: A fluvial perspective

Because food web regimes control the biomass of primary producers (e.g., plants or algae), intermediate consumers (e.g., invertebrates), and large top predators (tuna, killer whales), they are of societal as well as academic interest. Some controls over food web regimes may be internal, but many are mediated by conditions or fluxes over large spatial scales. To understand locally observed changes in food webs, we must learn more about how environmental gradients and boundaries affect the fluxes of energy, materials, or organisms through landscapes or seascapes that influence local species interactions. Marine biologists and oceanographers have overcome formidable challenges of fieldwork on the high seas to make remarkable progress towards this goal. In river drainage networks, we have opportunities to address similar questions at smaller spatial scales, in ecosystems with clear physical structure and organization. Despite these advantages, we still have much to learn about linkages between fluxes from watershed landscapes and local food webs in river networks. Longitudinal (downstream) gradients in productivity, disturbance regimes, and habitat structure exert strong effects on the organisms and energy sources of river food webs, but their effects on species interactions are just beginning to be explored. In fluid ecosystems with less obvious physical structure, like the open ocean, discerning features that control the movement of organisms and affect food web dynamics is even more challenging. In both habitats, new sensing, tracing and mapping technologies have revealed how landscape or seascape features (e.g., watershed divides, ocean fronts or circulation cells) channel, contain or concentrate organisms, energy and materials. Field experiments and direct in situ observations of basic natural history, however, remain as vital as ever in interpreting the responses of biota to these features. We need field data that quantify the many spatial and temporal scales of functional relationships that link environments, fluxes and food web interactions to understand how they will respond to intensifying anthropogenic forcing over the coming decades.     

Priority questions to shape the marine and coastal policy research agenda in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom (UK) and European Union policy is rapidly developing to meet international targets for the sustainable use and protection of the marine environment. To inform this process, research needs to keep pace with these changes and research questions must be focused on providing robust scientific evidence. Thirty four priority research questions within six broad themes were identified by delegates who attended the 1st marine and coastal policy Forum, hosted by the Centre for Marine and Coastal Policy Research at Plymouth University in June 2011. The priority questions formed through this research are timely and reflect the pace and change of marine policy in the UK in response to international, European and national policy drivers. Within the data theme, the majority of questions seek to find improved procedures to manage and use data effectively. Questions related to governance focus on how existing policies should be implemented. The marine conservation questions focus entirely upon implementation and monitoring of existing policy. Questions related to ecosystem services focus on research to support the conceptual links between ecosystem services, ecosystem function, and marine management. Questions relating to marine citizenship are fundamental questions about the nature of societal engagement with the sea. Finally, the marine planning questions focus upon understanding the general approaches to be taken to marine planning rather than its detailed implementation. The questions that have emerged from this process vary in scale, approach and focus. They identify the interdisciplinary science that is currently needed to enable the UK to work towards delivering its European and international commitments to achieve the sustainable use and protection of the marine environment.     

A global ocean observing system framework for sustainable development

Sustainable development depends on maintaining ecosystem services which are concentrated in coastal marine and estuarine ecosystems. Analyses of the science needed to manage human uses of ecosystem services have concentrated on terrestrial ecosystems. Our focus is on the provision of multidisciplinary data needed to inform adaptive, ecosystem-based approaches (EBAs) for maintaining coastal ecosystem services based on comparative ecosystem analyses. Key indicators of pressures on coastal ecosystems, ecosystem states and the impacts of changes in states on services are identified for monitoring and analysis at a global coastal network of sentinel sites nested in the ocean-climate observing system. Biodiversity is targeted as the “master” indicator because of its importance to a broad spectrum of services. Ultimately, successful implementation of EBAs will depend on establishing integrated, holistic approaches to ocean governance that oversee the development of integrated, operational ocean observing systems based on the data and information requirements specified by a broad spectrum of stakeholders for sustainable development. Sustained engagement of such a spectrum of stakeholders on a global scale is not feasible. The global coastal network will need to be customized locally and regionally based on priorities established by stakeholders in their respective regions. The E.U. Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the U.S. Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force are important examples of emerging regional scale approaches. The effectiveness of these policies will depend on the co-evolution of ocean policy and the observing system under the auspices of integrated ocean governance.     

The Indonesian experience in marine capacity building

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. The 3.1 million km² seas cover about two-thirds of its territory. The 200 miles exclusive economic zone adds another 2.7 million km². Marine related programmes are given a high priority by the Indonesian government. During the last two decades a concerted effort in marine capacity building has been carried out through bilateral, regional and international co-operation. This effort included, among others, increasing manpower development, expanding and improving research facilities, establishing a national marine data centre, and improving communications and co-operation throughout the marine science community. The bilateral agreement with the Netherlands in the mid-1980s for the implementation of the Snellius II Programme, laid the intellectual basis for the Indonesian marine science capability. The necessary research vessels were obtained through bilateral co-operation with France. At present Indonesia operates: a network of tide gauges and current meter stations; two satellite ground stations; tropical radar wind profiling stations; a network of marine pollution stations; a number of ocean going, coastal and fisheries research vessels; and six SEAWATCH monitoring buoys. It is expected that Indonesia will play a major role in the western Pacific region in the near future. This paper gives a brief review of the Indonesian experience in developing a national marine capability.     

A network-based telemetry architecture developed for the Martha'sVineyard Coastal Observatory

Underwater observatories with real-time data and virtually unlimited power transmission capabilities compared to traditional oceanographic moorings are beginning to provide scientists with continuous access to the coastal and open ocean. However, for any coastal observatory to serve as a cost-effective system for the collection of long-term scientific and environmental data, it must have a simple, upgradeable power and telemetry system and an instrument interface that is compatible with existing standards. It must be designed for extended environmental exposure and ease of service to avoid high maintenance costs. Most importantly, the observatory must be accessible to all potential users, including students, scientists, engineers, and policy makers. This strategy was applied to the design of the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory on the south shore of the island of Martha's Vineyard. The new facility, and in particular its system architecture, as developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with support from the National Science Foundation, are described     

海南省风暴潮预警综合管理平台建设

海南省风暴潮预警综合管理平台通过海域动态专网连接到警戒潮位标志物预警站的智能采集控制器,获取潮位观测和设备运行状态数据,通过数据解析,建立潮位和设备运行监测信息平台中心数据库,在此基础上实现业务管理和应用服务(如数据的监控、统计、查询、图形化分析、报表输出、参数设置、Web客户端等)。临灾前,海南省海洋监测预报中心可依据潮位监测和海洋预报数据,利用风暴潮预警综合管理平台提前对警戒潮位标志物预警站下达预警指令,发布预警信号,警示周边群众及时避险。临灾时,风暴潮预警综合管理平台可为“三防”应急指挥部门提供警戒潮位观测预警站点的风暴增水数据和现场视频画面,为海洋防灾减灾工作和指挥决策提供重要数据支撑和决策依据。     

Analysis of southeast Australian zooplankton observations of 1938-42 using synoptic oceanographic conditions

The research vessel Warreen obtained 1742 planktonic samples along the continental shelf and slope of southeast Australia from 1938-42, representing the earliest spatially and temporally resolved zooplankton data from Australian marine waters. In this paper, Warreen observations along the southeast Australian seaboard from 28°S to 38°S are interpreted based on synoptic meteorological and oceanographic conditions and ocean climatologies. Meteorological conditions are based on the NOAA-CIRES 20th Century Reanalysis Project; oceanographic conditions use Warreen hydrological observations, and the ocean climatology is the CSIRO Atlas of Regional Seas. The Warreen observations were undertaken in waters on average 0.45 °C cooler than the climatological average, and included the longest duration El Niño of the 20th century. In northern New South Wales (NSW), week time-scale events dominate zooplankton response. In August 1940 an unusual winter upwelling event occurred in northern NSW driven by a stronger than average East Australian Current (EAC) and anomalous northerly winds that resulted in high salp and larvacean abundance. In January 1941 a strong upwelling event between 28° and 33°S resulted in a filament of upwelled water being advected south and alongshore, which was low in zooplankton biovolume. In southern NSW a seasonal cycle in physical and planktonic characteristics is observed. In January 1941 the poleward extension of the EAC was strong, advecting more tropical tunicate species southward. Zooplankton abundance and distribution on the continental shelf and slope are more dependent on weekly to monthly timescales on local oceanographic and meteorological conditions than continental-scale interannual trends. The interpretation of historical zooplankton observations of the waters off southeast Australia for the purpose of quantifying anthropogenic impacts will be improved with the use of regional hindcasts of synoptic ocean and atmospheric weather that can explain some of the physically forced natural variability.     

Interplay between top-down, bottom-up, and wasp-waist control in marine ecosystems

In October 2004, the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) sponsored a symposium to consider “Mechanisms that regulate North Pacific ecosystems: Bottom up, top down, or something else?” It sought to examine how marine populations, particularly the upper-trophic-level species, are regulated and to understand how energy flows through marine ecosystems. This introductory essay examines aspects of control mechanisms in pelagic marine ecosystems and some of the issues discussed during the symposium and in the 11 papers that were selected for this special issue. At global scales, the greatest biomass of fishes, seabirds and marine mammals tends to occur in regions of the world ocean with high primary production, e.g., the sub-arctic seas and up-welling regions of continental shelves. These large-scale animal distribution patterns are driven by food availability, not the absence of predators. At regional scales however, it is likely that current predation or past predation events have shaped local distributions, at least in marine birds and pinnipeds. Wasp-waist control occurs when one of the intermediate trophic levels is dominated by a single species, as occurs with small pelagic fishes of the world’s up-welling zones. Processes in these ecosystems may have features that result in a switch from bottom-up to top-down control.     

海洋酸化及其对海洋生态系统的影响

海洋酸化是21世纪人类面临的重大环境问题,酸化将对钙化生物造成非常严重的损害,给海洋生态系统带来目前还无法准确评估的影响。海洋酸化是人类强烈干预地球系统背景下的自然过程,是与全球变暖相关的重大全球性环境问题,对人类赖以生存的海洋生态系统的维系和持续利用有着及其深刻的影响。美国、欧盟以及英国等发达国家均在近期加强了对海洋酸化问题的研究,启动多项相关计划。扼要综述了最近10年来海洋酸化对海洋生态系统影响的若干进展。     

Evaluation of anthropogenic carbon in the Nordic Seas using observed relationships of N, P and C versus CFCs

Several methods to compute the anthropogenic component of total dissolved inorganic carbon () in the ocean have been reported, all in some way deducing (a) the effect by the natural processes, and (b) the background concentration in the pre-industrial scenario. In this work we present a method of calculating using nutrient and CFC data, which takes advantage of the linear relationships found between nitrate (N), phosphate (P) and CFC-11 in the Nordic Seas sub-surface waters. The basis of the method is that older water has lower CFC-11 concentration and also has been exposed to more sinking organic matter that has decayed, resulting in the slopes of P versus CFC-11 and N versus CFC-11 being close to the classic Redfield ratio of 1:16. Combining this with the slope in total alkalinity (A_T) versus CFC-11 to correct for the dissolution of metal carbonates gives us the possibility to deduce the concentration of anthropogenic C_T in the Nordic Seas. This further allowed us to compute the inventory of anthropogenic C_T below 250 m in the Nordic Seas in spring 2002, to ∼1.2 Gt C.     

A broad-scale assessment of the risk to coastal seagrasses from cumulative threats

Informing the management of coastal marine habitats at broad spatial scales is difficult because of the costs associated with collecting and analyzing ecological data at that scale. Spatially explicit assessments of the risk to coastal marine habitats from cumulative threats provide an alternative approach by identifying sites that are exposed to multiple anthropogenic threats at broad scales. In this study, qualitative measures of vulnerability were combined with geospatial data to evaluate the risk to coastal seagrasses at the scale of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) region (∼26,000 km²) of Queensland, Australia. The risk assessment outputs identified agricultural, urban and industrial runoff, and urban and port developments as the major anthropogenic activities threatening coastal seagrasses. ‘Hot spots’ with multiple threat exposure were all in industrial port locations and the southern two-thirds of the GBR. There is a distinct discontinuity in threat exposure along the GBR coast with 98% of seagrass meadows in the northern third exposed to only low levels of anthropogenic risk. The clustering of threat exposure is discussed in terms of coastal management policy. The approach outlined in this study provides management agencies a method of achieving maximum return for minimal investment in data collection at broad spatial scales by identifying sites where management intervention would be best targeted.