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Airborne Drones for Water Quality Mapping in Inland, Transitional and Coastal Waters—MapEO Water Data Processing and Validation
Get PDFUsing airborne drones to monitor water quality in inland, transitional or coastal surface waters is an emerging research field. Airborne drones can fly under clouds at preferred times, capturing data at cm resolution, filling a significant gap between existing in situ, airborne and satellite remote sensing capabilities. Suitable drones and lightweight cameras are readily available on the
market, whereas deriving water quality products from the captured image is not straightforward; vignetting effects, georeferencing, the dynamic nature and high light absorption efficiency of water, sun glint and sky glint effects require careful data processing. This paper presents the data processing workflow behind MapEO water, an end-to-end cloud-based solution that deals with the complexities of observing water surfaces and retrieves water-leaving reflectance and water quality products like turbidity and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration. MapEO water supports common camera types and performs a geometric and radiometric correction and subsequent conversion to reflectance and water quality products. This study shows validation results of water-leaving reflectance, turbidity and Chl-a maps derived using DJI Phantom 4 pro and MicaSense cameras for several lakes across Europe. Coefficients of determination values of 0.71 and 0.93 are obtained for turbidity and Chl-a, respectively. We conclude that airborne drone data has major potential to be embedded in operational monitoring programmes and can form useful links between satellite and in situ observations
Marine biogenic emissions of benzene and toluene and their contribution to secondary organic aerosols over the polar oceans
Get PDFReactive trace gas emissions from the polar oceans are poorly characterized, even though their effects on atmospheric chemistry and aerosol formation are crucial for assessing current and preindustrial aerosol forcing on
climate. Here, we present seawater and atmospheric measurements of benzene and toluene, two gases typically
associated with pollution, in the remote Southern Ocean and the Arctic marginal ice zone. Their distribution
suggests a marine biogenic source. Calculated emission fluxes were 0.023 ± 0.030 (benzene) and 0.039 ± 0.036 (toluene) and 0.023 ± 0.028 (benzene) and 0.034 ± 0.041 (toluene) μmol m−2 day−1 for the Southern Ocean and the Arctic, respectively. Including these average emissions in a chemistry-climate model increased secondary organic aerosol mass concentrations only by 0.1% over the Arctic but by 7.7% over the Southern Ocean, with transient episodes of up to 77.3%. Climate models should consider the hitherto overlooked emissions of benzene and toluene from the polar oceans
Editorial: Ecological and genetic insights into seaweeds’ diversity and adaptation
Get PDFSeaweeds (marine macroalgae) have long been recognized as important primary producers and ecological engineers capable of modifying the surrounding coastal rocky environments and ecosystem services (Harley et al., 2012). However, climate change, anthropogenic pressures and other biotic/abiotic factors in the past decade have imposed unparalleled impacts on the diversity, distribution, reproduction, population structure, biogeography and ecological function of seaweeds globally (Breeman, 1990; Müller et al., 2009; Martínez et al., 2018; de la Hoz et al., 2019; Song et al., 2021; Bringloe et al., 2022). There are a number of research gaps that still need to be investigated in order to better understand the drivers of diversity and the response of seaweeds under climate change: (a) How do different seaweed species respond to the interactive effects of biotic and abiotic factors? (b) How does genetic variation translate into fitness variation in natural population? (c) How does eco-physiological performance enhance resilience and adaptability to a changing environment? And (d) how do biochemical and metabolic processes affect seaweeds’ cellular structure and biological function under different climate change scenarios? Answering these questions is a monumental task that requires unveiling the links between genotypes, phenotypes, and fitness by integrating perspectives from ecology, physiology, to molecular genetics and biochemistry (Nelson et al., 2019)
Bivariate sea-ice assimilation for global-ocean analysis–reanalysis
Get PDFIn the last decade, various satellite missions have been monitoring the status of the cryosphere and its evolution. Besides sea-ice concentration data, available since the 1980s, sea-ice thickness retrievals are now ready to be used in global operational prediction and global reanalysis systems. Nevertheless, while univariate algorithms are commonly used to constrain sea-ice area or volume, multivariate approaches have not yet been employed due to the highly non-Gaussian distribution of sea-ice variables together with the low accuracy of thickness observations. This study extends a 3DVar system, called OceanVar, which is routinely employed in the production of global/regional operational/reanalysis products, to process sea-ice variables. The tangent/adjoint versions of an anamorphosis operator are used to locally transform the sea-ice anomalies into Gaussian control variables and back, minimizing in the latter space. The benefit achieved by such a transformation is described. Several sensitivity experiments are carried out using a suite of diverse datasets. The sole assimilation of the CryoSat-2 provides a good spatial representation of thickness distribution but still overestimates the total volume that requires the inclusion of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission data to converge towards the observation estimates. The intermittent availability of thickness data can lead to potential jumps in the evolution of the volume and requires a dedicated tuning. The use of the merged L4 product CS2SMOS shows the best skill score when validated against independent measurements during the melting season when satellite data are not available. This new sea-ice module is meant to simplify the future coupling with ocean variables
Impact of polyester and cotton microfibers on growth and sublethal biomarkers in juvenile mussels
Get PDFAnthropogenic microfibres are a prevalent, persistent and globally distributed form of marine debris. Evidence of microfibre ingestion has been demonstrated in a range of organisms, including Mytilus spp. (mussels), but the extent of any impacts on these organisms are poorly understood. This study investigates, for the first time, the effect of exposing juvenile mussels to polyester and cotton microfibres at environmentally relevant concentrations (both current and predicted future scenarios) over a chronic timescale (94 days). Sublethal biomarkers included growth rate, respiration rate and clearance rate. Mussels were exposed to polyester (median length 149 µm) and cotton (median length 132 µm) microfibres in three treatments: polyester (~ 8 fibres L−1), polyester (~ 80 fibres L−1) and cotton (~ 80 fibres L−1). Mussels exposed to 80 polyester or cotton microfibres L−1 exhibited a decrease in growth rate of 35.6% (polyester) and 18.7% (cotton), with mussels exposed to ~ 80 polyester microfibres L−1 having a significantly lower growth rate than the control population (P < 0.05). This study demonstrates that polyester microfibres have the potential to adversely impact upon mussel growth rates in realistic future scenarios, which may have compounding effects throughout the marine ecosystem and implications for commercial viability
Rain triggers seasonal stratification in a temperate shelf sea
Get PDFThe North Atlantic Storm Track acts as a conveyor belt for extratropical cyclones that frequently deliver high winds and rainfall to northwest European shelf seas. Storms are primarily considered detrimental to shelf sea stratification due to wind-driven mixing countering thermal buoyancy, but their impact on shelf scale stratification cycles remains poorly understood. Here, we show that storms trigger stratification through enhanced surface buoyancy from rainfall. A multidecadal model confirms that rainfall contributed to triggering seasonal stratification 88% of the time from 1982 to 2015. Stratification could be further modulated by large-scale climate oscillations, such as
the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV), with stratification onset dates being twice as variable during a positive AMV phase than a negative one. Further insights into how changing storm activity will impact shelf seas are
discussed beyond the current view of increasing wind-driven mixing, with significant implications for marine productivity and ecosystem function
Simultaneous high-precision, high-frequency measurements of methane and nitrous oxide in surface seawater by cavity ring-down spectroscopy
Get PDFAn automated system was developed using commercially available Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) technology (Picarro LTD., G2508) which was interfaced to a custom-made system which automated the equilibration and analysis of seawater dissolved nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). The combined system was deployed during two research cruises in the Atlantic Ocean, which combined covered 16,500 kms, one on a west to east transect between the United States and Europe at approximately 24°N, the second was a north to south transect which covered approximately 70° of latitude between the Tropic of Cancer and the Southern Ocean. Semi-continuous measurements using the CRDS (Approx. 73,000) were compared to discretely collected samples (n=156) which were analysed using gas chromatography (GC) with flame ionisation detection for CH4 and electron capture detection for N2O. Excellent agreement between the two approaches, though with an increase in analytical precision offered by CRDS compared to GC gives great confidence in the applicability of the CRDS system, whilst the significant (2 to 3 orders of magnitude) increase in measurement frequency offer an opportunity to greatly increase the number of dissolved N2O and CH4 data that are currently available. Whilst identifying a number of small-scale features, deployment during this study showed that whilst the surface of large areas of the Atlantic Ocean were in-balance with the overlying atmosphere with respect to N2O, the most of this region was offering a source of atmospheric CH4
Juvenile survival and movements of two threatened oceanic sharks in the North Atlantic Ocean inferred from tag-recovery data
Get PDFUnderstanding population dynamics, movements, and fishing mortality is critical to establish effective shark conservation measures across international boundaries in the ocean. There are few survival and dispersal estimates of juveniles of oceanic shark species in the North Atlantic despite it being one of the most fished regions in the world. Here we provide estimates of dispersal, survival, and proportion of fishing mortality in the North Atlantic for two threatened oceanic sharks: the blue shark (Prionace glauca) and the shortfin mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus). Our results are based on multi-event models applied to tag-recovery data of 700 blue sharks and 132 shortfin makos tagged over a decade. A total of 60 blue sharks (8.57% of tagged) and 30 makos (22.73%) were recovered by the longline fishery between 2009 and 2017. Tag-reporting rate (percentage of returned information when a tagged shark was caught) was estimated to be high (0.794 ± 0.232 SE). Mean annual survival, as predicted from the models, was higher for blue shark (0.835 ± 0.040 SE) than for shortfin mako (0.618 ± 0.189 SE). Models predicted that fishing caused more than a half of total mortality in the study area for both species (0.576 ± 0.209), and more than a third of tagged individuals dispersed from the study area permanently (0.359 ± 0.073). Our findings, focused mainly on juveniles from oceanic areas, contribute to a better understanding of shark population dynamics in the North Atlantic and highlight the need for further conservation measures for both blue shark and shortfin mako, such as implementing efficient bycatch mitigation measures and static/dynamic time–area closures in the open ocea
The distribution of Pseudodiaptomus marinus in European and neighbouring waters —A rolling review
Get PDFAmong non-native copepods, the calanoid Pseudodiaptomus marinus Sato, 1913 is the species probably spreading at the fastest pace in European and neighbouring waters since its first record in the Adriatic Sea in 2007. In this contribution, we provide an update on the distribution of P. marinus in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, in the English Channel and in the southern North Sea. Starting from a previous distribution overview, we include here original and recently (2019–2023) published data to show the novel introduction of this species in different geographical areas, and its secondary spreading in already colonised regions. The picture drawn in this work confirms the strong ability of P. marinus to settle in environments characterised by extremely diverse abiotic conditions, and to take advantage of different vectors of introduction. The data presented allow speculations on realistic future introductions of P. marinus and on the potential extension of its distribution rang
Multiscale spatial variability and stability in the structure and diversity of bacterial communities associated with the kelp Eisenia cokeri in Peru
No full textEcological communities are structured by a range of processes that operate over a range of spatial scales. While our understanding of such biodiversity patterns in macro-communities is well studied, our understanding at the microbial level is still lacking. Bacteria can be free living or associated with host eukaryotes, forming part of a wider “microbiome,” which is fundamental for host performance and health. For habitat forming foundation-species, host-bacteria relationships likely play disproportionate roles in mediating processes for the wider ecosystem. Here, we describe host-bacteria communities across multiple spatial scales (i.e., from 10s of m to 100s of km) in the understudied kelp, Eisenia cokeri, in Peru. We found that E. cokeri supports a distinct bacterial community compared to the surrounding seawater, but the structure of these communities varied markedly at the regional (~480 km), site (1–10 km), and individual (10s of m) scale. The marked regional-scale differences we observed may be driven by a range of processes, including temperature, upwelling intensity, or regional connectivity patterns. However, despite this variability, we observed consistency in the form of a persistent core community at the genus level. Here, the genera Arenicella, Blastopirellula, Granulosicoccus, and Litorimonas were found in >80% of samples and comprised ~53% of total sample abundance. These genera have been documented within bacterial communities associated with kelps and other seaweed species from around the world and may be important for host function and wider ecosystem health in genera