JERICO-S3 provides Virtual Access (VA) to 20 European coastal ocean services.  

Services include data portals, processing scripts, document repositories, websites, apps and visualisation tools. They provide access to data, software, products and other resources that form part of the Joint European Research Infrastructure for Coastal Observatories (JERICO-RI).

Access to services is free of charge and open to all stakeholders and users. 

What is Virtual Access?

Virtual Access (VA) means free access to users provided through communication networks; the available services or resources can be simultaneously used by an unlimited number of users and the users are not selected. VA can have very different formats e.g. a website, an API, a repository on GitHub etc. It can expose very different types of resources e.g. datasets, added-value products, software, documents, training modules, and data-processing capabilities.

The European Commission (LEA), in its effort to support open access, finances Virtual Access that is ‘free of charge at the point of use’.

How does JERICO-S3 support VA?

JERICO-S3 is driven by the major European institutions that work in coastal oceanography. Some of these institutions provide VA to their resources under an open access policy.

Joining forces under JERICO-S3, VA providers benefit from a well-established EU framework specifically designed for accessing Research Infrastructures, as well as a centralised access metrics system (VAMS), the feedback from a VA Expert Panel that reviews each VA, outreach activities carried out for the VA under JERICO-S3, data management expertise, work to identify new users and user categories, and JERICO-CORE.

JERICO-CORE is under development as part of JERICO-S3. JERICO-CORE aims to provide a single access point to all JERICO-RI resources. It will be a unified central hub of the JERICO-RI and will facilitate the discovery, access, management and interoperability of all JERICO-RI resources, including VA. 

Through JERICO-S3, institutions providing VA also receive financial support from the EU H2020 program to cover part of the incurred costs to maintain their service(s).

What VAs are included in JERICO?

There are currently 20 VA services under JERICO-S3.

JERICO-S3 VA Services

JERICO-RI would like to celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science tomorrow, 11 February 2022, by recognizing our women users from the JERICO-S3 Transnational Access (TA) programme. As part of the TA, JERICO-RI supports a diverse user group of currently 20 nationalities all with varied backgrounds using the JERICO-RI marine ocean observation infrastructures. Of these international users, we are delighted to feature the work of the all-women user groups and woman Principal Investigators that are contributing to marine research and innovation. Their stories highlight the possibilities and opportunities available for girls and early-stage researchers who are embarking on their careers.

In 2016, the United Nations and UNESCO declared 11th February the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in order to promote equal access for women in science. This event is designed to empower more women and girls to be involved with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The STEM disciplines see an underrepresentation of women at only 33.3% women researchers from the UNESCO’s data. It is important for women and girls in science to share their research, experiences, and to be leaders in their field for encouraging others to contribute to science.

Throughout the day tomorrow, we will be introducing three women Principal Investigators for projects supported by JERICO-S3 TA. These women leaders share their experiences in what led them on their career paths and a brief description of the projects they are leading. We are proud to facilitate these outstanding role models for women in STEM who are utilising JERICO-RI infrastructures and are looking forward to following the results of their projects.

We welcome and invite more women users to apply for the third JERICO-S3 TA call opening this March, more details for applying to follow soon.

AQUACOSM-plus opens funding opportunities for mesocosm experiments in 2022 under its second call for transnational access (TA).

As part of this call, applications are invited for experiments on the CNRS-MEDIMER infrastructure, France. 

More information and how to apply

Topic: Effects of consecutive heatwaves on the resistance, resilience and recovery of marine plankton communities (heatwaves)

Project Leads: Francesca Vidussi and Behzad Mostajir

Project Duration: Planned for one month from April 25 to May 25, 2022

Deadline: Deadline to submit the online application to this experiment: 4th February 2022

Who can Apply: 20 scientists, students and trainees are strongly invited to participate.

Marine systems are facing an increase in the frequency of extreme events and in particular climate change scenarios preconize the increase of heatwaves in the future. An increase in Heat-waves can change planktonic diversity, interactions between different groups and key processes. According to the modelling previsions for the future increase in the frequency of heatwaves, an in situ mesocosm experiment will be carried out in the CNRS-MEDIMER infrastructure (Sète city in the south of France) situated at the PSS Med-Sea of the JERICO-S3 project.

In this experiment, triplicate in situ mesocosms will be heated at +3-5°C compared to natural surrounding waters for 5 days and triplicate other in situ mesocosms will act as the control following the natural surrounding water temperature. After this first period of the heatwave (HW1), all mesocosms in the experiment will undergo a period of  5 days without heating (Post HW1) following the natural water temperature. This experimental protocol will be repeated one more time with the corresponding periods denoted HW2 and Post HW2. In this way, the planktonic communities will be submitted to 2 consecutive periods of heatwaves and Post heatwaves and the results will be compared with those of Control mesocosms based on the daily sampling of chemical (nutrients, etc.), physical (light, temperature, etc.) and biological (plankton diversity, etc.) parameters, continuous high-frequency sensor measurements (temperature, conductivity, underwater light, dissolved oxygen and fluorescence of chlorophyll a), as well as the key ecological processes like Gross Primary Production, Respiration, Net Community Production, Growth and Loss of phytoplankton. Finally, based on the results the resistance, resilience and recovery of the planktonic communities will be estimated.

We invite all colleagues with an interest in investigating the plankton communities or processes in particularly those topics that the local team does not study like zooplankton, plankton parasites, virioplankton or preferential nutrient assimilation by different groups of phytoplankton or bacteria, biogeochemical cycles, detrital particles including Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) and several other topics. It is also an occasion to test new methods to study the plankton food web components or functioning like deployment of underwater camera or cytometry to study large and small plankton, or other underwater instruments like in situ Fast repetition fluorometer to study photosynthesis, etc. Graduate students at different levels (Master, Ph.D., etc.) are very welcome for training and participating in this experiment, all trainees will be supervised by the local team. International scientists and students are invited to contact the local scientists (francesca.vidussi@cnrs.fr and behzad.mostajir@umontpellier.fr) for propositions to participate in this experiment.

The English Channel and the North Sea are diverse ecosystems, influenced by adjacent sea areas. Strong physical forcing – swells, winds, waves, fronts, gyres, tidal currents and high riverine inputs – control advection and dispersion of nutrients, pollutants, particulate matter and plankton. The areas are characterized by intense seasonal primary production, local eutrophication and harmful algal blooms. The region also represents a significant economic zone where several human activities, fisheries, waste disposal, oil drilling, transportation, coastal defence, offshore wind farms, and recreation, take place.

Understanding the fluxes and balances of energy, materials and ecosystem dynamics is still patchy at best and is important in understanding primary production, eutrophication events and algal blooms. These in turn are important for economic and recreational activities.

The JERICO-S3 project has established 4 innovative Pilot Supersites for coastal monitoring that aim to fill gaps in understanding coastal marine environments. One of the key focuses of the North Sea and English Channel Pilot Supersite is to improve understanding of the interconnected forces that govern energy budget, material fluxes, balances, and the factors directly controlling ecosystem dynamics.   

To achieve this, 9 specific regional scientific topics and actions have been defined, including harmonized observations of regional carbon fluxes, plankton biomass, diversity, and productivity dynamics, riverine input to the North Sea, data integration, identification of gaps in observations, products and support to the EU directives and ecosystem management and Eutrophication Status Assessments, as well as interaction with other JERICO Pilot Supersites and European RIs.

To begin to address these specific topics and actions, the team has:

• Started to Integrate the data from various sources. The collections are used to ground-truth Integrated Observation Systems with conventional situ data (CTD casts, sampling with Nishkin bottles and nets) to harmonize observations, cross-validate the data, find technological observation gaps, and facilitate effective scientific data use.
• Started to collect a continuous time series of plankton diversity, biomass, and behaviour in the North Sea near Helgoland using a CPICS plankton and particle imager. The CPICS plankton and particle imager, which is equipped with CTD and oxygen sensors and ADCP has been operational since July 2021. The imager is maintained jointly by Hereon and AWI.
• Co-organised the 10th Ferrybox workshop for validating and harmonising the methods used. The virtual event was hosted by SMHI and Fjordexport Heinke Expedition in March 2021, in collaboration with Hereon and GEOMAR.
• Started to establish a measurement station in Tesperhude at the Elbe river. This is a joint collaborative activity by JERICO-S3 and the DANUBIUS-RI, which is expected to be operational in early spring 2022.

What’s next?

Workshop on data mining for integrated observation systems; on the 18th of October 2021, Webinar “Theoretical approach” (Session 1)

Shared actions between partners within a Pilot Supersite and between the Supersites, including the study of pCO₂ variabilities development (Ship of Opportunity SOP approach), optimisation of nutrient fluxes assessment along the land to sea continuum, development of Plankton Imaging and Machine Learning techniques, including specific research cruises in spring 2022, and develop the Ecosystem and Eutrophication modelling capacity.

Collaborations with other projects or initiatives 

The English Channel / North Sea PSS activities are strongly linked with other projects such as:

• S3-EUROHAB France England Interreg project. The project develops a web-based Harmful Algal Bloom and Water Quality alert system that uses satellite data to improve monitoring of these parameters/phenomena.
• French CPER MARCO project and mainly its first scientific axis devoted to the Observation and Environmental status assessment.
• The German MOSES project the Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems is run in the Elbe River and the coastal North Sea.
• DANUBIUS: the connection with this RI builds a major link to riverine and terrestrial data and processes.
• COSYNA: data availability for the NSea PSS, provided via the Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas Data portal.
• Ecotaxa: project at Hereon (Germany) is developing a data pipeline with IFREMER and LOV for including their plankton images in the Ecotaxa database.

About the JERICO-S3 Pilot Supersites

JERICO-S3 will provide regionalised innovative monitoring and science strategies at 4 Pilot Supersites in The Gulf of Finland, the North-western Mediterranean, The North Sea and the English Channel and the Cretan Sea.

The Pilot Supersites (PSSs) will be established and tested during a short implementation period (January 2021 to August 2022) to demonstrate how transnationally and trans-institutionally integrated multidisciplinary and multiplatform observations add value to our ability to answer the multiple key scientific and social challenges that the coastal ocean is facing.

Find out more

Following successful deployment and testing in December 2020, the Helgoland Underwater Observatory (HUWO) equipped with a CPICS plankton and particle imager as well as CTD, oxygen sensor and ADCP, is now fully operational. This structure is one key element of the JERICO-RI North Sea Pilot Supersite (PSS) and is maintained jointly by Hereon (formerly HZG, K.O. Möller) and AWI (P. Fischer).

The HUWO’s main element is a lander structure, which can be programmed to move vertically through the water column with remotely controlled winches, utilising the buoyancy of floats attached to its outer edges for the upward movement and straps connected to the winch and anchored to a base on the seafloor to move down. Cameras and sensors are mounted on this vertical profiler. Utilising this set-up, a continuous time-series of plankton diversity, biomass, and behaviour in the North Sea near Helgoland is currently being collected.

All Images are sent in real-time to shore and are classified automatically using AI and different machine learning approaches. These observations allow conclusions regarding the biodiversity, impact of climate change, ecosystem productivity and the occurrence of invasive species at the PSS.

The HUWO is located in the Margate experimental field at a water depth of up to 10 m (tidal range around 2.5 m). Additional physical, meteorological and chemical data collected in the same area can be closely associated with data collected at the HUWO.

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In the frame of JERICO-S3, the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) facilitates continuous and open virtual access to coastal ocean data through the SOCIB Thredds data server.

This free-of-charge data server allows users to explore and access SOCIB Data Repository through a variety of standard services such as OPeNDAP protocol, Web Map Service, Web Coverage Service & NetCDF Subset Services. It is intended for scientists and R&D developers, among others, to download and visualize SOCIB’s ocean observation and forecast data.

See more

Massive blooms of cyanobacteria occur practically every summer in the Baltic Sea. They cover large areas of the sea during July-August and have a substantial influence on marine services, e.g., tourism and recreation, as well as on the ecosystem.

The Gulf of Finland Pilot Supersite promotes transnational observations of these blooms using multiple platforms and technologies. The observations aim at better real-time monitoring, forecasting and modelling of toxic cyanobacterial blooms.

The unmanned Utö atmospheric and marine research station maintained by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the Marine Research Centre of Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), at the edge of the open Baltic Sea is the cornerstone of the Gulf of Finland Pilot Supersite.

During our recent visit to Utö in June, we prepared our sensors to observe the forthcoming bloom and checked sediment traps, which were deployed close to the Utö field station.

Optical and imaging sensors provide real-time information on the onset and development of the bloom. Automated imaging data is relayed to cloud services, where species identification with AI algorithms is done in near-real-time. The data is used also in the national algae reviews by SYKE.

The sediment traps estimate carbon flux to the seafloor and pCO₂ measurements provide data on fluxes between the air and the sea. The data combination allows us to evaluate the effects of cyanobacterial blooms on the carbon balance in the Baltic Sea.

During our visit, dedicated experiments were carried out to better understand the trophic interactions in plankton communities, as well as to determine the pathways of dissolved organic carbon in the system.

Our next visit to Utö is in July. Hopefully, it hits the development of the main cyanobacterial bloom, as our plan is to perform hands-on experiments to support the unattended observations in resolving the mysterious life of these blooms.       

About the JERICO-S3 Pilot Supersites

JERICO-S3 will provide regionalised innovative monitoring and science strategies at 4 Pilot Supersites in The Gulf of Finland, the North-western Mediterranean, The North Sea and the English Channel and the Cretan Sea.

The Pilot Supersites (PSSs) will be established and tested during a short implementation period (January 2021 to August 2022) to demonstrate how transnationally and trans-institutionally integrated multidisciplinary and multiplatform observations add value to our ability to answer the multiple key scientific and social challenges that the coastal ocean is facing.

Find out more

The successful JERICO-RI S3 Transnational Access (TA) fist call in 2020 resulted in 19 accepted projects with 10 marine observation hosting facilities. This TA call connected marine researchers of 14 nationalities to facilities in 7 JERICO-RI partner countries.

The accepted projects will use 10 of the extensive range of multi-disciplinary facilities offered by the JERICO-RI, including cabled observatories, gliders and AUV, multi-platform facilities, fixed platforms, and calibration labs.

A short summary of the projects as they finalise contracts and begin research in the coming months is given below.

Note: Due to COVID-19 related delays, some projects are in the last steps of finalising and will be added shortly. 

The Second JERICO-S3 TA Call closed in 2021 and project proposals are currently being reviewed. A third call will be announced in 2022.

JERICO-S3 TA Programme JERICO-RI Facilities

EC Ocean Observation event (18 June 2021, 13:30-17:00 CEST): OCEAN OBSERVING TECHNOLOGY: OPTIMISING EUROPEAN CAPABILITY & OCEAN OBSERVING GAPS AND REQUIREMENTS

Event organised by the EC Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maritime Innovation, Marine Knowledge and Investment, and co-organised by the EMODnet Secretariat, European Marine Board, EuroGOOS and Copernicus Marine Service.

The event was composed of two sessions:

1. OCEAN OBSERVING TECHNOLOGY: OPTIMISING EUROPEAN CAPABILITY
2. OCEAN OBSERVING GAPS AND REQUIREMENTS

With 131 people registered we had 97 people connected at any one time, the event brought together Ocean Observing experts, Marine Technology experts, Marine Research Infrastructures, wider Marine/maritime industry, wider policy (e.g. Regional Sea Conventions), European policymakers, European Investment Bank, International (e.g. Ocean Enterprise), and more.

You can find all the speakers’ presentations (in PDF) on the EC Maritime Forum article.

The graphic recordings from Session 1 and Session 2 are now available on the EMODnet Open Conference virtual exhibition which you can access through the event website, or through the public link.

EMODnet Open Conference virtual exhibition

On 16th June 2021, the European Marine Board (EMB) launched its policy briefing for Sustaining in situ Ocean Observations in the Age of the Digital Ocean.

The new European Marine Board (EMB) Policy Brief focuses on in situ Ocean observations and highlights their benefits, funding and governance challenges, and the investment needed for their transformation and sustainability.

As attention is now being given at the highest political levels to actions and solutions that reverse the cycle of degradation of the Ocean’s health and productive capacity, long-term sustained monitoring infrastructures, such as the JERICO-RI, become increasingly important to the design and evaluation of the impact of these actions and solutions. In addition, as the ocean is digitised, into so-called Digital Twins, there will be a need for a continuous feed of data from in situ monitoring infrastructures.

The Policy Brief proposes the recognition of in situ Ocean observations as enabling infrastructures generating public-good data, which would deliver fit-for-purpose data and information supporting sustainable development, the ‘Green Deal’ and sustainable blue economy. It also recommends that a process should be established to review the costs and performance of the system and map its economic and environmental benefits. It should build on European and global coordination efforts, create partnerships with the private sector and civil society, and be integrated with satellite observations and models. which highlights the critical needs and benefits of a fit-for-purpose business and funding model for systematic, sustained ocean observations on National, European and Global levels.

This policy brief is the result of a Working Group established by the European Marine Board to address this topic, in light of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and the start of the Age of the Digital Ocean. This new Policy Brief aims to inform national and European policymakers, funders, and governance influencers; the G7 and G20; and UN agencies such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.

More Information Full Policy Brief

An in situ mesocosm experiment to simulate a “terrestrial input of extreme event” in coastal waters has been carried out from 03 May for several weeks in the frame of the French ANR national project entitled: Microbial responses to terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOMt) input in freshwater and marine ecosystems in a changing environment (RESTORE, National Coordinator: Fabien Joux).

This national marine mesocosm experiment was also opened to AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access  (TA) which permitted and funded the participation of Dr Carolina Cantoni from the Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) of Trieste (Italy) in this mesocosm experiment to realise her project entitled “Dynamics of Total Alkalinity and pH during the Marine RESTORE Project”.

As Dr Cantoni is one of the members of the European project JERICO-S3 (Towards a joint European research infrastructure network for coastal observatories), and as this mesocosm experiment realising in the Pilot Supersite of North-Western Mediterranean Sea of JERICO-S3, her participation to AQUACOSM-plus TA serving also to establish for the first time a synergy between JERICO-S3 observing community and AQUACOSM-plus mesocosm experimenting community.

Behzad Mostajir and Francesca Vidussi: leaders of marine RESTORE mesocosm experiment (Behzad.Mostajir@umontpellier.fr & Francesca.Vidussi@cnrs.fr).

Post by: Dr Carolina Cantoni (carolina.cantoni@ts.ismar.cnr.it)

All Atlantic COASTal observing and technology NETwork – AA-COASTNET is a side event of the ALL ATLANTIC 2021 conference.

The side event is organised by the JERICO-S3 project coordinator, Laurent Delauney (IFREMER, France) and Moacyr Araujo (UFPE, Brasil).

The event will take place on the: 

2nd June at 13:00 – 15:00 UTC (15:00 – 17:00 CEST), the Azores, Portugal

The AA-COASTNET joint action (AANChOR AA- MARINET joint actions package) will establish a network dedicated to Marine Coastal Observation with countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

This event will showcase the long-term goals of AA- COASTNET, to optimise the appropriate use and sharing of research infrastructures to achieve the Belém and Galway statement objectives.

The core members of the network will share know-how and strategies to increase operational efficiencies to better answer societal and policy needs.

The AA-COASTNET side event will lay the foundation for sustained cooperation between coastal observing programmes/initiatives along the Atlantic Ocean, from the Arctic to Antarctica.

Table 1: Marine coastal observation programmes and initiatives that form the All Atlantic coastal network (AA-COASTNET)

Download the AA-COASTNET joint action for further information:

AA-COASTNET All Atlantic COASTal Observing And Technology NETwork AANChOR Joint Actions (560.5 KiB)

Find Out More Register Now

Our final Facility of the Week is the E1-M3A station from POSEIDON!

As always, the facilities featured over the last few weeks are available for the JERICO-S3 TA 2^nd call, which is closing 31^st May 2021. Please be sure to get in contact with the host facility and fill out an application form to submit to Jerico.TA@marine.ie before the closing date.

Facility: E1-M3A station POSEIDON

Location: Greece

The E1-M3A station is located 24 nautical miles north of the island of Crete anchored at a depth of 1,400 meters and it has been part of the POSEIDON network since 2007. The Cretan Sea is an area of intermediate and/or deep-water formation dominated by multiple-scale circulation patterns and intense mesoscale variability. Such areas of water formation are key locations for the monitoring of the Mediterranean biochemical functioning. The wintertime convective mixing of the water column and the exchanges of water and mass (diluted, suspended or near-bed) with the adjacent Levantine and Ionian Seas through the straits of the Cretan Arc, make the Cretan Sea the poorer in nutrients and the richer in oxygen among the principal basins of the Mediterranean Sea. The mooring is currently the most developed physical-biogeochemical observing site of the POSEIDON system collecting CTD data down to 1000m, Chl-A, DO and turbidity data for the first 100m of the water column while the recent addition of surface pH and pCO2 sensors further expanded the biochemical component of the station.

For more information about the POSEIDON E1-M3A station click here and on their website.

Please contact the facility provider for more details on the usage of the infrastructure and cooperation from the facility.

This week we are highlighting the Slocum G2 Glider from Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas (COSYNA)!

The glider is one of our unique infrastructures from the wide range of regional facilities that are available for the JERICO-S3 TA 2^nd call, which is open until 31^st May 2021. Please contact the facility provider for more details on the usage of the infrastructure. All applications or queries can be submitted to Jerico.TA@marine.ie.

Facility: COSYNA Slocum G2 Glider

Location: Germany

The Cosyna glider (Slocum G2) has a maximum diving depth of i) 100 m for operations on the coastal shelf or, ii) 1000 m for deeper waters. The glider is equipped with the following sensors:

• Seabird pumped CTD
• Wetlabs sensors for optical backscatter (at 470, 532, 660 nm)
• Fluorescence
• coloured dissolved organic matter
• Rockland Scientific microstructure sensor (optional)

Typical mission endurance ranges from about 4 weeks with microstructure sensor to about 7 weeks without microstructure sensor. A decimated subset of data is available in near- real-time, whereas all data are available after glider recovery. The operational region is mostly the North Sea, but other areas could be considered as well.

More information on COSYNA can be found here and on their website.

Our second facility of the week is the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) station and ferryboxes in NORWAY!

We are highlighting a selection of our unique facilities from the wide range of regional facilities that are available for the JERICO-S3 TA 2^nd call which is open until 31^st May 2021. Email Jerico.TA@marine.ie with any queries.

Facility: NIVA Research Station and FerryBoxes

Location: Norway

The NIVA research station, located in Solbergstrand, performs large-scale experiments in marine ecology, sediment research, biogeochemistry, aquaculture and tests technology for treating ballast water. The research station offers calibration, validation, and testing services.

NIVA also offers Ferrybox routes for:

• coastal Norway (Bergen- Kirkenes, NO)
• eastern North Sea (Oslo, NO- Kiel, DE)
• North Atlantic (Hirtshals, DK-Seydisfjordur, IS)

Ferrybox systems include a core sensor package with thermosalinograph, inlet temperature sensor, oxygen, chl-a fluorescence, turbidity and system for water sampling; with additional sensors for PAH, pycocyanin, cDOM, pCO2, pH, and microplastics sampling units on some installations.

More information on NIVA research station and Ferryboxes can be found in the Transnational Access tab and on their website.

Please contact the facility provider for more details on usage of facility and cooperation at the infrastructure.

We’re introducing “Facility of the Week”!

Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting a selection of our unique facilities from the wide range of regional facilities that are available for the JERICO-S3 TA 2^nd call, which is open until 31^st May 2021. Email Jerico.TA@marine.ie with any queries.

Facility: PLOCAN

Location: Spain

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a multipurpose technical-scientific service infrastructure that provides support for research, technological development and innovation in the marine and maritime sectors, available to public and private users. PLOCAN offers both onshore and offshore experimental facilities and services which include:

• an ocean observatory for the continuous and real-time monitoring in fields such as the study of global change and ocean acidification, water-column and deep-sea ecosystems, ocean biogeochemistry and geophysics
• a test site for the research, demonstration and operation of marine technologies which provides a robust and secure underwater electric infrastructure to evacuate the generated energy to the power grid connection, and a control centre for data analysis
• a base for underwater vehicles that includes a series of underwater unmanned state-of-the-art technologies such as gliders, ROVs and AUVs
• an innovation hub offering efficient and high quality R&D&I project management services, as well as other user-oriented services technological and non-technological
• a training platform for institutions and enterprises.

Click here for more detailed information on PLOCAN and visit their website. Please contact the facility provider for more details on usage of the facility and cooperation at the infrastructure.

Join our quest!

In JERICO-S3, we continue our efforts towards measuring synchronously different environmental variables (especially biogeochemistry and biology) at high frequency and spatial resolution and filling observational gaps in under-sampled areas or periods. This helps to understand phytoplankton dynamics and distribution in coastal waters. Our task is to improve the readiness of ship-based and autonomous platform observing networks by guaranteeing their robustness, reliability, and long-term sustainability.

We are pleased to present you our questionnaire on in vivo fluorometry (single wavelength or multispectral) for phytoplankton biomass and pigmentary groups analysis.

This questionnaire (not longer than 15 minutes to fill) aims to collect the different practices followed by users and to help us define common best practice guidelines for in vivo fluorometry.  

Complete the questionnaire

The results will be presented and discussed during a virtual workshop by mid-June. All participants will be invited to join. 

Deadline July 20th, 2021.

Join our quest!

In JERICO-S3, we continue our efforts towards measuring synchronously different environmental variables (especially biogeochemistry and biology) at high frequency and spatial resolution and filling observational gaps in under-sampled areas or periods. This will help to understand plankton dynamics and distribution in coastal waters. Our task is to improve the readiness of ship-based and autonomous platform observing networks by guaranteeing their robustness, reliability, and long-term sustainability.

We are pleased to present you our questionnaire on automated imagery (in vivo/in situ, in vivo/in flow, in vitro) for plankton analysis.

This questionnaire (not longer than 15 minutes to fill) aims to collect the different practices followed by users and to help us define common best practice guidelines. 

Complete the questionnaire

The results will be presented and discussed during a virtual workshop by mid-June. All participants will be invited to join. 

Deadline July 20th, 2021.

The JERICO-S3 Research Infrastructure wishes to announce the 2^nd call of 3 Transnational Access funding calls to support a wide range of marine researchers by giving free of charge access to high-quality infrastructures and support services at unique multi-disciplinary sites consisting of a mix of gliders, fixed platforms, ferryboxes, cabled observatories, HF radar, benthic stations, and bio-sensors. The call is open for project proposals from 29^th March 2021 to 31^st May 2021.

Successful applicants will be able to carry out first-class experiments on one or more of the multi-disciplinary, multi-platform coastal observing systems thus maximising impact for science, environmental managers, industries, and other relevant stakeholders. Users will have access to the best available equipment and knowledgeable personnel at each of the facilities to enable improved research outputs and scientific excellence.

In this 2^nd call, JERICO-S3 would like to highlight and support the collaboration between JERICO-RI TA facilities and AQUACOSM-plus infrastructures. As a specific action, JERICO-S3 and AQUACOSM-plus study jointly how extreme events affect plankton ecosystems, by applying both observations on natural communities and by experimentation at selected sites (Cretan Sea, North-West Mediterranean and Baltic Sea). JERICO-S3 TA projects supporting these actions are especially welcomed and strongly encourage the involvement between the RI-RI facilities.

Between June 2020 and January 2024, we will offer more than 8800 days of Transnational Access (TA) to more than 40 different integrated marine coastal observation facilities located at 21 JERICO-RI partners throughout Europe. Detailed information about each JERICO-RI facility, technical design and available resources etc. can be found here.

To determine the capabilities and service offerings of each facility we strongly encourage all TA applicants to contact the respective facility providers as early as possible in the proposal process about possible usage of facilities and cooperation at the infrastructures. Please ensure that the objectives and aims of the call are fully addressed before submitting a proposal for Transnational Access. The TA application form and Guidelines can be found online.

This is a unique opportunity for scientists and engineers to avail of high-quality, interlinked instrumented infrastructures operating in coastal and shelf-sea areas for carrying out research and/or testing activities.

Contact JERICO.TA (at) marine.ie for more details

The Division of Marine Physics (DMP) at TalTech recently recovered the Keri cabled bottom profiling station, part of the Gulf of Finland Pilot Supersite of JERICO-RI.

The Keri profiling station is deployed on the seabed at 110 m depth year-round. The autonomous profiler regularly samples the water column from the bottom to the sea surface several times a day.

The station is expected to be deployed back to the sea after maintenance in February 2021.

In addition, near bottom nutrient analysers were recovered after 6 months of deployment. 

Follow DMP here.

JERICO-S3 is pleased to publicise the Announcement of Transnational Access of AQUACOSM-plus European project on MEDIMEER infrastructure. This marine in situ mesocosm experiment, which will be carried out in the Pilot Supersite of North-Western Mediterranean Sea, will also serve to improve synergies between Jerico-S3 (Marine coastal observatories, facilities, expertise and data for Europe) observing community and AQUACOSM-plus mesocosm experimenting community. It is opened from 09 February and will be closed on 26 February (13h CET).

The call includes Transnational Access 8 additional marine and freshwater infrastructures.

Further information can be found on the AQUACOSM-plus project website. 

Full details of MEDIMEER facility and the Transnational Access available are available here. 

During the first week of February 2021, the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) has performed the oceanographic campaign “CANALES WINTER 2021” on board the Research Vessel SOCIB (R/V SOCIB). This campaign is part of the SOCIB “CANALES” endurance line and is also a contribution to JERICO-S3 EU funded infrastructure project. The aim is to further deepen the knowledge of state and variability of the Balearic Sea, consolidating and further developing scientific research.

The oceanographic cruise has performed two transects in the Mallorca Channel and two in the Ibiza Channel, two relevant enclaves in the Mediterranean Sea, in a biodiversity hotspot that allows researchers to understand the processes and complex inter-basin circulation and exchange of water masses, at a “choke point” in the cyclonic return flow before it exits into the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar. To that end, the campaign has involved the sampling of physical, chemical and biological parameters (CTD casts and water sampling). In addition, the SOCIB team on board R/V SOCIB has deployed two surface drifters (SVP-B) in the Ibiza Channel, within the framework of the Global Drifter Program (NOAA). Furthermore, samples of microplastics have been also collected in both channels to monitor the current status of the distribution of floating plastic debris in order to verify its correspondence with forecasting models.

As a part of the “CANALES” endurance line, the researchers have also performed a synchronized CTD cast with the current operating glider in the Ibiza channel to compare the data between glider and CTD.

This content was originally published on socib.es.

The first 2021 CANALES mission started last month with the successful launch of the G3 glider from the waters between Cala Figuera and the Dragonera Island.

The Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB) has launched the glider sdeep06 for the GFMR0109 mission, as part of the SOCIB permanent “CANALES” endurance line in the Balearic Sea. The field team aboard the Zodiac Hurricane 920, SOCIB I, has conducted the procedure of launching the glider without technical complications, despite the poor state of the sea. Currently, the glider has begun its mission that will last until March, collecting valuable oceanographic data from the surface to nearly a thousand meters deep and sending it via satellite.

The mission will perform two transects in the Mallorca Channel and eight in the Ibiza Channel, two relevant enclaves in the Mediterranean Sea, in a biodiversity hotspot that allows researchers to understand the processes and complex inter-basin exchange of water masses, before the cyclonic return flow exits into the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar. To that end, the mission will involve the sampling of physical, chemical and biological parameters: glider’s CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth), Eco Triplet (backscattering, fluorescence EX/EM), oxygen, and PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation).

The glider sdeep06, along with the other three that were added to SOCIB’s fleet in mid-2020, has been co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), within the framework of the Operational Programme of the Balearic Islands for the 2014-2020 programming period. These four G3 gliders are added to the two fully operational G2 gliders, and the seaglider, allowing SOCIB to complement its routine and strategic programme of glider endurance line in the Mediterranean Sea.

These gliders along with the SOCIB’s glider fleet are offered via competitive access for the scientific community, allowing to use high-quality autonomous underwater infrastructures operating in the coastal, shelf, and open sea areas for carrying out research, monitoring, and/or testing activities.

Web Link: Follow the glider in real-time

WebLinks:

SOCIB

Procedure of launching the glider: 03 Launching – EN – YouTube

Competitive Access:

https://socib.es/?seccion=gliderCompetitiveAccess&facility=gliderGeneralOverview

Follow the glider in real time: http://apps.socib.es/dapp/?status=active&platformtypes=glider

This content was originally published on socib.es. 

Join our effort!

In JERICO-S3, we continue our efforts towards measuring synchronously different variables (especially biogeochemistry and biology) and filling observational gaps in under-sampled areas to understand phytoplankton dynamics and distribution in coastal waters. Our task is to improve the readiness of ship-based and autonomous platform observing networks by guaranteeing their robustness, reliability, and long-term sustainability.

A questionnaire (not longer than 15 minutes to fill) aims to collect the different practices followed by the users and to define the best practices for in vivo automated (including online) flow cytometry. The results will be presented and discussed during a virtual workshop early next year. Participants will be invited to join through existing networks.

The questionnaire is available to complete online.

Deadline 8^th of January 2021.

During the first semester of 2020 Instituto Hidrográfico (IH, partner 19) completed the main stages of implementation of the Hidrografico+ ( https://geomar.hidrografico.pt ), the new web portal that will be used to provide user access to data, numerical forecasts and other information.

Developed and implemented by IH and Deimos, the Hidrografico+ web portal will be vehicle to JERICO-S3 Virtual Access to data collected by the real time monitoring infrastructure MONIZEE, operated by IH. At the present stage of development Hidrografico+ is providing access to the real-time data collected the observing systems that integrate MONIZEE; comprising multiparametric buoys, wave buoys, HF radars and tide gauges. Until the end of the 2020 the access will also be extended to the delay mode fully processed and quality controlled data. VA metrics based on Analytics (Grafana) are in course of implementation and should be fully operational by November2020.

The Jerico Research Infrastructure (www.jerico-ri.eu/) wishes to announce that the first of 3 Transnational Access funding calls to support a wide range of marine researchers by giving free of charge access to high-quality infrastructures and support services at unique multi-disciplinary marine coastal sites will be closing on November 16^th 2020 @5pm CET

Successful applicants will be able to carry out first-class experiments on multi-disciplinary, multi-platform coastal observing systems thus maximising impacts for science, environmental managers, industries and other relevant stakeholders.

Users accessing the Infrastructure will not only get access to the best available equipment and facilities for their needs, but also the  expert personnel. Having access to this detailed knowledge at each of the Facilities adds value for external users of the Infrastructure, improving research outputs and scientific excellence.

Between June 2020 and January 2024 will offer more than 8800 days of Transnational Access (TA) to more than 40 different integrated marine coastal observation facilities located at 21 Jerico RI partners throughout Europe. Detailed information about each Jerico RI facility, technical design and available resources etc. can be found here – ( https://www.jerico-ri.eu/ta/jerico-facilities-in-ta/)

To determine the capabilities and service offerings of each facility we strongly encourage all TA applicants to contact the respective facility providers – as soon as possible in the about usage of facilities and cooperation at the infrastructures. Please ensure that the objectives and aims of the call are fully addressed before submitting a proposal for Transnational Access. The TA application form and Guidelines can be found online https://www.jerico-ri.eu/ta/call-program/first-call/.

This is a unique opportunity for scientists and engineers to avail of high-quality, interlinked instrumented infrastructures operating in coastal and shelf-sea areas for carrying out research and/or testing activities.

Contact JERICO.TA (at) marine.ie for more details

A new oceanic monitoring station using multi-sensor platform is supplying data, augmenting the Hidrografico and JERICO Research Infrastructure (JERICO-RI) capabilities.

On the 29 April 2020, a team from Instituto Hidrografico (IH), Portugal, deployed a new multi-parametric buoy offshore from Sines, off the southwest coast of the Portuguese mainland. The mission was conducted by a team from IH onboard NRP “Almirante Gago Coutinho” during one of the regular missions for maintenance of the multi-parametric buoys systems, which is still ongoing.

Installed over a bottom of 1750m, this buoy measures waves, meteorological parameters, water temperature and currents in the upper ocean. It is also equipped with an oil-spill alert sensor and a real time hydrophone for acoustical monitoring developed in previous SUBECO project.

The real time data provided by this new buoy is already accessible through the web page of Instituto Hidrográfico. The buoy, now deployed, increases the total number of multi-parametric buoys that presently integrate the MONIZEE (Monitoring the Portuguese EEZ) infrastructure to 5 in total. MONIZEE is operated by Instituto Hidrográfico and is part of JERICO-RI.

Find the ENVRI statement on their website.

The series of EU-funded JERICO projects starts a third edition with the launch of the JERICO-S3 project.

JERICO-S3: From 1st February 2020 to 31st January 2024

JERICO-S3 will provide a state-of-the-art, fit-for-purpose and visionary observational Research Infrastructure (RI), expertise and high-quality data on European coastal and shelf seas. The project will support world-class research, high-impact innovation and a window of European excellence worldwide.

It will be structured regionally around 4 Pilot Super Sites (PSS) and 5 Integrated Regional Sites (IRS). Through this innovative structure, JERICO-S3 is targeting a more integrative approach to better observe the coastal ecosystem, raising up the scientific excellence and developing the potential of the different sites, with consideration of the regional and local ecosystems.

The preliminary development of an e-infrastructure (VRE, Virtual Research Environment) will support scientists and users by offering access to dedicated services and help progress on the design of the RI and its strategy for sustainability. Major user-driven improvements will be realised in terms of observing the complexity of coastal seas and continuous observation of the biology, access to facilities, data and services, best practices and performance indicators, innovative monitoring strategies, and cooperation with other European RIs. 

Laurent Delauney is the project Coordinator and Ingrid Puillat is the Scientific Coordinator, both of whom are based in IFREMER, France.

Building a Pan European Sustainable Research Infrastructure: The JERICO-RI

JERICO-S3 follows 2 previous EU funded projects: JERICO-FP7 (2011-2014) and JERICO-NEXT (2015-2019). JERICO stands for Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories. The previous projects have also been coordinated by Ifremer, France. The projects aim at improving collaboration and harmonisation between coastal observatories in Europe. The key objective is to build a pan European sustainable Research Infrastructure: the JERICO-RI.

The JERICO community (39 partners and 17 EU countries today) is working together to provide powerful and structured services to observe and monitor the complex marine coastal seas with an ecosystem approach, offering state of the art capabilities to:

• Support excellence in marine coastal research and cutting edge innovation in the domain, 
• Access the research  observation infrastructure for international science collaboration, 
• Access to high quality marine FAIR data, 
• Provide expertise and best practices for an integrated multidisciplinary and interoperable system, 
• Address societal and policy needs in the related domain and foster innovation potential and involving industry.

One of the fundamental characteristics of the JERICO-RI is that, rather than focusing on a single specific scientific question, it addresses a complex host of interrelated scientific issues regarding the marine coastal and shelf dynamics and environment. It will support national policy bodies to apply national environmental policies and EU ones like the MSFD by benefiting of the experience and know-how shared with other nations, specific services to get information, data, practices and expertise from a single shopping point.

What next ? 

In parallel to the JERICO-S3 project, a study of “how” to develop the JERICO-RI into a pan-European sustainable Research Infrastructure will be necessary. It aims at developing further the structuration frame and define a full structure that will interconnect the physical systems with the virtual part (as an extension of the pilot e-JERICO). The full design will consider the national strategies and visions to optimise the value of JERICO-RI for nations. The following steps are foreseeable today: 

• A Design Study (proposal under evaluation – 2020-2023). It will design the place of JERICO-RI as the coastal component of EOOS. Above all JERICO-S3 will make a strong case for the national engagement on a business plan to propose at the end of 2023 a legal entity for an organised RI. 
• An application to the ESFRI 2021 roadmap (2020-2021, call for proposals on May 5th 2020). A key evaluation at the European level to validate the next potential step:
• A Preparatory Phase (only hypothetically, 2023-2027), preparing the implementation of the coastal RI in a continuum from land to ocean RIs in coordination with other ESFRI RIs in the marine domain. It would logically be followed by an Implementation Phase if all goes as planned. 

https://openscience.cefas.co.uk/phytoops_tool

Phytoplankton are the basis of the marine ecosystem and as such in-situ data on phytoplankton abundance, biomass and community composition are vital for scientific understanding of ecosystem processes, ecosystem assessments and validation of modelling and earth observation data. Over the last few years, biological sensors have been developed and deployed successfully on buoys, research vessels, container ships and ferries. These measure the diversity, biomass and the physiological state of the phytoplankton at high frequency, generating data on line. However, the quantity of data produced as well as their differing format compared to traditional approaches makes it difficult to integrate these data types into existing data infrastructure. PHYTO-OPS (phytoplankton observations, products and services), is an R shiny application designed to make biological data collected during regular surveys on board the RV Cefas Endeavour around the UK more accessible, by visualising the data and improving their interoperability to inform experts in phytoplankton ecology such as remote sensing scientists, modellers, data managers and monitoring agencies. This application is now available through the Cefas website and as a product in the JERICO-NEXT catalogue, with the data available on the Cefas Data Hub.

Benthic Non Native Species Tool is now available! (https://openscience.cefas.co.uk/invasive_species/)

Many marine stakeholders need to assess NNS distribution, including offshore developers (biosecurity plans), government (for purposes of MSFD assessment in descriptor 2) and the public. The non-native species tool provides a simple, up-to-date means of assessing NNS distribution. Developed during JERICO-NEXT, the Benthic Non-Native Species (NNS) tool uses the R-shiny application. It allows users to map the distribution of 20 benthic non-native species across the UK seas, using data from 777 benthic surveys (33,198 samples) collected over a period of 47 years (1969 to 2016). These data are publicly available from the Cefas data Hub (https://doi.org/10.14466/CefasDataHub.34).

Paula Oset, Simon Claus, Klaas Deneudt, Elisabeth Debusschere

An important objective of JERICO-Next has been to promote a stronger integration of biological data within the observation networks in order to address pelagic and benthic biodiversity questions. This biological information can be gathered with established methods but also with innovative observation techniques capable of delivering operational (near real-time) data. Part of the work package on data management (WP5) in JERICO-Next focuses on making sure that the biological (meta)data collected through the project aligns with the international standards that make possible for the data to flow to the European Data Infrastructures.

During the recent years, large marine biological data systems have been created to store, archive and integrate traditional marine biological data, e.g. (Eur)OBIS, EMODnet Biology. In WP5 we described the general data management practices, data standards (Darwin Core) and quality check procedures that are currently applied for biodiversity data in these European Data Infrastructures. We have also inventoried the different data types that will result from the JERICO-Next project, making a distinction between the more mature ones and those data collected with emerging technologies. The current standards can be easily applied to the pelagic or benthic data collected with traditional sampling methods. However, some data derived from developing technologies and sensors was not fully ready to be ingested by the existing marine biological data networks in an operational way.

Taking advantage of synergies with complementary projects, we have explored the possibility to adapt and expand the current data schemas in order to facilitate the integration of this novel data on pelagic and benthic biodiversity. For example, the SeaDataCloud project holds a specific task to work on the ingestion, validation, long-term storage and access of Flow Cytometer (FCM) data. In this context, new controlled vocabularies have been developed by the FCM community to store the cluster and optical properties data from FCM observations. Besides, a transition from Darwin Core Occurrence to the Darwin Core Event schema has recently been implemented by (Eur)OBIS and EMODnet Biology, allowing for more flexibility and the possibility to accommodate additional data types.

A description of biological data collected throughout the project can be found at the Data access section of JERICO-Next website. A metadata record is available for each dataset in the EMODnet Biology catalogue, where the characteristics, state and accessibility and terms of use of the data are documented. These metadata records can also be accessed using a map interface where the geographical scope of each dataset is displayed. Once a dataset is fully processed, harmonized and QCed, direct access to the data is provided in the metadata record, where a link to an archived version of the raw data might also be. Once the data is integrated in EMODnet Biology, it is also findable using the data download toolbox. This way, we facilitate the exchange of the data generated by the project between different users, including the project’s partners.

J. Schulz-Stellenfleth (HZG), E. Jansen (CMCC)

The accurate estimation and forecast of biochemical transports in the coastal ocean is a key factor for the understanding of ecological processes and the optimisation of decision processes in coastal management. Due to the spatially heterogeneous structure of most coastal seas, the respective current fields are usually complex and often contain a large variety of small-scale features, which are relevant for many applications. Today’s state of the art numerical models have reached a level, where the most dominant physical processes are taken into account and where the grid resolutions can be chosen small enough to cover a large range of spatial scales. However, there still exists a big number of systematic and stochastic error sources in these models, such as inaccurate bathymetries, insufficient implementation of turbulence dynamics, or errors in the atmospheric and open boundary forcing. 

HF radar systems are so far the only instruments suitable for operational use, which provide ocean current information with large coverage and at the same time high spatial and temporal sampling. The use of these observations in combination with numerical model information is therefore of high interest both for model optimisation and forecast improvements.  One of the very interesting aspects of the work in JERICO_NEXT is that coastal seas with very different dynamical characteristics are investigated within a common framework. In this particular task CMCC and HZG were concerned with the assimilation of HF radar data in the Adriatic Sea and in the German Bight respectively. The dynamics of the Adriatic Sea is strongly influenced by baroclinic processes and complicated interactions between the ocean and atmosphere. The German Bight on the other hand is extremely shallow and strongly dominated by tides.

Because of the different dynamics it was clear right from the beginning that there is no single data assimilation method that is optimal for all European coastal seas. The key factors to be taken into account in the design of an assimilation scheme are

• The dominant error sources in the numerical models
• The temporal and spatial correlation length of these errors

For the German Bight the bathymetry and bottom roughness parameterisations are of particular concern. Because of the domination by tides, the memory of the German Bight system is very short and the information provided by measurements is usually lost relatively quickly. The processes in the Adriatic Sea on the other hand, take place on a much long time scale and mixing mechanism play a much more important role. The impact time of observations in a data assimilation system is therefore also usually longer in the Adriatic than in the German Bight.

Fig. 1A shows as an example a circulation pattern in the Western Adriatic Sea as predicted by the Adriatic-Ionian Forecasting System (AIFS) for June 1, 2017. One can see a large variety of different boundary currents and ocean eddies. Fig. 1B shows tidal ellipses estimated using model data from the Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas (COSYNA) modelling system. The ellipses refer to the 12.4 hourly M2 tide with the colours indicating the sense of rotation of the current vectors. The grey isolines refer to the bathymetry and indicate that the currents in the German Bight are in many places strongly steered by topographic features like tidal inlets.

Fig. 2 shows the geometry of HF radar measurements taken in the Adriatic (A) and the German Bight (B). Radar data from four antenna stations in the Adriatic and three antenna stations in the German Bight were used. For illustration, Fig. 2 A and B show radial current measurement obtained from a single station (Mattinata and Büsum).

Two different approaches were used to combine model data and observations to optimise estimates for transports:

• An Ensemble Kalman filter was used for the Adriatic to assimilate HF radar data in combination with complementary salinity and temperature observations.
• A variational 4DVAR approach was used for the German Bight to assimilate HF radar data in combination with tide gauge measurements.

As an illustration Fig. 3a shows the modification of the surface current field in the Adriatic after one assimilation cycle for the zonal component. Fig. 3b shows the relative improvement of the zonal current component in the German Bight achieved by assimilation of current and water level information.

There were two main lessons learned from the work done on HF radar data assimilation in the Adriatic and the German Bight:

• The assimilation schemes have to be adjusted to the specific errors and time scales of the model system.
• It is often beneficial to assimilate measurements in addition to the HF radar surface current observations.

For the Adriatic additional temperature and salinity measurements provided valuable information on important baroclinic processes and for the German Bight the use of tide gauge data further improved the estimation of vertically integrated transports.

As an outlook one can say that the data assimilation schemes, which were optimised for HF radar measurements in two very different coastal ocean systems, are suitable to improve transport estimates. One has to be aware however that these methods have to be adjusted continuously in particular concerning new developments in the model community, e.g., the trend towards higher spatial resolutions, two-way nested models, unstructured grid models, or coupling of various model compartments. This model evolution process is for example very visible in the CMEMS system, which can be a good guideline for future developments in the data assimilation sector. With the increasing spatial resolutions covered by CMEMS, HF radar observation will be of growing relevance for this European infrastructure concerning both validation and data assimilation.

At the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, NIVA hosted two Transnational Access (TNA) activities at NIVA’s Research Station at Solbergstrand (NRS). NRS is located about 40 km south of Oslo on the eastern rocky shores of the Oslo fjord. Nearby is the small coastal village of Drøbak – sleepy during the winter and bustling during the long, warm days of summer. There are 10 laboratories at NRS that include one recently refurbished wet lab which hosted both TNA activities: Intercomparison of instruments for carbonate system measurements (INTERCARBO) and In-situ comparison of nitrate sensors (NitrateComp).

INTERCARBO was a week-long international activity led by Lauri Laakso from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) who was joined by colleagues from Finland, Germany, Italy, and France. In sum, there were nearly 20 instruments that measured different variables of the carbonate system: carbon dioxide, pH, and total alkalinity. The goal of the activity was to compare measurements made by different labs using different sensors on the same seawater samples. During the activity, measurements using the various instruments were carried out in 1 m3 tanks that were filled with seawater at salinity 5, 20, and 35 and carbon dioxide values at approximately 200, 400, and 800 parts per million (ppm). The measurements were made on seawater at 10 °C as well as 20 °C. The lab air temperature was held at the same temperature as the seawater temperature, so the conditions in the lab for the first half of the week were quite cool! In all, the group managed to create and make measurements on 17 unique combinations of salinity, temperature, and carbon dioxide concentrations! Most nights included a group dinner in the meeting room at NRS which was followed by late night measurements in the wet lab!

During INTERCARBO, the NitrateComp TNA activity began with a visit from Mario Esposito from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany. This activity, which is six months in length, installed two different types of sensors for the measuring nitrate – an important nutrient for algae in the ocean. The two sensors that were installed were a miniature lab-on-a-chip nitrate analyzer and an optical nitrate sensor called an OPUS (manufactured by TriOS). The sensors were mounted in a seawater tank continuously filled from a 60 m intake pipe in the Oslo Fjord. In addition to measuring nitrate, salinity and temperature is also being continuously measured. Surface seawater from the Oslo fjord will also be measured later in the activity to test the performance of the two sensors during spring/summer when biologically activity is high and nitrate concentrations are expected to be more dynamic.

Please visit the TNA page for the NIVA Research Station for more information.

Dr. Gisbert Breitbach, Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht

Within the framework of the JERICO-NEXT EU project, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) has recently upgraded the FerryBox database for permanent routes to an European FerryBox database (http://ferrydata.hzg.de). Besides the previously already existing routes, including Hurtigrouten (IMR/Norway), Helsinki-Travemünde (SYKE/Finland) and Peraues-Irakleion (HCMR/Greece) three new routes performed by NIVA/Norway have been added in November (Hurtigrouten, Oslo-Kiel and Tromsø-Longyearbyen). All routes now automatically provide the data in near-real time (within days).

As an additional service the data are exported from the database in netCDF format using an Opendap web service (e.g. http://opendap.hzg.de/opendap/data/cosyna/ferrybox_niva/contents.html) for delivering the specific data to the corresponding ROOSes of Copernicus Marine Services (CMEMS) as well as EMODnet. Furthermore, a SOS V2 web service based on the 52N service can be accessed via the web interface for visualization, which is also available from outside the database (see figure or SOS V2 link).

Marta Bolgan¹, Eric Parmentier^{1 ,}Marc Torner², Albert Miralles², Manu Rubio², Pau Balaguer², Verónica Ortiz², Joaquín Tintoré²

¹ Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology (Department of Biology, Ecology & Evolution), FOCUS, AFFISH-RC, Institut de Chimie B6c, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium, ² SOCIB (Sistema d’Observació Costaner de les Illes Balears), Parc Bit, Naorte, Bloc A 2ºp. pta,  3 Palma de Mallorca SPAIN. E-07121. Tel: +034 971 43 99 98. CIF: Q0700535H

The DEFPAM-G experiment recently started (04/02/2019 @ 11am, utc) in front of Palma’s Bay (N39.3534° E2.4532°, Fig. 1) by launching SOCIB’s glider Unit-567 (aka SDEEP04) which was equipped with the instrument (acoustic datalogger, BCB, Loggerhead Instruments) provided by the TNA-user-team (Prof. Parmentier and Dr. Bolgan, Université de Liège).

Figure 1 – Initial trace of the glider that is running DEFPAM-G. The launching site is circled in red.

Initial 24 hours have been considered a preliminary field test whilst keeping the glider close to shore, facilitating an emergency response intervention, in case of trouble. Up to date, all parameters are within the standards and the glider is about to begin the scientific cruise by covering the first leg (Mallorca-Ibiza channel). Nevertheless, the datalogger (Figure 2) was recording sounds since the moment the glider was released.

Figure 2 – The hydrophone installed on the glider SDEEP04

The tactical plan is to cruise (sampling with CTD, OXY and FLNTU, along recording with the datalogger as long as its batteries resist [typically 21 days]) from Mallorca to Ibiza, going around the island of Ibiza and then covering 8-10 Ibiza-Valencia transects.

DEFPAM-G stands for ‘DEep-sea Fish Passive Acoustic Monitoring by using Glider technology’. The overarching question of this project is: “Can we couple Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) of deep-sea fish populations to the glider technology?”. The underling hypothesis is that deep-sea fish, which live in a pitch black environment characterised by extreme pressure have evolved to use sounds to re-connect and communicate. Monitoring these sounds can provide important insights about deep-sea fish life history, cycles of activities and movements.

We expect that some Mediterranean deep-sea fish present morphological structures enabling sound production. For example, dedicated sonic muscles have been described in grenadiers (Macrourinae, Gadiformes) and cusk-eel (Ophidiiformes) (Marshall, 1967; Ali et al., 2016; Fine et al. 2018; Parmentier et al. 2018). Because the cusk-eel and the grenadiers make up more than half of the deep-sea benthic fish fauna (Priede, 2017), it is relatively easy to suppose that the deep-sea is rich in fish sounds. In particular, we expect to find a spatial and depth variation of deep-sea fish sounds, highlighting spatial partitioning among species, as well as diversity and abundance variations related with depth.

We look forward to the results of this experiment which is a new application for both teams involved, SOCIB and Université de Liège. The TNA is a good opportunity for enjoying sea-work and exchange knowhow between user and access provider ( Figure 3).

Finally, the progress of the mission is open to the general public through SOCIB’s on-line deployment viewer http://apps.socib.es/dapp (also through Android and iOS mobile application: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socib&hl=es).

Figure 3 – TNA actions not only aim to produce high-value scientific data but also to foster knowhow exchange and strengthening teamwork (from field operations to open-public seminars)

References:

Ali, H. A., Mok, H. K., & Fine, M. L. (2016). Development and sexual dimorphism of the sonic system in deep sea neobythitine fishes: the upper continental slope. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 115, 293-308.

Fine, M. L., Ali, H. A., Nguyen, T. K., Mok, H. K., & Parmentier, E. (2018). Development and sexual dimorphism of the sonic system in three deep-sea neobythitine fishes and comparisons between upper mid and lower continental slope. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 131, 41-53.

Marshall, N. B. (1967). Sound-producing mechanisms and the biology of deep-sea fishes. Marine bio-acoustics, 2, 123-133.

Parmentier, E., Bahri, M. A., Plenevaux, A., Fine, M. L., & Estrada, J. M. (2018). Sound production and sonic apparatus in deep-living cusk-eels (Genypterus chilensis and Genypterus maculatus). Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 141, 83-92.

Priede, I. G. (2017). Deep-sea fishes: biology, diversity, ecology and fisheries. Cambridge University Press.

FOULSTOP: Ifremer system deployed at Obsea-UPC

This project consist to test in the Mediterranean sea environment an innovative technique to protect optical windows that are part of optical oceanographic sensors or more generally part of optical devices like underwater cameras and lights. The biofouling protection is achieved by a conductive layer that coats the optical window and is used to generate very low quantity of hypochlorous acid by controlled in situ chlorination of seawater.

link 
https://obsea.es/jericonext/foulstop.php

Livevideo for the FoulSpot Camera:
https://obsea.es/data/live_video/live_video.php

gallery
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOy7j4EREGpZY0yO7xO27mi8Ib4GDz4CFpleoKLuhr01PkzHZ8-Yi2XbCUTqnJOgg?key=eTFJNnNTa2FZZFJxdTlhbVVaNkJ4dDBnLUtsTTlB

SOCIB Data Center has developed a pilot service for glider data processing from external users. The service is accessible through a web interface and relies on the SOCIB Glider toolbox. The SOCIB glider toolbox (https://github.com/socib/glider_toolbox) has proven to be a reliable and efficient software to process glider data. It produces international standards such as EGO and it will soon incorporate automatic QC of the data.

SOCIB is now exploring the possibilities of providing this service operationally to allow organizations worldwide to process data by using SOCIB infrastructure. This service proofed to be a need for the glider data management community during the last EuroGOOS Glider Data Management Meeting that was held in Genova (Italy) last September 2018.

Temporary Section Manager – Oceanographic & Climate Services

Location: Marine Institute, Oranmore, Co. Galway, Ireland

Summary of the Role

The Section Manager will lead OS work with MI and other agencies and Higher Education Institutes at national and international level and work with colleagues and other partners as appropriate in supporting and developing new research and service-development projects funded through national, EU and other sources. The Section Manager will lead the development and implementation of existing projects/programmes and identify and generate new R&D projects/programmes and related value-added activities. These areas of activity will strengthen the contribution of oceanographic and climate services to the delivery of monitoring and advisory services to Government and research activities contributing to addressing national resilience and societal grand challenges and underpinning the sustainable development and management of marine resources. The activities of OS will focus on two main areas; operational oceanographic services for Government and oceanographic and climate research underpinning service development.

More information

Temporary Section Manager – Marine Renewable Energy and Marine Infrastructure Projects

Location: Marine Institute, Oranmore, Co. Galway, Ireland

Summary of the Role

The role of the Section Manager MRE and Marine Infrastructure Projects will be to manage the operational activity, strategic development, and governance of the Marine Institute’s contribution to the National Ocean Energy Programme. Furthermore this position will oversee relevant European and other international collaborative projects and programmes including Ireland’s involvement in the EMSO ERIC.

More information

All applications are to be either emailed or posted via the email and postal addresses in the adverts

There is a strict deadline of 12 noon on December 10th, we can’t accept late applications unfortunately.

Maerl beds refer to the accumulation of unattached calcareous coralline algae. They are composed of living and dead thalii forming an ‘underwater carpet’. Considered as biodiversity “hotspot” sheltering many and varied marine species, they are an important carbon-storing habitat. Within the EU project JERICO-Next (VA) the new version of SpiArcBase (V2.0) (https://spiarcbase.epoc.u-bordeaux1.fr/) has been developed to assess maerl beds while measuring different features: mean and total maerl-water interface rugosity, total living maerl surface, total dead maerl surface, mean maerl bed thickness, vertical profiles of the surface proportion of living and dead maerl.

Within the JRAP 2 of JERICO-NEXT (WP4), the pertinence of those features has been studied and related to an abrasion disturbance gradient in the Bay of Brest induced by dredge-fishing activity. Preliminary results show among others that these features are appropriate to quantify the harmful effects of abrasion through a decrease in live maerl thalli, compaction of the maerl bed and the decrease in interstice surface and the rugosity of the surface.

Dr. Alicia Romero Raminez
Service Géomatique et analyse d’image
Laboratoire EPOC-UMR5805
Université Bordeaux, France

37 participants from 13 EU countries and 14 non-EU countries followed a one-week summer school in Malta organised by the JERICO-NEXT H2020 pan-European project. The course entitled “Operational Oceanography for Blue Growth” was planned and run by the Physical Oceanography Research Group of the University of Malta, and co-ordinated by Prof. Aldo Drago. The course aimed to empower participants to source, interpret, and merge available environmental data from the coastal area, and to acquire the key skills to transform these data into knowledge and added value products which can be used in the marine and maritime economic sectors and the related services. Beside the good time spent in Malta, all the participants acknowledged the quality of the lectures, and the practical sessions including a mini-hackathon. No doubt that the summer school was a success!

“I want to congratulate you for the summer school that you have perfectly organised. The speakers were very interesting, and I had the honour to meet high level participants with whom I was able to exchange. Despite the short duration of training, I believe that it was great benefit for me.” BENGOUFA Soumia, Doctorante en géoscience marine et littorale, Ecole nationale supérieure des sciences de la mer et de l’aménagement du littoral ENSSMAL (Algeria)

“The work done by the university led by Professor Aldo Drago and the team was excellent and demands recognition. They exhibited high sense of professionalism in operational oceanography and related maritime issues. From the workshop, I have learnt a lot, am ready for action when called upon, in matter related to this maritime, I will be available to honour subsequent training courses that you deem fit for the oceanography advancement, at same time have intention of working together in future as we engage on matters of mutual interest, on maritime issues and beyond”. Emojong Amai Mercy, Environment Inspector, NEMA (Kenya)

“Many thanks for the great summer school. Personally, I found it very informative, extremely useful and I am very impressed by your generous hospitality. Thank you really for all your time and effort. I so enjoyed meeting everyone and exchanging valuable information. I really do appreciate it”. Ghada Neji, marine environment consultancy (Tunisia)

The course was supported by experts engaged by the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring System (CMEMS), the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), Bangor University (Wales) and JERICO-NEXT partners. 9 participants from African countries (Djibouti, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania) were supported by the Centre of Excellence for Small States (Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade Promotion, Malta).

Prof. Aldo Drago
Faculty of Science, Misda, Malta

JERICO-NEXT poster presentation at the 4th Blue Planet Symposium, 4-6 July 2018, Toulouse, France.

Abstract

Puillat I.* (LOPS-Ifremer, FR); Artigas L. F. & Louchart A (CNRS-LOG, FR); Creach V. (CEFAS, UK); Debusschere E. (VLIZ, B), Rijkeboer M. (RWS, NL); Marrec P. & Thyssen M. (CNRS-MIO, FR); Karlson B. (SMHI, SW) and JERICO-NEXT partners.

JERICO-RI, the Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories integrates several observing platform types i.e. fixed buoys, piles, moorings, drifters, Ferrybox, gliders, HF radars, coastal cable observatories and the associated technologies dedicated to the observation and monitoring of the European coastal waters. This observing system of systems, is designed to provide high-quality data that are supporting knowledge development on the complex and often coupled physical, chemical and biological processes characterizing the coastal waters of European coastal seas. The RI is to serve both the implementation of European marine policies and the elucidation of contemporary and future key scientific questions. It therefore includes observations of the physical, chemical and biological compartments and aims at a better integration of marine biology with physical and chemical oceanology.

This poster is part of a 3-poster series dedicated to present some results and prototype products after deployments led in the JERICO-NEXT H2020 project. According to a key message of the JERICO-RI consortium (2014): “The complexity of the coastal ocean cannot be well understood if interconnection between physics, biogeochemistry and biology is not guaranteed…”, this poster we will focus on integrated biology and physical results. Map and transects of automated flow cytometer data and/or multi-spectral fluorometry along with hydrology collected thanks to ferryboxes and moorings will be presented with preliminary conclusions on information types and potential products. Areas of interest are Bay of Biscay, Channel-North-Sea, Celtic Sea and Baltic Sea with Skagerrak Kattegat strait.

Download the poster here.

JERICO-NEXT poster presentation at the 4th Blue Planet Symposium, 4-6 July 2018, Toulouse, France.

Abstract

Puillat I.* (LOPS-Ifremer, FR); Rubio A. (AZTI, SP); Vitorino J. (IH, PT); Pairaud I. (Ifremer, FR); Davila X., Basurko O.C. & Caballero A. (AZTI, SP); Mourre B. (SOCIB, SP); Quentin C. (MIO, FR) and JERICO-NEXT partners.

JERICO-RI, the Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories integrates several observing platform types i.e. fixed buoys, piles, moorings, drifters, Ferrybox, gliders, HF radars, coastal cable observatories and the associated technologies dedicated to the observation and monitoring of the European coastal waters. This observing system of systems, is designed to provide high-quality data that are supporting knowledge development on the complex and often coupled physical, chemical and biological processes characterizing the coastal waters of European coastal seas. The RI is to serve both the implementation of European marine policies and the elucidation of contemporary and future key scientific questions. It therefore includes observations of the physical, chemical and biological compartments and aims at a better integration of marine biology with physical and chemical oceanology.

The objective of our 3 posters series is to present the RI and some results and prototype products after deployments at sea and numerical simulations led in the JERICO-NEXT H2020 project. In this poster we will focus on hydrography and transport results after deployment and/or simulations in the SW Bay of Biscay, the Nazare Canyon and in the NW Mediterranean Sea. We will show some of the results after joint analyses with data acquired in situ and related to suspended matter and plastics, as well as HF radar data to study the transports associated to the slope current and mesoscale eddies in the study areas.

Download the poster here.

JERICO-NEXT Presentation at the 4th Geo Blue Planet Symposium, 4-6 July 2018, Toulouse, France.

Abstract

Puillat I. (LOPS-Ifremer, FR); Farcy P. (Ifremer, FR); Durand D. (Covartec, NO); and JERICO-NEXT partners

JERICO-RI, the Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories integrates several observing platform types i.e. fixed buoys, piles, moorings, drifters, Ferrybox, gliders, HF radars, coastal cable observatories and the associated technologies dedicated to the observation and monitoring of the European coastal waters. This observing system of systems, is designed to provide high-quality data that are supporting knowledge development on the complex and often coupled physical, chemical and biological processes characterizing the coastal waters of European coastal seas. The RI is to serve both the implementation of European marine policies and the elucidation of contemporary and future key scientific questions. It therefore includes observations of the physical, chemical and biological compartments and aims at a better integration of marine biology with physical and chemical oceanology.

The objective of our 3 posters series is to present the RI and some results and prototype products after deployments at sea and numerical simulations led in the JERICO-NEXT H2020 project. This poster will describe the research infrastructure with the today funded project JERICO-NEXT involving 34 partners during 2015-2019. Emphasis will be given on its system of systems, facilities, along with 6 scientific research and development axis. This poster will introduce the 2 other posters by a general description.

Download the poster here.

JERICO-NEXT poster presentation at the 4th Blue Planet Symposium, 4-6 July 2018, Toulouse, France.

Abstract

João Vitorino, Walter Chicharro, Inês Martins, Nuno Zacarias, Pedro Pisco, Dino Casimiro, Ilmer Golde, Paul Mota, Carla Maurício, Sara Almeida

Instituto Hidrográfico operates a real-time monitoring system for the Portuguese continental margin which comprises multi-parametric buoys, HF radars, wave buoys and coastal tide gauge stations. Between 2009 and 2011 those capacities were implemented in the area of influence of Nazare Canyon which extends for more than 200km and cuts the complete continental margin offshore the village of Nazare (W Portuguese coast). The implementation of the Nazare Canyon Observatory MONICAN was conducted in a close partnership with the Nazare City Hall. This allowed a close contact with the local nautical communities, particularly with the fishing community, an essential aspect in the design of products to end-users and in the identification of dissemination channels. The direct communication with the local decision structures also played a key role during periods of extreme weather events or in the articulation with local initiatives aiming the sustainable use of coastal ocean resources.

In 2011 the MONICAN observatory gained worldwide visibility following the successful attempt of the American Garret McNamara to surf the giant waves that the canyon promotes very near the northern shore of Nazaré. Those images spread around the World and rapidly attracted to the area big wave surfers and large crowds of visitants, triggering an explosive increase of tourism in the region. The real-time measurements and forecasts provided by MONICAN become an essential information not only to support international surfing competitions but more frequently to help thousands of visitors to plan their visits to Nazaré big waves. And are providing an open window to the coastal ocean that meets the public curiosity and boost dissemination and educational activities.

The present poster joints the views of some of the key players from Instituto Hidrografico and from the Nazare City Hall (namely the Nazare Mayor, Walter Chicharro) in a synthesis of the experience gathered in Nazaré and the near future developments.

Download the poster here

JERICO-NEXT approach on high-frequency phytoplankton observation was presented by Dr. Luis Felipe Artigas, co-leader of the JRAP1, during the workshop on developing an implementation plan for a sustained, multidisciplinary global observing system of plankton communities (25 – 27 June 2018, Santa Cruz, United States). The workshop particularly aimed to:

• Build on the ideas of the IMSOO-Plankton discussions and craft detailed implementation plans for the Phytoplankton diversity and biomass and Zooplankton diversity and biomass EOVs
• Bring together a multidisciplinary team to identify the necessary components of a multi-year implementation plan that will ultimately deliver a mature system in terms of requirements, coordination of observations, and data management and information products

The cruise ‘Pagure-Next’ (on R/V Thalia) was held in the Bay of Brest from 20th to 25th April 2018 to investigate with underwater imagery the ecological state of soft bottoms colonized by the slipper limpet (Crepidula fornicata), an emblematic invasive gastropod. This kind of perturbation can affect the ecosystem structure and functioning, negatively or positively, depending of the users’ point of view (scientists, fishermen, etc.) and on the spatial scale at which this interaction is analysed (local vs. embayment).

We used for this purpose the new underwater video system ‘Pagure-2’, developed in 2016 in the frame of the EU project JERICO-Next (WP3). ‘Pagure-2’ was deployed successfully during 5 days in a sledge mode (it can also be deployed in a ‘flying’ mode when necessary) and has collected about 8 hours of video footage and 2500 high resolution photos of the benthic biodiversity (mega- and macro-epifauna).
30 video profiles (on average 500m long) were achieved on shallow muddy habitats more or less intensively colonized by C. fornicata, as well as on neighbouring areas without C. Crepidula (considered as reference) in order to assess how the epibenthic compartment is modified by the proliferation of the slipper limpet.

Since C. fornicata has started to significantly decline in the Bay of Brest in the 2000’s, forming large beds of empty shells, we also investigate the impact of this recent evolution on benthic biodiversity.
Preliminary interpretations of images showed that several species of large suspension-feeders (e.g., variegated scallop, flat European oyster, ascidians) thrive in dense living Crepidula beds of the northern part of the Bay. Conversely, very few megafauna was detected on dead Crepidula beds, which now occur in the southern part of the Bay.

Preliminary interpretations of images showed that several species of large suspension-feeders (e.g., variegated scallop, flat European oyster, ascidians) thrive in dense living Crepidula beds of the northern part of the Bay. Conversely, very few megafauna was detected on dead Crepidula beds, which now occur in the southern part of the Bay.

NIVA’s FerryBox data for three ships of opportunity (M/S Trollfjord – Norwegian coast, M/S Color Fantasy – North Sea, and M/S Norbjørn – Barents Sea) are available for JERICO-NEXT Virtual Access as of January 2018. Daily data can be downloaded by FTP from NIVA’s website (https://www.niva.no/en/water-data-on-the-web/ferrybox-ships-of-opportunity)

Additionally, NIVA has developed digital touchscreen consoles to promote ocean literacy to provide educational information and near real-time ocean data collected by FerryBoxes. The consoles are designed for use by school aged children and adults, and provide information in English, German, and Norwegian. This has been led by the H2020 ResponSEAble project with support for data processing and virtual access by H2020 JERICO-NEXT. Two consoles are currently in operation – one on the passenger cruise ship M/S Trollfjord and one in the entrance lobby of NIVA’s main office in Oslo as you can see on the picture.

SOCIB – Follow the Glider will be present at scientific fair “Science for all 2018” (Ciència per a tothom in Catalan) taking place from 10th to 12th of May in the University of the Balearic Islands Campus.

The fair targets both to primary and secondary school students as well as the general public. This event aims to promote vocations in scientific careers and to bring science closer to society. Last year 5,000 students and teachers took part in it.

SOCIB will attend the event with two stands for our outreach and educational programmes. In particular, Follow the glider stand will have: a project canvas, a student book and a teacher’s guide, a ‘Build a glider’ sheet and some ‘gliders syringes’, two tablets for check the project website and the glider scale model. We will also have the support of our glider facility staff (engineer and technicians).

We will publish some pictures and more information on SOCIB social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Flickr).

The accurate monitoring of surface transport, which is inherently chaotic and depends on the details of the surface velocity field at several scales, is key for the effective integrated management of coastal areas, where many human activities concentrate. This has been the driver for the growth of coastal observatories along the global ocean coasts. Among the different measuring systems, coastal High Frequency Radar (HFR) is the unique technology that offers the means to map ocean surface currents over wide areas (reaching distance from the coast of over 200km) with high spatial (a few kms or higher) and temporal resolution (hourly or higher). Consequently, the European HFR systems are playing an increasing role in the overall operational oceanography marine services. Their inclusion into the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) is crucial to ensure the improved management of several related key issues as Marine Safety, Marine Resources, Coastal and Marine Environment, Weather, Climate and Seasonal Forecast.

In this context, INCREASE has set the necessary developments towards the integration of the existing European HFR operational systems into CMEMS, following four main objectives:

• Provide HFR quality controlled real-time surface currents and key derived products;
• Set the basis for the management of historical data and methodologies for advanced delayed mode quality-control techniques;
• Boost the use of HFR data for improving CMEMS numerical modelling systems;
• Enable an HFR European operational node to ensure the link with operational CMEMS.

Thanks to INCREASE outputs, HFRs are now one of the new observing platforms for the Operational Phase 2 of CMEMS In Situ TAC (INSTAC2). Next steps in the implementation of HFR data in the INSTAC catalog will be to implement the standardization defined in JERICO-NEXT (WP5) and the operational delivery of HFR total data (to be included in CMEMS v5 catalog in 2019) and radial data (to be included in CMEMS v6 catalog in 2020) and to work on the reprocessing and the standardized delivery of historical radial and total data (to be included in CMEMS v7 catalog in 2021).

Application Deadline Extended to 7th June 2018

“Operational Oceanography for Blue Growth is a week long summer school organised by the JERICO-NEXT project, hosted by the University of Malta (Physical Oceanography Research Group, Department of Geosciences). It will be held from 9^th-14^th July 2018 and delivered by an international range of renowned experts. 

Full details of the course are available here

ARTE channel just released a documentary about the big waves in Nazaré which includes scientific knowledge about the Nazaré Canyon processes and the importance of MONICAN monitoring system (https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/079474-015-A/re-die-perfekte-welle/ for the German version) or https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/079474-015-A/arte-regards/ for the French version).

Extending more than 200 kilometers offshore the western coast of Portugal from abyssal depths in excess of 5000m to a few hundreds of meters from the beach of Nazaré, the Nazaré Canyon is one of the largest submarine canyons of the European margin. Among the large range of impacts that this submarine canyon promotes on the coastal ocean conditions offshore Nazaré one of the most spectacular is the nearshore amplification of the incoming swells. This process leads to the development of giant waves off Praia do Norte (located just north of Nazaré village) particularly during winter when the large swells generated by storms in the North Atlantic reach the western Portuguese margin.

With the aim of monitoring the oceanographic and meteorological conditions that affect the area of influence of Nazaré Canyon, a real-time monitoring system (MONICAN system) was installed between 2009 and 2011 by Instituto Hidrografico forming the backbone of the Nazaré Canyon Observatory which is presently contributing to JERICO-NEXT network.

Since its implementation, the MONICAN system is supporting the local coastal populations and nautical communities providing real-time measurements and operational forecasts which are disseminated through a dedicated web page (http://monican.hidrografico.pt ) and in the form of tables sent daily by email to local users such as the Town Hall offices and port authorities.

This information is particularly relevant to support the nautical communities in the planning of marine activities in the area or to support local authorities during periods of extreme conditions such as during storms. An expression of this interest are the more than 200.000 visitors that were received during 2017 in Forte de S. Miguel, the old fortress and lighthouse that is located just in front of the area of formation of the big waves and where the Nazaré City Hall installed an exhibition about Nazare, the big wave surfing and (in collaboration with Instituto Hidrográfico) the science and monitoring of the Nazare Canyon area.

Breaking News: Rodrigo Koxa received yesterday the WSL Biggest Wave Award for the biggest wave surfed in 2017/2018 which was 24.38m height and is a new Guinness World Record for the biggest wave ever surfed, breaking the previous Guinness Record obtained in 2011 by  Garret McNamara (23.77m).

João Vitorino
Oceanography Division
Instituto Hidrografico
R. das Trinas 49
1249-093, Lisboa
Portugal

The TNA project ReMoBib deployed a specifically designed cage for 6 fully cabled bivalves in the Underwater Node Helgoland in Germany.

The construction allows the bivalves to move up and down in the sediment and therefore behave as natural as possible while the sensors measure valve gape activity of each bivalve with a frequency of 1Hz.

An online visualisation of the activity of the bivalves will be soon available on the NIOZ and AWI websites as means to raise awareness about sea life among the broader public and show that the shells are living creatures reacting to external stimuli.

Read more on this project here 

OS2.4
Oceanography at coastal scales. Modelling, coupling, observations and benefits from coastal Research Infrastructures

On Monday 9th April, 08:30–12:00, Room 1.85

Convener: Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla 
Co-Conveners: Sandro Carniel , Emil Stanev , Pablo Cerralbo , Davide Bonaldo , Ingrid Puillat , Laurent Delauney , Catherine Boccadoro 

Considering the increase in human pressures on coastal systems, better monitoring, modelling and understanding of coastal dynamics are needed to tackle the complexity of physical, chemical and biological processes and their variability and interactions. This applies particularly to coastal and marginal seas where the challenge for high resolution and non-linear coupling requires a synergetic combination of models, in-situ observations and satellite data to deliver reliable and accurate marine forecasts.

Oceanographic processes at coastal scales have a number of differences with respect to deep-sea oceanography, which result in higher prediction errors. In shallow coastal domains the bottom topography, via the sea-bed boundary condition, exerts a strong control on the resulting wave and current fields. In addition to this, other factors need to be accounted for, such as the relevance of the tidal influence, stratification and mixing effects, land boundary condition (affecting the wind fields), the presence of distributed run off and point-wise river mouths all of them interacting with biogeochemical and biological processes and supporting densely populated areas with many ongoing economic activities. Moreover, the coupling between wind, waves, currents and sediments at limited scales, or even the choice of the numerical strategy (including the option between nested meshes, finite-difference or finite-element discretization, variable grid, etc.) may also play a critical role in the quality of the predictions. Part of these efforts are carried out within the CEASELESS H2020 EU project, whose main aim is to advance in the coupling, assimilation and application of coastal scale forecasts to selected pilot sites (North Sea and Mediterranean) and for selected applications (renewable energy, search and rescue, water quality and erosion plus flooding). Another part of these efforts are carried out by coastal Research Infrastructures (RI) that intend to provide data in an operational way, as for example within the JERICO-RI H2020 EU project, to support science results and society needs.

Coastal observations are therefore necessary to drive numerical models, combining point-wise data from different platform systems such as multi variable buoys, ferryboxes, high frequency radar images and a number of satellite images, the accuracy of which however tends to degrade as we get closer to the shoreline border. The advent of new satellite capabilities (resolution and sensors like for instance those of the Sentinel constellation) and new modelling advances (local parametrizations and enhanced coupling and boundary conditions) together with in situ data from coastal observatories including automated observation platforms should allow starting a quantum leap in coastal oceanography, including the interactions between physics, chemistry and biology/biogeochemistry which form a key element to address future research and applications.

For any information related to the registration please click here

The JERICO Research Infrastructure and the JERICO-NEXT project were presented at the BlueMed Coordinators meeting along with a number of other projects and initiatives across the Mediterranean. Collaborative work was carried out to further the aims and objects of the BlueMed project.

The meeting was significant opportunity to work together for sharing vision and connect, integrating inputs not only to consolidate the SRIA, but also to envision future common trajectories.

BlueMed is an R&I Initiative for promoting the blue economy in the Mediterranean Basin through cooperation. It is the strategy of reference for the Mediterranean countries to work together for a healthy, safe and productive Mediterranean Sea. The Initiative will contribute to the creation of new ‘blue’ jobs, social well-being and a sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors through the implementation of its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).

The main objectives of BlueMed:

• developing innovative marine-based technologies, methodologies and approaches with a view to boosting the sustainable economic growth of the European maritime sectors and the conservation and upgrading of the marine environment, resources and cultural heritage;
• fostering innovative multidisciplinary research and cooperation activities addressing the relevant Mediterranean challenges;
• providing knowledge-based support for the implementation of EU policies and directives on marine and maritime issues in the Mediterranean;
• creating an interoperable, fully integrated observing and forecasting system to promote continuous long-term observation based on open data structures to guarantee easy access;
• promoting public awareness and understanding of how important sustainably prosperous resources of the Mediterranean Sea for the surrounding countries and for Europe as a whole;
• training a new generation of scientists, professionals, technicians and entrepreneurs able to tackle complex ecological, economic and societal challenges in a holistic way, thus creating new and qualified ‘sea-based’ jobs.

Further information can be found at the BlueMed website

The objective of JERICO-NEXT consists of strengthening and enlarging the European network for the provision of operational services to deliver timely, continuous and sustainable high quality environmental data and information products related to the marine environment in European coastal seas. Under Horizon 2020, Virtual Access is a new activity in European-funded projects. As a part of this activity, JERICO-NEXT project supports 15 Virtual Infrastructures for making their data, and products available and improving or developing services. After 18 months, an assessment of virtual access activity has been carried out using a template indicating the number of visits, downloaded data sets, the geographical distribution of the visitors and their sector of activity as well as outcomes such as publications, meetings for each VI. Additionally, availability indicators i.e. a methodology to assess the degree to which the datasets are discoverable, accessible, ready for use, and obtainable (either directly or indirectly) were calculated for the general Virtual Access activity in JERICO-NEXT, providing an understanding of the readiness and service performance of the infrastructure. Very little information from the template could be used across the Virtual Infrastructures. Only the number and the country of origin of visitors were answered by all the providers. When the information was available, the scientific community was the main visitor (41 to 77%) of the Virtual Infrastructures and only 3 of them put in place a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to identify the source of the data. On average 54% of the actions performed was associated to visibility, 30% to accessibility and 15% to performance. These actions were reflected by an improvement in the availability indicator scores after 6 months of the first assessment. All the listed links were working and the data easy to find. 67% of the Virtual Infrastructures were linked to European Data Infrastructures such as EMODnet, NOOS, MONGOOS, CMEMS, Global HF radar portal, EPOC, SOMLIT. The next step is the assessment of each Virtual Infrastructure by an expert panel to determine if all the requirements of the European commission have been fulfilled by the VIPs and advice the VIP in their future actions.

In the frame of JERICO-NEXT-TNA (2nd Call) program, ABACUS-4 mission, ESA’s SENTINEL-3 scientific satellite track #713 (for the 24th time since it was launched), flew over SOCIB’s glider, SDEEP04, on 21/Nov/2017 @21utc. This glider, deployed six days earlier, was at that instant sampling at the center of its programmed transect off the Southern coast of Mallorca that, to allow intercomparison and multi-platform sampling, corresponds to a segment of SENTINEL’s track #713. Whilst the satellite covered this segment in less than 3 minutes, SDEEP05 will still take 4-5 days to cover the same over-ground distance.

JERICO-NEXT representatives participated in a two-and-a-half-day workshop on “Evolving and Sustaining Ocean Best Practices” organised by The AtlantOS and ODIP Projects, JCOMMOCG and IODE. The Workshop took place at the IOC Offices, Paris, France from Wednesday 15th November to Friday 17th November 2017. The workshop focused on new approaches and recommend processes for archiving, discovering and accessing ocean observation best practices.

This International Workshop included a series of presentations, as well as breakout sessions examining current methods and then focussed on identifying and describing key steps forward for a more global and cohesive process. The implementation of this process would then begin through collaboration within currently funded projects.

The Workshop has been organised in response to a growing need for global and sustainable ocean best practice management. The Workshop provided the opportunity for leaders of the global ocean observing community to guide the creation of a new process for best practice management. The outcomes of the workshop will include a review of the prototype repository of best practices and a position paper on sustaining ocean best practices.

The JERICO-NEXT’s Best Practices Workshop on “Assimilating Technical Best Practice improvements to optimize network data flow” was a joint organization of project’s WP2 (leader: Rajesh Nair, OGS, Coleader: Wilhelm Petersen, HZG) and WP5 (leader: Leonidas Perivoliotis, HCMR, Coleader: Patrick Gorringe, EuroGOOS) and was held in Bergen, Norway on 5^th of October 2017. The workshop was planned to examine the possibilities for closer collaboration between the above two WPs in order to better reconcile contrasts arising from differences in the way data are regarded by the project’s observing and data management components. During the workshop, eight speakers presented the data producer and data management perspectives on the next four thematic areas:

• HF-radar data: Julien Mader, AZTI and Antonio Novellino, ETT
• Data relating to biology based on optical measurements: Jukka Seppala, SYKE and Veronique Creach, CEFAS
• Data on marine carbonate system variables: Kai Sorenson, NIVA and Benjamin Pfeil, University of Bergen
• Data from AUVs (gliders): John Allen, SOCIB (presentation made by Rajesh Nair) and Thierry Carval, Ifremer

The presentations and the discussions that took place between the audience and the speakers revealed the different level of maturity in data collection and data processing in these four thematic areas, highlighting also the difficulties relative to current data-handling practices employed within the project. The final outcomes from the workshop will be documented and further analyzed at the JERICO-NEXT’s Steering Committee, in December 2017; where the required next steps will be decided.

A new towed underwater video system (TUVS), called ‘Pagure-2’ has been developped by Ifremer thanks to the JERICO-NEXT project, in order to map habitats, describe biodiversity, and monitor ecological changes in coastal benthic ecosystems.  

For this purpose, we modified an existing TUVS (‘Pagure’) to expand the range of accessible benthic habitats, to get more stable footage on irregular rocky bottoms, and to investigate fragile ecosystems (e.g., marine protected areas) where impact has to be limited.

Thus, the Pagure-2 is a more versatile tool capable of being deployed on two different configurations: a classical ‘sledge’ mode with skates, and a ‘flying’ mode that reduces contact with the sea floor. It is easily deployable on small (~25 m) coastal vessels as well as large research vessels and was designed to cope with a 10-500 m operating depth range and with all kind of sea conditions and currents. It is also simple to use opportunistically on different kind of scientific cruises (benthic survey, fisheries stock assessment, hydrology, etc…) and without any dedicated specialist staff.

Pagure-2 proved to be a relevant imagery tool to get comprehensive insights into the integrity of benthic habitats of European coastal areas. The flying mode deployment will be tested at sea in next spring 2018 in the framework of our project. This less destructive configuration is particularly relevant to study benthic biodiversity in protected areas where disturbance has to be limited (e.g., maerl and seagrass beds, rocky bottoms with large erected benthic species).

Numerous applications should come in the next years, such as investigations of areas adversely affected by invasive species (e.g., Crepidula fornicata), human activities (bottom-trawling, sand-mining, marine renewable energy development).

During the NeXOS Final General Assembly at PLOCAN GRAN CANARIA on 14th of September 2017, Session 7 was dedicated to the topic « Beyond NeXOS »

Two presentations were planned, JERICO-NEXT and EMSO.

The JERICO-NEXT presentation focused on JERICO-NEXT general objectives, WP2 (Harmonisation of technologies and methodologies-technical strategy), WP3 (Innovations in Technology and Methodology) and on the JERICO-NEXT TNA 2018 call that is a great opportunity for sensors and systems developers that were attending the NeXOS Final GA. Willi Petersen, Stefania Sparnocchia and Laurent Delauney were in charge of giving the JERICO-NEXT message to the attendees.

JERICO-NEXT GENERAL WP3 WP2 TNA - Delauney PDF (7.6 MiB)

Summer 2017 Welcome to the JERICO-NEXT Newsletter 

3rd ISSUE – JERICO-NEXT, Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatory – Novel European eXpertise for coastal observaTories

We are very pleased to send you the latest updates on coastal observatories and JERICO-NEXT activities.

Spotlight on the TNA project ABACUS 3 

ABACUS 3 is a project funded by JERICO-NEXT Transnational Access which aims at assessing the importance of a new monitoring line across the Algerian Basin between  Palma de Mallorca and the Algerian Coast. For more information watch the video below and then click here. 

The third and last call for access to the JERICO-NEXT Coastal Observatories and Supporting Facilities is planned for January 2018.

Advances on JERICO-NEXT valorisation through applied joint research
Case study on marine contaminants – artificial sweeteners
The ubiquitous presence of artificial sweeteners in North European and Arctic coastal waters was discovered in the framework of the JRAP3 activities led by NIVA (Norway) thanks to the JERICO-NEXT project. JRAP3 deals with the assessment of distribution of man-made chemical pollutant in European coastal water and the biological responses they can induce. More info here
Phytoplankton biodiversity investigated with novel methods
	Under JRAP1 activities, in 2017 SMHI, NIVA, HZG-AWI and other partners are working up the data from the intense study near a mussel farm on the Swedish Skagerrak coast in autumn 2017 where an imaging flow cytometer was used together with other instruments and manual water sampling to observe algal bloom dynamics and biodiversity. More info here

Upcoming JERICO-NEXT events

5th-6th October 2017, Bergen (Norway): a Joint WP2-WP5 WORKSHOP on ASSIMILATING TECHNICAL BEST PRACTICE IMPROVEMENTS TO OPTIMIZE NETWORK DATA FLOW will be organized during these two days in the framework of EuroGOOS 2017 Conference. This workshop is open to the public. More information here

17th-19th October 2017, Oslo (Norway): The 8th FerryBox Workshop will be arranged as a cruise on NIVAs FerryBox ship Color Fantasy traveling between Oslo and Kiel. More information here

4th-5th December 2017, Issy-les-Moulineaux (France): The 4th Steering Committee meeting will be held during two full days in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris next December. 

To access the project deliverables – http://www.jerico-ri.eu/project-information/deliverables/

 
Editor: Anne Schmidt 

JRAP1 has activities in several sea areas around Europe. In the Baltic Sea Ferrybox systems on ferries and merchant vessels are used to automatically measure bulk parameters related to phytoplankton such as chlorophyll and phycocyanin fluorescence. The Ferrybox systems are operated continuously when the ships are at sea. Automated water sampling is carried out for analysis of phytoplankton using microscopy.

In 2017, additional work will be carried out at the Utö observatory where high frequency data will be collected using different instruments. SYKE (Finland) and SMHI (Sweden) are the JERICO-NEXT partners active in the area. In the Kattegat-Skagerrak NIVA operates a Ferrybox system similar to the one in the Baltic Sea. SMHI, NIVA, HZG-AWI and other partners are working up the data from the intense study near a mussel farm on the Swedish Skagerrak coast in autumn 2017 where an imaging flow cytometer was used together with other instruments and manual water sampling to observe algal bloom dynamics and biodiversity.

Also data from three cruises connected to the study at the mussel farm are being processed. In the English Channel –North Sea area several cruises with research vessels have been carried out. The institutes involved are VLIZ, CNRS, RWS, Ifremer and Cefas. Ferrybox systems are used together with flow cytometers and multi wavelength fluorometers and fast repletion rate fluorometers. HZG has contributed data on multi wavelength absorption to detect phytoplankton biomass. In the western Mediterranean Sea, the CNRS carries out studies that are described in some detail below.

The Western Mediterranean Sea is considered as an oligotrophic region although with contrasted areas due to the thermohaline counter clockwise circulation. Phytoplankton distribution is poorly studied at the basin or meso-scale, while links with hydrologic regionalisation are required to understand production balances in this semi enclosed area.

In order to resolve phytoplankton distribution, a CytoSense instrument was coupled to a Ferrybox on board the ferry “le Carthage” of the Compagnie Tunisienne de Navigation (CTN) for more than 3 months (October 2016 to January 2017, A*MIDEX CHROME project, https://chrome.mio.univ-amu.fr/). The ship route goes from Tunis to Marseille and Tunis to Genova once to twice a week. The data acquired correspond to more than 70 Gb of files (one sample of 5 cm³ every 30 min while crossing) with pico to microphytoplankton counts and pictures of large cells. The sensor was improved to count for Prochlorococcus cells as they can outnumber phytoplankton in the oligotrophic regions. The data analysed within the next year will be saved in the Cytobase (S. Lahbib, M Dugenne and M Libes) dedicated database. The datasets are currently undergoing a brainstorming within the H2020 Sea Data Cloud project to ensure best standardized vocabulary for high resolution flow cytometry.

Since Monday, a team of JERICO-NEXT has been investigating the hydrodynamics and related transport of phytoplankton and microplastics in the southeastern part of Bay of Biscay. Thanks to the collaboration between the LOPS lab of Ifremer, the Shom, the university of Littoral and Cote d’Opal (ULCO) and AZTI we are already able to see the strong variability of the hydrology with the MVP profiler trawled behind the ship and some phytoplankton species are identified in real time with the flow cytometry (see photo). More news to follow…

The French Glider National Facility (GNF)

The French Glider National Facility (GNF) provides glider missions for the Transnational Access (TNA) of JERICO-NEXT. During 2017, GNF is involved in two projects, GliderSouth with the University of Malta and FinisGlider with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. The French team prepared, deployed and piloted two Slocum gliders, Campe and Bonpland.

Project GliderSouth for the University of Malta

The main objective of GliderSouth Project was to sample intensively the area of the Sicily Channel. The area between Malta and Libya is practically an unexplored area of the Mediterranean Sea. The data collected by Campe will be useful to validate the models elaborated for this poorely sampled area.

Campe has been deployed on April 23th by a member of the GNF with the help of the Maltese team. After a successful mission of 65 days, the glider had been recovered in the north of the Maltese Islands.

More info (including plots): https://gfcpdsi.ego-network.org/plot/plot_deployment.php?glider=Campe&deployment=GliderSouth

Media Coverage:

https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/news/features/2017/06/presentingtheseagliderexperienceinmalta

Project FinisGlider for the Spanish Institute of Oceanography

The objectives of FinisGlider are part of a long-term monitoring program from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography to monitor the ocean hydrography and biogeochemistry at the Western Iberian Margin. The FinisGlider project will provide the first glider mission of the section, partially overlapping with a ship cruise.

The 27th of June, a member of GNF with the Spanish team and the crew of the LURA deployed the glider off Finistère. Bonpland is currently performing the section and will be recovered in mid-August.

More info (follow the ongoing mission, including plots): https://gfcpdsi.ego-network.org/plot/plot_deployment.php?glider=bonpland&deployment=FinisGlider&posti=0&postj=position_zoom0&pposti=4&ppostj=position_zooml2_lastweek&hchk=&defsct=default_scatter

The ubiquitous presence of artificial sweeteners in North European and Arctic coastal waters was discovered in the framework of the JRAP3 activities led by NIVA (Norway) thanks to the JERICO-NEXT project. JRAP3 deals with the assessment of distribution of man-made chemical pollutant in European coastal water and the biological responses they can induce. Through the FerryBox platforms included in the JERICO-RI infrastructure we have conducted an extensive monitoring campaign covering over 3000 miles of coast line in the North Sea, Norwegian Seas and the Barents sea. Artificial sweeteners are synthetic substances that add sweetness to food, drinks or even pharmaceuticals. By combining the unique sampling facilities and logistic offered by JERICO-RI with the power of state of the art mass spectrometers, we could identify some of these substances as possibly the most abundant micropollutant of emerging concern so far identified in marine waters.

From 19 – 23 June the first JERICO-NEXT summer school was held near The Hague (the Netherlands). Twenty-one early career scientists from various disciplines learned about multi-disciplinary monitoring and data analysis. The nearby Sand Motor pilot project area was used as an illustration of the multi-disciplinary approach during the field work and hands-on exercises. Lectures addressed the JERICO-NEXT research infrastructure for coastal waters, monitoring methods, data management and the application of multi-disciplinary data for MSFD and research projects. Several multi-disciplinary research projects were presented in more detail: NatureCoast (on coastal defense), Seacams (on tidal renewable energy) and JMP-EUNOSAT (on MSFD eutrophication descriptor). All-in-all, the students spent an inspiring and pleasant week together by the sea.

Winter 2016

Welcome to the JERICO-Next Newsletter

2nd ISSUE – JERICO-Next, Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatory – Novel European eXpertise for coastal observaTories

Find out more information on the Web, Twitter & Facebook

JERICO-Next main achievements

JERICO-Next Trans-National Access: from the first to the second call

The first Trans-National Access (TNA) call, launched by JERICO-Next last May, ended with the  Selection Panel meeting which was held in Bordeaux, France, on September 7, 2016. Six out of twelve submitted TNA projects were selected and will be supported by JERICO-Next.

The second call will be launched in February 2017 (instead of May 2017).

more info

Science strategy & Governance strategy workshops: Two key meetings with the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of JERICO-Next were organized in Bordeaux (France) on September 7th & 8th. The Governance strategy meeting took place on Tuesday 7th focused on exchanging experience with research infrastructures similar to JERICO-RI, in the USA and Australia. The meeting was led by Ingrid Puillat (Scientific coordinator of JERICO-Next) with the support of key-contributors to JERICO-Next strategy work package (WP1) and the Joint Research Activity Projects leaders (WP4 – JRAPs). 

The Science strategy meeting was held the next day, with focus on the integration of the progresses achieved in the JRAPs into the elaboration of a science strategy for the JERICO-RI, with the support from the STAC.

JERICO-Next Workshop on Automated Plankton Observation The second JERICO-Next plankton workshop was arranged in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 27-30 September 2016. Eighteen participants took part in the workshop. more info

In the framework of the SEA TECH WEEK international event, JERICO-Next has organized two WP2 workshops. On Monday 10th October, Dave Sivyer from CEFAS (UK) has presented a meeting on “Harmonizing new network sensors” which is the task 2.4 of the project (more info). On Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th October, a workshop on “Calibration and Assessment” was leading by Florence Salvetat from Ifremer. She also organized a visit of Ifremer facilities with 40 persons (more info).

JERICO-Next ongoing progress

Advances on JERICO-Next valorisation through applied joint research

North Sea cruise on the CEFAS Endeavour (UK) 21-28 June 2016

In the framework of WP3 and WP4 (JRAP#1), Machteld Rijkeboer from Rijkswaterstaat (NL) took part in a North Sea cruise on the Cefas Endeavour (UK) between 21st and 28th of June 2016. The aim of the work was to determine the diversity of the phytoplankton with a semi-automatic system including two Cytosense flow cytometers connected to a ferrybox. more info

Multi-disciplinary algal bloom study in the Skagerrak (JRAP#1) Novel instrumentation for observing the phytoplankton diversity or algal blooms are used in work packages 3 and 4. There are activities in the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat-Skagerrak, the North Sea-English channel and in the western Mediterranean Sea. In the Skagerrak area East of the North Sea a survey of algal blooms to study the diversity of phytoplankton has been carried out from August to October 2016. more info

Main advances in the study of Coastal carbon fluxes and biogeochemical cycling (JRAP#5) JRAP#5 is preparing a campaign for an intensive period starting in March 2017. The observation plan will be detailed in December 2016 – January 2017. At FMI & SYKE, new instruments have been tested for continuous pH and pCO2 measurements. In addition, methods for analyzing DIC and alkalinity from discrete water samples have been taken into use. more info

Pagure II device was tried out in the Bay of Brest  From 16 till 20 October 2016, the submarine imaging Pagure II device was tried out in the bay of Brest during a dedicated campaign aboard the Thalia (Fishery Research Vessel). Developed within the framework of JERICO-Next and FFP GALION programs, the Pagure II will allow to facilitate the observation of sea bed and associated biodiversity. more info

Upcoming JERICO-Next events

12th-13th December 2016, Issy-les-Moulineaux (France): On December, the Steering Committee will meet for the second time this year in Issy-les-Moulineaux. This meeting will be hosted by Ifremer at its headquarters. 

13th-14th December 2016, Issy-les-Moulineaux (France): The WP2 key-contributors are organizing a two-day workshop dedicated to the task 2.4 which focus on “Harmonizing new network sensors”. This event will start right after the Steering Committee meeting at the same place. For more information see here is the agenda. 

20th February 2017: Opening of the second call for access to the JERICO-Next Coastal Observatories and Supporting Facilities (Trans-National Access).

13th-17th March 2017, Helsinki (Finland): The 1st General Assembly week of JERICO-Next will be held in Helsinki,  hosted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) from Monday 13th to Thursday 16th of March 2017. 

more info

You are invited take part in an open online consultation to help design a new framework for an integrated and sustained European Ocean Observing System, or EOOS. 

The consultation will collect views from the European ocean observing community and wider stakeholders on what EOOS should look like and how it should be run. Your responses will be used to inform any decision-making about a future EOOS.

The simple survey takes just 10 minutes to complete. You are welcome to provide additional detail in the free text boxes provided. Further background information on EOOS is available on the dedicated EOOS website and in the Consultation Document which has been prepared to support the questionnaire.

The consultation is open from 12 December 2016 until 20 January 2017. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to the EOOS process.

Go to the Consultation Survey

Open the Consultation Document

In the framework of the Sea tech Week 2016, Ifremer organized on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th October, a meeting focused on Calibration and Assessment led by Florence Salvetat, leader of the concerned task (2.5).

This meeting was the first workshop of Task 2.5 of Work Package 2 of the EU H2020 JERICO-NEXT (“Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatory – Novel European eXpertise for coastal observaTories”) project. The task, entitled “Calibration and Assessment”, consists of a series of activities aimed at optimizing the overall reliability of the project’s observing component, the JERICO coastal observatory network, particularly in relation to the metrological consistency, comparability and quality of data and data products. The meeting served to present, describe and discuss the actions planned within this task, including their links with the other tasks and work packages (especially those relating to sensors and systems) of the project. It also provided the first occasion for the participants in the task to meet and interact with each other directly since the start of JERICO-NEXT. The meeting also reviewed the outcomes of similar actions that were undertaken during the EU FP7 JERICO (“Towards a Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatories”) project, which ended in 2015 and was the forerunner of JERICO-NEXT, to try and draw useful lessons and parallels.

The main comments raised by the audience were:

• The necessity to keep on working toward the sharing of experiences and harmonization of practices.
• The agreement on the protocol proposed for the salinity exercise.
• The need to survey Jerico Next partners on their equipment, practices and needs before defining the next pH and O2 interlaboratory comparison.
• The necessity to have more partners involved in this “Calibration and Assessment” task: are there any needs that are not currently investigated by the task?

Florence Salvetat (Ifremer) also presented this key meeting in a short video

The first Call for Transnational Access (TNA) of JERICO NEXT ended with the meeting of the Selection Panel which was held in Bordeaux, France, on September 7, 2016. The meeting was kindly hosted by the University of Bordeaux at the Campus Talence Pessac Gradignan.

Six out of twelve submitted TNA projects were selected and will be supported by JERICO NEXT. The six projects are listed in Table 1, with the facilities they will have access to. The signature of TNA agreements is in progress, and the projects will start before the end of this year.

The next TNA task is the preparation and opening of the second call, which will be anticipated compared to the original program to 20 February 2017.

More information will follow in the JERICO NEXT website at http://www.jerico-ri.eu/tna/.

TNA projects approved after the first Call.

In framework of the Sea Tech Week 2016, the CEFAS organized a meeting focused on the task “Harmonizing new network sensors” led by Dave Sivyer (CEFAS) and Rajesh Nair (OGS). This workshop on nutrient sensors and the current use and status in the marine community was attended by representatives from several institutions around Europe.  The first speaker was Wilhelm Petersen (HZG) who briefly introduced the workshop in the context of JERICO-Next and work package 2.4. Next, Dave Sivyer presented the responses to an online questionnaire which had previously asked participants in WP 2.4 to answer.  This presentation included an outline of all nutrient sensors currently in use, their operational status, what they measure, calibration and quality assurance, ease of use and many other aspects that will be fully reported elsewhere (Deliverable 2.2). A general discussions followed around the room including a useful insight to the ISUS nitrate sensor from Rajesh Nair and an over view of the development, range of measured parameters and current application of the CHEMENI analyzers from Laurent Delauney (Ifremer).

The main users of nutrient sensors would be responsible for contribution of each section of the report required for the milestone of the work package. A template for the report was compiled, including all the questions from the on-line questionnaire, but further expanded to take account of the group discussion. This will be circulated amongst the participants for final approval.

Those responsible for the workshop would like to thank the local support, especially Anne Schmidt, for her great patience and help in the organization of the event.

From 16 till 20 October 2016, the submarine imaging Pagure II device was tried out in the bay of Brest during a dedicated campaign aboard the Thalia. Developed within the framework of JERICO-NEXT and FFP GALION programs, the Pagure II will allow to facilitate the observation of sea bed and associated biodiversity.

Designed in September 2013 within the framework of the European projects PANACHE and BENTHIS, Pagure is a sled video towed capable of observing seabed until 500 meters deep and potentially deployable on the whole continental shelf. It was developed to answer an increasing need for characterization of benthic environments and biodiversity monitoring, in particular within the networks of protected marine areas.

Improved regards to its first version, the Pagure II technology was tested from 16 till 20 October in the bay of Brest during the campaign Pagure Next, piloted by Antoine Carlier (DYNECO, Laboratory of Benthic Coastal Ecology). The objective was to validate trials realized in the basin of Boulogne sur Mer and to test the imaging equipment installed on the prototype (HD-video cameras, camera and laser).

Thanks to the plentiful uses of Pagure I, deployed at sea since July 2013 (campaigns IBTS, CGFS, CAMANOC, EVOHE, FEBBE, SPOKEN ILL, etc.), several improvement were identified such as the resistance of the device under pressure, its stability and its impact on the bottom or still its hydrodynamic behavior when this machine is towed by a ship. As the first version, Pagure II can be used in mode “sledge on the bottom thanks to 2 skates. The main innovation is its system of buoyancy, through which the device can also “overfly” the bottom at approximately 50 cm to one meter of height.

This new way of functioning will allow to increase the fields of shots, to explore more irregular seabed and to reduce its ecological imprint on benthic habitats. Pagure II will therefore be able to explore a largest diversity of seabed, including fragile environments, without damaging them. 

Mainly developed within the framework of the European project JERICO-NEXT, this Pagure new generation is also equipped with more successful lightings and with a more reliable system of regulation of its slanted camera.

Designed and tested in the basin of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pagure II was already deployed at sea on the occasion of CGFS (September 23rd-October 14th, 2016), campaign of evaluation of the halieutic stocks in the eastern English Channel. The Pagure II will be an additional tool for the monitoring methods implemented, in particular in the framework of ecosystem approach to fisheries or Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). It can be operational in various depth conditions, various seabed compositions, various currents and meteorological conditions. Thanks to its ease of use, it may be deployed without recurring to a specialized staff. The device will so generate quantitative information on benthic communities and will allow to measure with precision the size and the abundance of the species found.  

IN JERICO-Next novel instrumentation of observing phytoplankton diversity, algal blooms etc. are used in work packages three and four (WP3&WP4). There are activities in the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat-Skagerrak, and the North Sea-English channel and in the western Mediterranean Sea. In the Skagerrak area east of the North Sea a study of algal blooms and the diversity of phytoplankton have been carried out August to October 2016. One goal of the study is to increase the understanding on how algal blooms develop and how weather and ocean currents influence bloom development. The study was carried out near a mussel farm by SMHI and several other JERICO partners. Also scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany took part in the study. Automated instruments and samplers were deployed in situ for continuous measurements and manual water sampling was made weekly.

Fig. 1. The Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB), a type of automated underwater microscope, was used to enumerate and identify plankton. The instrument collects and analyses samples every 25 minutes. It was deployed in situ in a depth profiling mode. Images from the IFCB on the right show a silico-flagellate (top left), dinoflagellates and a diatom chain (bottom). Photo by Bengt Karlson.

Fig. 2. Left: Study area, top right: an ADCP current meter and bottom right the R/V Skagerak. Photos by Lars Arneborg and Bengt Karlson.

In addition to the biological data collected sea currents and the water column stratification was investigated. CTD-casts from the research vessel were made to measure salinity, temperature and chlorophyll fluorescence. Current meters (ADCP) and salinity and temperature sensors were deployed for about three months. The data collected will be used together with modelling to describe bloom development.

Fig. 3. Left: The water column structure along an east-west transect along 58° from the Swedish coast (right) towards the North Sea (left). During this cruise on September 6th southerly and westerly winds had pushed the surface water towards the Swedish coast. The separate graphs are left: salinity, middle: temperature and right: chlorophyll fluorescence.

Jrap#5 has been preparing for intensive period starting March 2017. The observation plan will be detailed in December 2016 – January 2017.

At FMI/SYKE, new instruments have been tested for continuous pH and pCO2 measurements. In addition, methods for analyzing DIC and alkalinity from discrete water samples have been taken into use.

Figure: development of new showerhead pCO2-equilibrator at Utö, Finland.

Figure: observation platform on the Cretan Sea

In the Cretan Sea (Eastern Mediterranean), a pH sensor (sensorlab) was deployed by HCMR in collaboration with IOCAG (M. González Dávila) in July 2016, at the location of the POSEIDON E1-M3A buoy, allowing continuous pH measurements transmitted every 3 hours. In addition, discrete water samples have been taken at monthly frequency next to the pH sensor, for analyzing DIC and alkalinity.

The intercomparison of the different instruments used by Jerico-next partners is planned to take place in 2018, after the completion of the intensive period.

The second JERICO plankton workshop was arranged in Gothenburg, Sweden 27-30 September 2016. Altogether eighteen participants took part in the workshop.

The aims of the workshop include:

• To improve the understanding of plankton diversity, spatial and temporal distribution and the development of algal blooms in the sea. Harmful algae will be in focus.
• To exchange experiences of using devices aimed at automated observations of phytoplankton including harmful algae. Instruments include automated imaging flow cytometers, multispectral fluorometers and spectrophotometers and a Fast repetition Rate Fluorometer (FRRF).
• To compare the performance of different instruments on common natural and culture samples.
• To promote cooperation and to plan future work in WP3.1 and 4.1.

The workshop was held at the Oceanographic unit of SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute). A visit to the SMHI Tångesund observatory in Mollösund, on the Swedish Skagerrak coast made it possible to learn about the Imaging Flow Cytobot (a type of underwater microscope) and other in situ instruments used there. In addition participants were able to use in situ instrumentation on site and sea water was collected for further analysed in the laboratory in Gothenburg.

Fig. 1. The Imaging Flow Cytobot, a type of automated underwater microscope, is deployed at the Tångesund observatory. The white instrument is a CTD for measuring depth, temperature and salinity. Photo by Bengt Karlson.

Fig. 2. Images of phytoplankton from the Imaging Flow Cytobot are collected every hour providing near real time data on phytoplankton biodiversity and harmful algae.

Fig. 3. The workshop included a visit to a mussel farm in Tångesund on the Swedish Skagerrak coast. Photo by Bengt Karlson.

Fig. 4 Field work using a bio-optical instrument. Photo by Bengt Karlson.

Fig 5. Water collected at Tångesund was analysed using a number of different instruments. Photos by Bengt Karlson.

Fig. 6. The workshop included discussions and reporting of results. Photos by Bengt Karlson and Florent Colas.

In the framework of WP3 and WP4 (JRAP#1), Machteld Rijkeboer from Rijkswaterstaat (NL) took part in a North Sea cruise on the Cefas Endeavour (UK) between 21st and 28th of June 2016. The aim of the work was to determine the diversity of the phytoplankton with a semi-automatic system including two Cytosense flow cytometers connected to a ferrybox. The on line analyses were programmed from every 20 minutes to every hour. The results can already be seen on http://fytoplankton.nl/CEFAS/Endeavour/phytoplankton_liveloc.shtml and http://fytoplankton.nl/RWS/Endeavour/phytoplankton_liveloc.shtml. A meeting in August will take place in VLIZ in Oostende (B) to finalise the outputs of the cruise.

Involved institutions: Cefas, Rijkswaterstaat, VLIZ/Ghent University, Thomas Rutten Projects

Every two years, the International week of marine sciences and technologies gather international experts from different disciplines related to the sea. Sea Tech Week offers conferences, scientific and technological workshops as well as a business part (B2B meetings, trade show…). This year the event will take place at the Quartz Congress Centre in Brest (France) from October 10^th to 14^th, 2016.

In the framework of this international event JERICO-NEXT’s workshops and B2B meetings will be organized as follows:

• A workshop on nutrient sensors (TASK 2.4.1), organised by Dave Sivyer from CEFAS, will be held on October 10^th. The aims of this workshop are to review and evaluate the effective capabilities of the nutrient sensors utilised within the JERICO-NEXT network, describe the current modes of their deployment, and deal with data quality concerns. The goals are to define best practices in the use of similar sensors, and investigate their portability (across systems/platforms), interoperability and performances with a view to provide recommendations regarding these issues to manufacturers and industry.

• A workshop on “Calibration and Assessment” will be held from 11^th to 12^th October 2016. It constitutes the first workshop of task 2.5 in relation to the metrological consistency, comparability and quality of data and data products. The meeting will serve to present, describe and discuss the actions planned within this task, including their links with the other tasks and work packages (especially those relating to sensors and systems) of the project. 

  Please find all the information needed:

  – agenda and registration at http://forms.ifremer.fr/brestmetrologie/28-2/

  – organisation of the Seatechweek (location, program,…) at http://www.seatechevent.eu/Home-552-0-0-0.html

  Contacts

  1) Florence Salvetat (Ifremer), florence.salvetat@ifremer.fr;
  2) Rajesh Nair (OGS, Italy), rnair@inogs.it.

  Registration

   http://forms.ifremer.fr/brestmetrologie/28-2/

  Deadline for Registration: 28/09/2016.

• On October 11^th B2B meetings, to interact with industry end users, will be organised during all the afternoon. This will be another opportunity for the Industry Ocean Observation Forum to engage in technology cluster activities. The objectives of the technology cluster activities at Sea Tech Week are:

• Identify business opportunities for the private sector providing products and services to the academic research community (SLR);
• Case study presentations by companies who successfully engaged with TNA activities (JERICO-NEXT and FixO³);
• Demonstrate ease of access to existing data available from ocean and coastal observatories (EMODnet and FixO³ EarthVO).

For the 10th edition, Sea Tech Week’s main theme will be SEA and DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, in connection with the national label “French Tech” obtained in 2015. This theme will be defined in a wide range of sub-themes in the various conferences: observation, robotics, biocomputing, sensors, modelling, human-machine interface, data science etc.

As first steps of two seasonal samplings, two cruises will first be carried out in October 2016 in: (1) the West-Gironde mud patch (SW France) from the 20th to the 31st, and (2) the Cretan Sea. These cruises aim at assessing the relationships between benthic diversity and the functioning of the water-sediment interface (remineralization of settled Particulate Organic Matter). The strategy will coupled the use of both ex-situ and novel in-situ techniques in order to link: (1) bottom water characteristics, (2) biogeochemical characteristics of sediment pore water and organic matter, (3) benthic macro- and micro-fauna diversity, (4) benthic fauna activity and (5) benthic fluxes. In the West-Gironde Mud patch, ten stations will be located along two inshore-offshore transects located in the two main lobes of the mud patch (figure). In the Cretan Sea, 5 stations will be sampled along a predefined gradient, starting from the sewage outfall of the city of Heraklion (close to the shore and at shallow depth) until a control station at 200-meter depth, where no effect of the sewage outfall should be detected.

Involved institutions: EPOC CNRS/UBdx, HCMR

On the 19th & 20th April, the Cabled Observataries Workshop took place in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, organized by UPC-Obsea.

In the framework of WP2, T2.3, the CABLED COASTAL OBSERVATORIES carried out a revision of the current level of development: That took place last 19th-20th April in Vilanova, Barcelona (Spain).

Task 2.3 deals with the harmonization of HF-radar systems and cabled coastal observatories with the JERICO network.

The objective for this workshop was to review the state-of-the-art of these observing systems in terms of technology, procedures, maintenance, data processing, format, quality and management, identification of limitations and difficulties, applications, dissemination, etc, and promulgate Best Practice from the specific perspective of operations in coastal waters.

All the JericoNext cabled observatories infraestructure’s were very well represented:
AWI (UNH, UNS), Phillipp Fischer (Please login or register to view contact information.)
IFREMER (Molene) Nadine Lanteri (Please login or register to view contact information.), Laurant Delauney (Please login or register to view contact information.)
FMI (Utö) Lauri Laakso (Please login or register to view contact information.)
IMR (LoVe) Henning Wehde (Please login or register to view contact information.), Terje Torkelsen (Please login or register to view contact information.)
SBI (CPO in Galway Bay) Rogelio Chumbinho (Please login or register to view contact information.), Diarmaid O’Connor (Please login or register to view contact information.)
UPC (OBSEA) Please login or register to view contact information., Please login or register to view contact information.

Twelve peer-reviewed articles are published in a special issue of Journal of Marine Systems dedicated to  JERICO (FP7) project, volume 162C. The paper version will be available shortly. These articles are already available online. JERICO offers a promotional access free of charge during 6 months.

The Editorial “Progress in marine science supported by European joint coastal observation systems: The JERICO-RI research infrastructure” is available here: 

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092479631630135X

Below the 12 peer-reviewed articles:

1. A comparison of FerryBox data vs. monitoring data from research vessels for near surface waters of the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat
2. Optimizing observational networks combining gliders, moored buoys and FerryBox in the Bay of Biscay and English Channel
3. South-Eastern Bay of Biscay eddy-induced anomalies and their effect on chlorophyll distribution
4. Statistical properties and time-frequency analysis of temperature, salinity and turbidity measured by the MAREL Carnot station in the coastal waters of Boulogne-sur-Mer (France)
5. FerryBox-assisted monitoring of mixed layer pH in the Norwegian Coastal Current
6. High frequency mesozooplankton monitoring: Can imaging systems and automated sample analysis help us describe and interpret changes in zooplankton community composition and size structure — An example from a coastal site
7. Seasonal pH variability in the Saronikos Gulf: A year-study using a new photometric pH sensor
8. Development and validation of a video analysis software for marine benthic applications
9. Exploring the occurrence and distribution of contaminants of emerging concern through unmanned sampling from ships of opportunity in the North Sea
10. Assimilation experiments for the Fishery Observing System in the Adriatic Sea
11. Glider and satellite high resolution monitoring of a mesoscale eddy in the algerian basin: Effects on the mixed layer depth and biochemistry
12. South Baltic representative coastal field surveys, including monitoring at the Coastal Research Station in Lubiatowo, Poland

The first workshop on HF Radar developments in JERICO-NEXT was held in San Sebastian on March 9th to 11th, 2016. This very successful meeting joined the main partners dealing with HF Radars in JERICO-NEXT, with participation of 22 people and 12 different Institutions from 7 European countries.

HF Radars are a remote sensing measurement technique, which provide surface ocean currents measurements, with extended coverage (range of 30-200 km) and high resolution in time (order of 1 hour) and space (order of 1-5 km). HF Radar technology offers a unique opportunity for excellent and innovative scientific research on coastal ocean variability, by providing data at the interface between ocean and atmosphere. Moreover, the real-time data obtained from this technology is being used today for monitoring surface ocean transport with application to different sectors in relation with marine environment, safety and exploitation. There is still work needed to improve the operation of radar, data quality control and harmonization, and to develop their applications. To improve these aspects and to work towards building a European HF Radar networks is one of the aims of the HF Radar component of JERICO-NEXT project.

The two main outcomes of the Workshop were: (i) a joint review of the state-of-the-art of these observing systems (in terms of technology, procedures, maintenance, data processing, format, quality and management, identification of limitations and difficulties, applications, dissemination, etc.), and (ii) the coordinated planning of work in the different tasks related to HF Radars. These tasks involve the following JERICO-NEXT WPs: WP2 on the harmonization of new network systems, WP3 on the developments on current observations from HF Radars, WP1 and 4 on Science strategies towards 4D characterization of trans-boundary hydrography and transport, WP5 on the definition of Quality Control procedures for HF Radar data and WP6 on Virtual Access to the data.

Task 2: Ferry box based monitoring of emerging marine contaminants:

• Cruise 1: Bergen-Kierkenes route (Trol Fjord), 15 June 2016, 6 Days, Collection of water samples using Ferrybox automatic sampler. A broad set of emerging contaminants (including: antibiotics, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and synthetic food additives) will be analyze. The scope is to discover new contaminants and their spatial distribution at the scope of support Descriptor 8 of the EU MFSD.

• Cruise 2: Moss-Cuxhaven-Immingham-Moss (LysBris), Foreseen 15 June (2016), 6 Days, as above 

• Cruise 3: Oslo-Kiell (Color Fantasy), Foreseen 12 August 2016, 2 Days, as above 

Task 3: High resolution integrated monitoring of contaminant distribution and biological responses:

• Cruise: Oslo Kiell (Color Fantasy), Foreseen 12 August 2016, High resolution monitoring (e.g. hourly) of several contaminants (see list above) including the Polyciclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (markers of oil pollution) will be carried out simultaneously to the collection of samples for the determination of Biomarkers of bacterias adapted on growing on oil pollution substrate.

Automated systems for investigating phytoplankton diversity and abundance with a focus on harmful algae are used on research vessels, ferries and at fixed ocean observatories in the Baltic Sea, The Kattegat-Skagerrak, the North Sea-eastern English Channel area and in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Flow cytometry and bio-optical measuments are some of the methods used. A joint WP 2.4.2, WP3.1 and WP4.1 workshop was arranged in Wimereux 31 June – 2 June 2016 and a WP 4.1 Plankton Workshop will be held in 27 – 30 September in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Harmful algal bloom study at the Tångesund observatory

A study of plankton dynamics near a mussel farm at Tångesund on the Swedish Skagerrak coast will be carried out in August-October 2016. An instrumented oceanographic buoy was deployed already in April. One objective of the study is to investigate the coupling between physical processes and harmful algal blooms. The focus organisms are dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Dinophysis. These phytoplankton produce diarrhetic shellfish toxins that may accumulate in shellfish, posing a threat to human health. Other phytoplankton and also bacteria are being studied. The involved JERICO-NEXT partners are SMHI with subcontractors Scanfjord and WHOI (USA), NIVA, IRIS and Ifremer. In addition scientist from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the AWI (Germany) will be involved. In connection with the study at the fixed location three cruises with a research vessel are planned. In addition, data from the Ferrybox system on Color Fantasy covering the route Oslo-Kiel will be used.

Study of phytoplankton in the western Mediterranean Sea

Phytoplankton functional diversity and spatio-temporal distribution at the meso-scale are studied in the frame of the A*MIDEX CHROME (Continuous High Resolution Observation of the Mediterranean, https://en-chrome.mio.univ-amu.fr/?page_id=42) project thanks to the combined installation of a Ferrybox system (belonging to the INSTM, Tunis) and a Cytosense flow cytometer on board the CTN’s ferry “Le Carthage”. The first trial was run end of April 2016 for one week and should run again before the end of 2016. By combining the phytoplankton datasets with oxygen, partial pressure of carbon dioxide and pH, the understanding of the phytoplankton functional diversity on biogeochemical processes at the basin scale will be improved.

Study of phytoplankton in the North Sea – eastern English Channel area

The phytoplankton are being studied using automated systems on research vessels, ferries, instrumented buoys (e.g. SMILE and Smartbuoys) and the MAREL Carnot instrumented Station. In 2016, regular cruises with R/V Endeavour around the Bristish Isles (North Sea and English Channel), R/V Sepia II (English Channel), R/V Simon Stevin and Zirfaea in the North Sea along the Belgian and Dutch coasts will be carried out. The following JERICO partners are involved: Cefas, VLIZ, RWS, CNRS-LOG and CNRS-Borea, Ifremer and Deltares. In addition subcontractors and partners outside JERICO such as University of Gent, NIOZ and ThomasRutten Projects.In parallel, work is still in progress (Ifremer-LER/BL) ) to develop user friendly interfaces (using R) in order to pre-process and process high frequency (HF) data series. At the time being, tools in test allow to merge files from different HF and LF (Low Frequency) data then allow to summarise statistics, to define clusters (based on biotic and/or abiotic parameters) and to make some modelling using Hybrid Markov Model. In collaboration  with a partner outside JERICO such as ULCO-LISIC laboratory.

Cruises involving at least two JERICO-Next partners in the North Sea-eastern English Channel:

• Cruises of R/V Zirfaea (RWS):

11-14 April 2016: Phytoplankton study along the Dutch Coast and towards the Dogger Bank. Flowcytometry and FRRF in order to detect, follow and couple the phytoplankton composition and the productivity of the system. This involved the cooperation of RWS-NIOZ-VLIZ-University of Ghent

13-17 June 2016. Phytoplankton study along the Dutch Coast and towards the Dogger Bank. Flowcytometry, FytoPam and continuous Fluoroprobe in order to detect, follow and couple the phytoplankton composition and the productivity of the system. This involved the cooperation of RWS -CNRS -University of Lille

• Cruises of Cefas Endeavour (Cefas):

9-12 May 2016: Phytoplankton study on the East Coast of UK.

The Cytosense Flowcytometer on line with the Ferrybox during a short cruise (3 days) between North of Norfolk and the Tames Estuary chasing a Phaeocystis bloom.

20-29 June 2016: Comparison of outputs from two Flowcytometers from RWS and Cefas.

The two Flowcytometers will be on line with the Ferrybox during the Survey which aims to estimate the density of Nephrops in the North of the North Sea. The data from the two instruments will be compared to estimate their performances and will show that it is possible to combine phytoplankton measurement with other monitoring surveys.

• Cruise of RV Simon Stevin (late May 2016):

End of May 2016. Phytoplankton study in the North Sea (off Belgian coast). Coupling of two automated flow cytometer, FRRF, Fluoroprobe and PhytoPAM in order to follow both phytoplankton abundance, diversity and productivity. This will involve  cooperation between  Cefas, RWS, NIOZ, CNRS-LOG and  U. Gent.

In parallel, work is still in progress (Ifremer-LER/BL, ULCO/LISIC) to develop user friendly interfaces (using R) in order to pre-process and process high frequency (HF) data series. At the time being, tools in test allow to merge files from different HF and LF (Low Frequency) data then allow to summarise statistics, to define clusters (based on biotic and/or abiotic parameters) and to make some modelling using Hybrid Markov Model.

• CNR- ISMAR is working on the deployment of a new HF radar system in the region of Cinque Terre (NW Mediterranean).
  Duration: 2016- 2018.
  Objectives: The NW Med area is characterized by the presence of the Liguro-Provenco-Catalan Current also called Northern Current (NC) that flows westward along the coasts of Italy and France and it is characterized by a complex time variability covering a large spectrum of scales. These new deployments will allow to study the variability of this current and associated transport.

• MIO-CNRS has been working on the deployment of a new HF radar system off Nice (NW Mediterranean) and will be analyzing this new data to study the NC current.
  Duration:  2016 – 2018.
  Objectives: The installation of the second HF radar site off the coast of Nice in the Ligurian Sea area extended the observation zone to the full coastal area, from Italian coast to the Gulf of Lion, allowing a much larger coverage of the Northern Current.

• IFREMER will be performing two oceanographic campaigns in summer 2017 to deploy MASTODON MOORINGS and retrieve additional information in the NW Mediterranean and the SE Bay of Biscay.

  Duration: 2017, one week for the cruise, one month for the moorings.

  Objectives: to better describe the true nature of internal waves over the continental shelf in both study areas.

• IFREMER and AZTI are working to install in 2017 a new HF radar antenna in the French coast of the SE Bay of Biscay to complete the existing system.
  Duration: 2017, for one year.
  Objectives: To overcome one of the clearest limitations of the present configuration which is the lack of HFR coverage along the Basque Coast, due to the small angle amongst existing radials generated by two antennas in the Basque Coast. The installation of the third antenna will enable the inter comparisons between a Phased Array (PA) and a Broad-Beam (BB) system in the area, make further analysis on observational errors (in the area covered by the three antennas where there will be redundant data) and on wave data retrieval.

• HZG will be performing numerical experiments in the German bight using data from existing HF radar systems and tide gauges.
  Duration: 2016 -2018.
  Objectives:  the potential of the combined use of HFR data and tide gauge measurements in an assimilation procedure will be analyzed. A pre-operational assimilation system for HFR data is already running at HZG in the framework of the COSYNA system. The added value of water level measurements for this system will be assessed with a particular focus on the estimation of 4D transports. This includes the definition of suitable metrics for both Lagrangian trajectories and volume transports through transects.

The JERICO-NEXT Workshop on current advances in the application of (semi-)automated techniques for studying phytoplankton dynamics in coastal and marine waters, has been organized from May 31st to June 2nd in Wimereux (Northern France).

It gathered together scientists from 15 partners or contracted partners and SMEs of the JERICO-NEXT consortium, as well as external experts for:

– preparing the synthesis of existing approaches and methodologies related to optical sensors for observing  phytoplankton (WP 2.4.2)

– presenting the recent past, current and future technical and analytical improvements for building an automated platform for the observation of phytoplankton diversity and related ecosystem services (WP 3.1, in connection with WP3.4 on microbial and molecular sensors and WP5.2 on the integration of high volumes and flow of biological data generated with those sensors)

– preparing the common Practical Inter comparison Workshop that will take place in Gothenburg (Sweden) by late September (WP 3.1 and Wp4.1 – JRAP1)

– preparing the JRAP 1 activities for 2016 and 2017 on the implementation of innovative automated techniques in Pelagic Biodiversity – plankton, Harmful Algal Blooms and eutrophication studies, in connection with JRAP5 on Coastal Carbon fluxes.”