Marine

Not Just Inshore…

March 11, 2011 by michaelpenston No Comments | Category Marine Directorate Science

As well as providing data on the inshore environment, the ecosystem monitoring programme also collects data in the offshore environment. A poster, entitled ‘Variability of physical and biological properties in the Faroe Shetland Channel between 2000-2009: results from a long-term monitoring programme and model data’ will be presented at the Decadal Symposium in Santander, Spain in May 2011.

The offshore monitoring programme focuses on observing the inflow of Atlantic Water into the Nordic Seas through the Faroe Shetland Channel (FSC), which is one of three branches of Atlantic Water crossing the Greenland-Scotland Ridge (GSR). In collaboration with Scottish, Faroese and Norwegian scientists, we have obtained a long-term time series of water properties (temperature, salinity, Chlorophyll-a and nutrients) and transports in the FSC. Through these water properties we can define distinct water masses in the channel and monitor changes in the area they occupy or in their properties. We have also deployed current meters (Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers or ADCPs), which measure the strength of the currents flowing through the FSC. These currents are highly variable and present research efforts are focusing on which processes drive these fluctuations in the observed current strength and transport through the channel.

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