Marine
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Non-native Species and Biofouling
11th July 2012 by sfraser
What are Non-native Species? When species of plants and animals occur unexpectedly in areas outside their normal range they are called “non-native species”. Examples of how non-native species can be introduced to new areas are by accidentally travelling on an aeroplane or ship (e.g the black rat), or when fish or shellfish imported for the...
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Harmful Algae in Scottish Waters
18th June 2012 by sfraser
Under certain environmental conditions, marine phytoplankton can grow very quickly and form what are called “Harmful Algal Blooms” or HABs. In some instances these natural blooms can impact the marine ecosystem by causing mortalities of animals that live on the sea bed. This may occur either directly as a result of toxins produced by the...
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Monitoring Marine Zooplankton
4th April 2012 by sfraser
What are marine zooplankton? Zooplankton are very small animals that live in the sea. They are not strong enough to swim against tides and currents and so drift along in the water. There are tens of thousands of species of zooplankton and they range in size from being smaller than a grain of rice up...
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Big Bang prize for student work
21st March 2012 by admin
Mairi Bell of Hazlehead Academy wowed the judges at The Big Bang National Science & Engineering Fair in Birmingham last week with her project on diagnosing embryo abnormalities in Zooplankton, which form important components of marine food webs and changes in their abundance can assess the health of the marine ecosystem.
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Spring is coming in the water
29th February 2012 by sfraser
This week we have seen the first signs of spring in our gardens as snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils have started to shoot through the soil. In the waters surrounding our shores we are also beginning to see the first signs of spring as the phytoplankton diatom population has begun to grow too. Below are some...
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Monitoring Marine Phytoplankton
10th February 2012 by sfraser
The Marine Scotland Science Coastal Ecosystem Monitoring Programme examines a variety of different marine parameters at a number of sites around the Scottish coast. By measuring temperature, salinity, nutrients and plankton at these sites we can identify and increase our understanding of changes that may be occurring in Scottish coastal waters. These data are also...
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MSS Photograph to be Displayed in Great North Museum
16th January 2012 by sfraser
During 2012 the British Phycological Society, a society that promotes the study of phytoplankton and algae in UK waters, will celebrate its Golden Jubilee. One of the events planned to mark this occasion is an exhibition of short-listed photographs from the Hilda Canter-Lund photographic competition, which will take place in the Great North Museum in...
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Home for Christmas
6th January 2012 by sfraser
The scientists and crew of Scotia worked hard in difficult conditions to complete the last monitoring survey of the year before returning to port on 23 December, just in time for Christmas. Marine Scotland would like to thank all of the crew and scientists on board for their hard work and dedication to make the trip...
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One of the longest oceanographic time series in the world
16th December 2011 by sfraser
The Marine Scotland research vessel Scotia set sail on Sunday 11 December with 10 scientists on board. This cruise will add to time series of measurements from the deep and cold waters of the Faroe-Shetland Channel that were started by scientists more than 100 years ago. In 1895, Dr H. N. Dickson published the results of...
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Posts resume to the monitoring blog
7th December 2011 by sfraser
The monitoring blog has been relatively silent over the last number of months. This does not mean that monitoring has stopped at the Marine Scotland monitoring sites. Scientists working on this project have been busy performing the sampling trips and analysing samples that have been collected. Regular posts to the blog will begin again shortly.
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