An important new pan-European ocean monitoring project, coordinated by the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, is about to get under way following significant funding from the EU. Scientists across nine countries will now work to establish a network of sea floor observatories in an important first step in the management and conservation of the deep waters around Europe.
Very little is currently known about the submarine environment around Europe. Only a small fraction of this realm has been explored despite it being comparable in size to the total land mass of Europe. Entitled ESONET (European Seafloor Observatory Network), this new project aims to produce a practical plan for long term monitoring of the ocean margin environment around Europe as part of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security).
ESONET will be a multidisciplinary project with stations monitoring the rocks, sediments, bottom water, biology and any natural hazards in the water column of the European Ocean Margin. The area being monitored is approximately 3 million square kilometres and extends from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea from the continental shelves to a depth of 4000 metres. It is expected that results will give important new information on the geophysical state of the sea floor and greatly assist in the conservation of the sub sea environment and its biodiversity.
Dr Martin Solan at the University's Oceanlab will lead the ESONET project team and coordinate the activities of the 14 institutions involved. Commenting on the project, Dr Solan said: "This is the start of a project that will take decades to fully accomplish. We are delighted that Aberdeen has been entrusted with the management of such a significant programme. Exciting new discoveries will be made."
