How robust are marine ecosystems after extreme events?

New ocean-monitoring technologies delivering terabytes of data are providing a detailed insight into the workings of the ocean, and particularly how marine ecosystems respond to extreme events.

Such events include cyclones, sub-surface ocean storms in the form of eddies, upwellings and heatwaves. Record-high ocean temperatures near Perth in March 2011 caused widespread fish kills.

In an opening keynote presentation to the combined Australian and New Zealand Marine Sciences Associations conference in Hobart today, CSIRO Wealth from Oceans scientist, Dr David Griffin said there is economic and environmental value in knowing how robust ecosystems are following extreme events.

“I would argue that ‘extreme oceanic events’ have received much less attention than they deserve from the science community.

“Indeed, science doesn’t yet have a developed vocabulary for the many different types of extreme oceanic events,” he said.

Recent Australian examples this year include –

• June 18: Extremely high sea level, Perth – the Great Australian Bight
• June 9: Intense cold eddy off Perth
• May 11: Warm beach temperatures, Sydney
• April 20: High sea level, Victorian, NSW, Queensland coasts

Dr Griffin said marine scientists are now catching up with meteorologists in terms of tools and data to monitor variability of environmental conditions. They now have two decades of sea surface height measurements, a decade of the autonomous Argo ocean sampling program, and the emergence of coastal and deep ocean gliders, backing up the traditional ocean mooring arrays and shipboard observations.

A significant contributor in the past five years has been Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System.

“Marine scientists are moving from a world of sparse observations to one that is becoming much more data-rich. Sensors on satellites complement observations by drifting and diving instruments.

“Agencies around the world have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ocean observing systems. But that is nothing compared to the economic impacts of climate variability, some of which could be prevented by better understanding of the environment.

“The research opportunities are there,” Dr Griffin said.

Links:

• Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System – http://oceancurrent.imos.org.au/news.htm
• Western Australia’s marine heatwave, summer, 2011 – http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/Research%20reports/frr222.pdf

• Oceanography, undersea technology earns researchers national marine science awards

A Hobart oceanographer and marine engineer have received the nation’s peak marine science awards for their contributions to marine research.

Dr David Griffin and Mr Matt Sherlock, from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, have been recognised for their work over many years in coastal, deep ocean and biological sciences.

The awards were announced in the opening session today of the joint conference of the Australian Marine Sciences Association and New Zealand Marine Sciences Society at Wrest Point, Hobart.

Dr Griffin, who presented a conference keynote address this morning on extreme oceanic events, has developed a role translating ocean science for society in his role as a physical oceanographer. Mr Sherlock leads CSIRO’s Marine Instrumentation Group – a team of scientists, engineers and technical experts responsible for developing and maintaining a wide varied of sophisticated marine sampling tools.

The President of the Australian Marine Sciences Association, Prof Lynnath Beckley, of Murdoch University, said both Mr Sherlock and Dr Griffin have been pivotal in advancing marine science.

“David’s contributions to physical oceanography have flowed to scientists, students, teachers, marine safety specialists, industry, marine archaeologists, recreational users of the marine environment and the Royal Australian Navy.

“His work has covered the potential future of Australia’s ocean renewable energy, leading CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans remote sensing team, assisting with the search for HMAS Sydney and the hospital ship Centaur and developing the OceanCurrent website.”

Prof Beckley said Matt Sherlock has had a significant influence on the technical development of acoustic and image-based sampling tools in Australia, and the designs are in use internationally.

“Equipment built by Matt has been extensively used to quantify marine biomass, including for stock assessments of important fishery species, quantify marine biodiversity, particularly the habitats and seafloor invertebrate fauna of the deep oceans, and measure key properties of water chemistry, especially in the context of ocean acidification.

“Equipment designs developed by Matt have been adopted by a variety of national and international marine agencies and he has made many long voyages nursing prototype devices through science missions,” she said.

• Link: OceanCurrents – http://oceancurrent.imos.org.au/news.htm
• About the national marine science conference – http://www.amsa-nzmss2012.com.au/

• Getting your head around sea level rise – the latest science: http://www.smc.org.au/