Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme

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Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme Understanding of the nutrient and carbon cycling within the shelf seas, and of their overall role in global biogeochemical cycles.

08/09/2015

Cruise has now come to an end, and with it the end of most Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme field work. Reflections

01/09/2015

Some of the sea creatures we found in the Celtic Sea during our sampling.

Many of are now transitioning from taking and processing samples and preparing equipment for use, to writing up reports and packing for mobilisation back to our respective home labs. ://www.uk-ssb.org/outputs_and_impacts/blog/2015/09/heading-back-to-southampton.html

31/08/2015

The scientists on RRS Discovery work all hours. The ship is expensive to run and the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme has a lot of different tasks to achieve and it would not be possible to do this without working 24 hours a day. What this means is that a small fraction of the scientists and crew on board need to adjust to working during the night.

28/08/2015

Christina Wood looks at a process called bioturbation, which is when species living in the sediment create burrows or move sediment particles up or down. These activities stimulate microbial growth and encourage the cycling and release of nutrients and are important mediators of shelf sea processes.

26/08/2015

We recently recovered two ‘Smart Buoy’ systems operated by Cefas. Several such observing systems have been deployed at various stations around the Celtic Sea since March of 2014.

These systems allow us to understand variation in the ocean in a way that is similar to weather monitoring. The sensors can record a variety of variable crossing physics to biogeochemical themes. These systems allow us to see how weather and climate affect surface ocean conditions and the growth of marine algae via primary production.

23/08/2015

We are using the Autsub3 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) during our cruise to collect photographic images of the seafloor, as well as sonar-based images of the shape and texture of the seafloor. We have been running the AUV in a ‘mowing the lawn’ pattern of parallel lines that are about ~5km long.

After checking our seafloor shape and texture mapping for any obstacles, we ‘fly’ the AUV as close as 2.5 meters from the seafloor to collect colour photographs in the moderately cloudy waters of the Celtic Sea.

21/08/2015

is the final cruise in a yearlong project, where the same data have been collected at different stages of the seasonal cycle of the Celtic Sea. The data collected by this experiment can be used alongside other measurements, collected from the different sites at different times of the year, to get a good picture of how the suspension of sediments affects the carbon and nutrient cycles in the Celtic Sea, with the hope that these can be extrapolated to the Western European continental shelf.

18/08/2015

"When I first set foot on the old Royal Research Ship Discovery in 1979 in Cape Town I had little idea that in 2015 I would be on the Discovery once again but now on the most recent version of the vessel to carry this famous name."
Peter Statham on his 36 years of working on Discovery

17/08/2015

Yesterday we recovered some nice trawls from the sandy site. We also managed to get some images of the animals that live on the seafloor of the Celtic Sea, which is about eighty miles north by northwest of Land's End.

More images ..... http://www.uk-ssb.org/outputs_and_impacts/blog/2015/08/the-animals-on-seafloor-of-celtic-sea.html

13/08/2015

The Shark!
And one night, we even managed to spot a shark right next to the ship. It seems that he was also spotting us by the looks of it.

11/08/2015

Today we recovered our benthic lander. The frame had been deployed for two days and has nine instruments measuring a range of parameters including water velocity, nutrients, suspended sediment, sediment particle sizes, and benthic oxygen consumption. Our first deployment was at a site with sandy sediments. | By Megan Williams

10/08/2015

Sebastian Sims writes about his first voyage out to sea, joining RRS Discovery on the last SSB research cruise,

"This is an exciting time for the Shelf Seas Biogeochemistry Programme as we finish the last of nine cruises aboard RRS Discovery" says Principle Scientist, Henry Ruhl.

28/07/2015

On cruise, we have two CTDs. One is a normal stainless steel frame with 20L bottles, while the other is made of titanium with 10L water bottles. Apart from titanium, this second frame contains as little metal as possible because it is used to collect water for investigating trace metals. The 10L water bottles are kept in the trace metal laboratory on the ship. Before each trace metal CTD, they are individually carried out to the frame to limit exposure to the metal on the ship.

http://www.uk-ssb.org/outputs_and_impacts/blog/2015/07/diagnosing-transmission-problems.html

Photo: Clean Sampling room with bottles

25/07/2015

The first CTD of the iron transect was to commence on Tuesday morning at around 4am. Nick and Tom, the technicians on duty, prepared the CTD as usual for its journey down to 2400m. At around 1050m, the sensor readings indicated that the communications between the deck computer unit and the CTD had failed.

The CTD was brought back on deck and the sensor readings all returned to normal. A second deployment was attempted for diagnostic purposes, however once the CTD was back in the water, the sensor readings stopped again confirming that there was a problem with the termination.

http://www.uk-ssb.org/outputs_and_impacts/blog/

20/07/2015

Around the drama of Wednesday afternoon, the science on board continues apace. Over the 5 intensive days of science to date we have already completed 72 ‘Events’ each of which effectively corresponds to a deployment of one of the many pieces of equipment which you may have read about during previous log entries, including deployments of moorings and gliders, CTDs, net sampling alongside snow catchers, in situ pumping systems, etc, etc ....

17/07/2015

RRS Discovery had received a distress call. The hull of an upturned vessel had been sighted from an aircraft, and we were in close vicinity and were required to respond immediately. The steam west to the site of the incident took approximately 3 hours, and it was all eyes on deck to keep a look out for anything unusual. Needless to say the atmosphere was tense, but the crew were incredibly calm and professional.

13/07/2015

We are all excited to see what has been happening since the last pelagic cruise in spring and will be looking forward to finding out how the characteristics of the water column have developed following the spring phytoplankton bloom, alongside performing a whole series of measurements and experiments aimed at developing a better understanding of what is going on in the post bloom summer period.

29/05/2015

And that’s it.
A big thank you to all of you for all your hard work during the cruise and for making an extremely successful component of the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry Research Programme programme.

22/05/2015

Torben Stichel is looking at ocean boundaries to better understand source and sink mechanisms that imprint the neodymium isotope signal on the water masses we are tracing.

The shelf seas like the Celtic Sea are potentially significant sources of neodymium into the ocean. So connecting shelf seas’ processes with the global ocean conveyor belt will help us to better understand the cycle of neodymium and trace metals in general in the ocean.

20/05/2015

Finn Ni Fhaolain, writes about its role as an Irish Observer on board RRS Discovery

As an Irish Observer, my role onboard is to see that the scientific work being conducted and that the locations being sampled, are the same as those outlined in the initial report submitted to the Irish Marine Institute before the cruise began. Should the need ever arise, in certain situations, I am also to act as an intermediary between Irish officials and the ship.

19/05/2015

Richard Sims is a PhD student at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML). His research is focused on measuring near surface (10m) trace gas gradients in shelf seas. In order to obtain a good vertical resolution for his measurements of temperature, salinity, depth and fluorescence, he developed the Near Surface Ocean Profiler (NSOP), a free floating buoy which rides the swell and floats away from the local disturbances caused by the ship.

15/05/2015

Will Homoky writes about his idea to design a new sampling equipment that can rest directly on the seabed and his chance to try the newly built Miniature Autonomous Pumps (MAPs) for the first time on .

He has only made the first step; test MAPs ability to filter particles and collect the scarce quantities of radioactive elements that pass been the seabed and the overlying ocean, but the results are promising.

14/05/2015

Fauna ( beasties) that live in and on the seabed collected with the Jennings trawl. a) Sea mice b) Monkish

http://www.uk-ssb.org/outputs_and_impacts/blog/2015/05/working-with-mud.html

14/05/2015

Sarah Dashfield & Jo Nunes write about their work aboard RRS Discovery

This is our first SSB cruise, as well as our first cruise overall!!! Exciting stuff! On the second benthic cruise we are responsible for doing lots and lots of coring, i.e. lots of mud to shovel off the side of the ship!!

13/05/2015

Calm Seas: 12th of May saw some much appreciated calm weather and lots of science activity aboard the RRS Discovery. Lunchtime saw the deployment of the PML Buoy Profiler followed by sediment coring.

Read more about the coring devices we are using at

12/05/2015

Deploying the CTD — an acronym for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth — a primary tool for determining essential physical properties of sea water and helps scientists to understand how the oceans affect life.

11/05/2015

After sailing we experienced some weather more associated with March than May – a number of scientists took to their cabins or just sat on deck staring at the horizon wishing the waves away! Those with their sea legs carried on and continued preparations in their various laboratories on the ship waiting for the science to start.

11/05/2015

"This mainly benthic focussed cruise is the third of four benthic cruises following on from DY008 in Spring 2014 and DY021 in March 2015. DY030 will include the use of a number of benthic lander systems, Autosub 3, gliders, benthic trawl equipment, benthic flumes, CTD water column sampling, Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) camera and various coring systems."

Gary Fones writes about the latest cruise in the Shelf-Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) programme.

06/05/2015

DY029, the best of luck for the DY030!

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