NERC and NOC are at the forefront of the development of innovative methods to improve observations in the oceans using robotic systems such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. These robots have allowed scientists to gain important insights to the distribution of life in different marine habitats in unprecedented detail and understand more about the processes that explain where the animals are found. Marine habitats are under increasing pressure from many different human impacts; e.g. fishing, pollution and mineral resource extraction but NERC's research developing innovative monitoring methods has the potential to help industry to improve environmental data collection and monitoring to mitigate environmental impacts. In this Innovation Partnership project we propose to work with the hydrocarbon company Hurricane Energy Plc. We will spend four months working in the company to explore the use of the latest marine robots and other autonomous systems developed by NERC and NOC as well as commercially available systems to improve the quality of information acquired from environmental surveys. The objective is to exchange knowledge with Hurricane to help increase the quality and efficiency of these surveys. There will be a phase of the project in which we work directly with Hurricane Energy's environmental manager to determine their requirements. This will be followed by a phase in which we propose a series of options based on different types of technology to address their environmental data collection challenges. These will be compared with conventional methods of environmental data collection to enable Hurricane to make informed choices and will include liaison with the industry regulators. The project draws on experience working with industry to incorporate MAS into routine operations and emergency response to oil spills (NE/P013228/1) and environmental monitoring of decommissioned oil and gas infrastructure (NE/P016561/1). It will also make use of real-world experience from scientific AUV and fixed-point observatory use; in particular on the NOC's development of pioneering methods to assess spatial ecology of benthic habitats e.g. NERC AESA project NE/H021787/1 and time-series monitoring of the Haig Fras Marine Protected Area, surveys of Rockall Bank and long-term monitoring at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain through the NERC Sustained Observing Programme. It also gains from NOC's existing collaborative project with Hurricane Energy through their participation in the NOC led SERPENT Project (use of industry remotely operated vehicles during stand-by time for scientific study). This work is particularly relevant and timely as Hurricane Energy develop the Greater Lancaster Area and will begin explooration of the Greater Warwick Area, West of Shetland, UK.

Estuaries are more than simply an area of mud and marsh that represents the transition zone between rivers and the ocean. They play a vital role in our economy as sites of leisure and commercial activities, such as fishing and boating. In addition, they are important nursery grounds for many species of economically important fish that later migrate to the open sea. As approximately 40% of the world's population live within 100 km of the coast, estuaries are also some of the most vulnerable sites for impact from man's activities. Not only can they suffer from activities occurring within the estuary itself, but they also mark the point where pollutants gathered by rivers from large areas of the interior can accumulate. One of the major pollution concerns in estuaries arises from the excess river borne concentrations of phosphate and nitrate. These can be derived from a variety of sources, such as run off from fertilised fields and discharge (accidental or purposeful) from sewage treatment plants, but regardless of their source they can cause severe problems, such as stimulating the growth of excess algal growth that can deplete the water in oxygen and causing widespread fish kills, or causing the growth of poisonous algal species (red tides) that cause shell fish fisheries to be closed.. Although this problem has been recognised for some time, and monitoring activities by bodies such as the Environment Agency and water companies play an important role in keeping pollution in check, there are still major gaps in our knowledge. In particular, it is apparent that a large proportion of the flux of nitrate and phosphate are delivered to estuaries by sudden storm events, but most monitoring takes place at fixed times that are spaced too far apart to capture these events. This is a major gap in our knowledge that will become more important as the intensity and frequency of storms are likely to increase due to climate change. Additionally, the phosphate and nitrate load of rivers can take many forms - dissolved and particulate, organic and inorganic - and relatively little is known about the concentrations of these different forms varies throughout the seasons and during storm events. Only if we are able to fully understand these processes will we be able to take the necessary steps to identify and control polluting sources of nitrate and phosphate to estuaries. Our research seeks to address this gap in our knowledge by carrying out detailed monitoring of the many forms of phosphate and nitrate that enter Christchurch Harbour estuary (Dorset) from both the rivers and the sea over the course of a year. We will be using state-of-the-art technology (much of it developed by ourselves) that will allow us to monitor they key parameters at intervals of every 30 minutes. Hence, we will be able to capture the effects of sudden and short-lived storms that have eluded previous studies and routine monitoring practices. We will then use the results of our study to carry examine how these sudden storm events affect the distribution of phosphate and nitrate within the estuary. In particular, we will examine what happens when sediments are stirred up in the estuary by storms - do they remove or add phosphate and nitrate to the system? We will also examine the effects of these sudden storms on the biological activity in the estuary. Again, do they increase or decrease the growth of algae, and what is the difference if the storm happens in the summer or the winter? The various threads of our study will be drawn together into a powerful statistical model that will allow us to better understand the transfer of phosphate and nitrate from rivers, through estuaries and into the coastal seas, and the role that storms play in this process. Our results will then allow policy makers to make more informed decisions about how we can seek to reduce pollution of estuaries by nitrate and phosphate.

Look at a map of the world and find the Shetland Islands. Follow the 60 degrees north latitude circle eastwards. You pass through St. Petersburg, the Ural Mountains, Siberia, the Bering Sea, Alaska, northern Canada, the southern tip of Greenland, then back to the Shetlands. All these places are cold, harsh environments, particularly in winter, except the Shetlands, which is wet and windy but quite mild all year. This is because in the UK we benefit from heat brought northwards by the Atlantic Ocean in a current called the Conveyor Belt. This current is driven by surface water being made to sink by the extreme cold in and around the Arctic. It returns southwards through the Atlantic at great depths. Scientists think it is possible that the Conveyor Belt could slow down or stop, and if it did, the UK would get much colder. We know the planet has been warming for the last century or more, and we think this is due to the Greenhouse Effect. Burning fossil fuels puts a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which stops heat from leaving the Earth, like the glass in a greenhouse. In a warming world, ice melts faster, and there is a lot of ice on the Earth: ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica, sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, glaciers in high mountains. This causes extra amounts of fresh water to flow into the oceans. Now this fresh water can affect the Conveyor Belt by acting like a lid of water too light to sink, so the Conveyor Belt stops. What is the chance of this happening? We do not know, because there is much we do not understand about how the Arctic Ocean works. You need a powerful icebreaker to get into the Arctic Ocean, and that's only really possible in the summer, because in winter the sea ice thickens and the weather is bad. Scientists all over the world agree that the Arctic Ocean is important because it contains a lot of freshwater, which is why, although it is difficult to make measurements in the Arctic, they have decided to join their efforts during the International Polar Year. Fresh water in the Arctic Ocean is either (nearly) pure fresh water in the form of sea ice, or as diluted sea water in the top 200 metres (roughly) of the ocean. The sea water in the Arctic is diluted because many large rivers flow into it. In Russia, the three largest are the Yenisei, the Lena and the Ob; in Alaska, the MacKenzie; and there are many smaller rivers. Fresh water arrives in the Arctic Ocean from other sources as well: more diluted sea water flows through the Bering Strait, between Russia and Alaska; in summer, ice caps melt a little and some of the melt water runs into the ocean; some of the sea ice melts straight into the ocean; and (of course) it snows. We plan to conduct a set of measurements around the Arctic Ocean, with help from many international partners. We want to know how much fresh water is in the Arctic Ocean now. We will use an ice breaker to enter the Arctic Ocean and will make measurements of water properties. We will also deploy instruments onto the ice cover that will provide data once we've gone and will analyse satellite imagery. All of this data will help us understand the current state of the Arctic Ocean and we will use mathematical models of the ocean, ice cover, and atmosphere to predict conditions before, during, and after the cruise. By measuring small quantities of chemicals dissolved in the ocean waters, we can work out where the ocean water came from. We want to know how this fresh water might travel from the Arctic Ocean southwards into the Atlantic. What route might it take? How does the ocean respond to the atmosphere, to river flows and to sea ice? We aim to answer these questions so that other scientists who try to forecast the Earth's climate in the coming years and decades will know how to represent the Arctic Ocean in their forecast models. And with good forecasts, we can plan for the future.

We propose to develop and trial a novel high performance fluorescence lifetime based technology for sensing of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the marine atmosphere and surface ocean. The technology promises a significant step in scientific capability in climate research, similar if not greater than that enabled by the advent of robust and accurate oxygen sensors based on fluorescence lifetime indicators. CO2 is the main vector for global warming and ocean acidification. Since the industrial revolution, ca. 30% of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been taken up by the oceans. The continued ability of the oceans to act as a sink is of critical importance for future trends in atmospheric CO2, climate and ocean acidification. Crucially, CO2 data from the surface zone immediately above and below the air-sea interface, is of scientific interest for flux studies. Such studies enable estimation of current transfer rates of CO2 between the atmosphere and the oceans. There is evidence that the driving force behind the air-sea flux of CO2 is decreasing and that this is partly responsible for the acceleration of atmospheric CO2 concentration annual growth rate. The overall aim of this PhD project is to develop the next generation of marine in situ pCO2 sensors that will utilise fluorescence life-time technology, using advanced dual lifetime referenced indicators and optical interrogation techniques employing high frequency photon counting and fluorescence decay curve fitting. The sensor will use the acidic character of CO2 to determine CO2-dependent change of pH inside a commercially available (Presens GmbH) indicator material. The sensors are built from a pH sensitive fluorescence indicator, a CO2 sensitive buffer, a CO2 insensitive reference indicator and a supporting gas-permeable (but ion impermeable) membrane matrix. The objectives of the PhD project are to 1) optimise the fluorescence interrogation approach, 2) determine precision/accuracy of sensor, 3) determine temperature and salinity dependency of sensor, 4) develop temperature compensation algorithm, 5) package sensor in miniaturised housing, 6) trial the CO2 sensor on coastal/oceanic voyages. This study will provide an important contribution to UK research on marine sensor development, air-sea exchange of CO2, ocean acidification, marine biogeochemistry, and the proposed research will strengthen our international position in climate change research. The PhD student will utilise the established laboratories for Marine Microsystem technology at NOCS and the UK Ocean Acidification Carbonate Chemistry Facilities (set-up using NERC and EPSRC Capital Grants), and therefore will work in excellent analytical facilities. The PhD student will receive an excellent hands-on training in analytical chemistry, sensor development, carbonate chemistry and marine biogeochemistry, and will undertake appropriate courses in analytical chemistry and marine biogeochemistry. The Centre for Marine Microsystems at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton [NOCS] combines skills and scientific resources from across the University of Southampton with the Natural Environment Research Council sensor section at NOCS to provide an internationally known research group working at the leading edge of marine sensor technology [see www.soton.ac.uk/rmst]. This large group with interests extending from micro fluidics and micromechanical expertise to studies on biofouling, provides an excellent environment for the training of a research student in the proposed area. Several marine in situ sensors from the group are already at technology readiness levels 4-6, and additional chemical analytical and biogeochemical skills are provided through the PI Achterberg for the proposed project. The research team will facilitate NERC funded leading technology to be developed by the PhD student to answer crucial environmental questions, in addition to key skills training.

This project relates to the priority topic in SOFI theme 1, 'Climate, ..', 'Parametrisation of detailed sea ice physics to be suitable for ocean GCMs (studentship; WP 1.8 also WP 9.1-9.4).' Rapid changes have been observed in the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean, with record summer lows of sea ice extent in 2005 and 2007. Accurate predictions of the future sea ice cover require adequate representations of physical processes. This project will address uncertainty in the representation of winter sea ice formation in Global Climate Models (GCMs). The winter sea ice cover of the polar oceans insulates the ocean from the atmosphere, so that conductive heat losses to the atmosphere are reduced from 100-200 Wm-2 to 5-10 Wm-2. Open water regions arise due to mechanical formation of leads, which are long, narrow cracks in the ice cover; and wind blowing ice away from a coast/land-fast ice boundary to form coastal polynyas. During winter, the open water in leads and coastal polynyas is exposed to typical air temperatures of -40oC and quickly becomes supercooled, i.e. its temperature is lowered to below the freezing point of sea ice water. Rapid formation of frazil ice, millimetre-sized, disc-shaped ice crystals, quenchs the supercooling through the release of latent heat. Heat loss through leads and polynyas is rapid (e.g. 1000 Wm-2) and they are sources of new sea ice and salt, released into the ocean as the ice forms. While leads occupy only 1-2% of the area of the sea ice cover in winter, they contribute approximately half of the heat loss into the atmosphere from the ocean. Adequately accounting for the heat loss/salt rejection in leads and polynyas has a leading order impact on predictions of ice thickness, extent and deep water formation. The aim of this Ph.D. project is to develop a new model of the production of frazil ice crystals suitable for the sea ice/ocean component of a GCM. This will be done by building upon the frazil dynamics model of Holland and Feltham [2005], which was developed to describe the production and precipitation of frazil crystals in the ocean cavity beneath an ice shelf. This frazil model accounts for advection and turbulent diffusion, with the population dynamics encapsulated in size-class interaction terms. Inter-class transfers occur by frazil growth, melting and secondary nucleation. Growth and melting result in salt release/dilution. The frazil model contains a prescription for precipitation of frazil crystals to an upper surface based on the local level of turbulence and the frazil buoyancy. The precipitation model depends upon a Richardson number, modified to take account of the variable effective molecular viscosity of the frazil-water mixture, evaluated at the centre of the bursting layer next to the surface. The student will adapt the frazil dynamics model to the situation of frazil ice formation within open water regions in a sea ice cover, which will involve an examination of fundamental model assumptions. This model will be built and tested in stages, using laboratory and field studies. The frazil model will be coupled to a vertical ocean mixing model with an imposed horizontal advection and compared with estimates of the ocean-air heat flux measured over leads and polynyas. Frazil ice production, heat loss, and salt release rates will be calculated and related to GCM variables, e.g. sea surface temperature, and air temperature, in order to determine a parameterisation for sea ice and ocean models. The POL Arctic shelf seas model will be used to test the frazil model. The project is in the context of a coherent programme at CPOM and POL, which provide a climate of excellence in research, and will benefit from weekly meetings with expert supervisors. UCL provides a programme of transferrable skills, monitoring and assessment. Holland, PR & DL Feltham, Frazil dynamics and precipitation in a water column with depth-dependent supercooling, J. Fluid Mech., 530, 2005.