European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory

European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO) is a large-scale European distributed Research Infrastructure[1] (RI) for ocean observation, enabling real-time interactive long term monitoring of ocean processes. EMSO allows study of the interaction between the geosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere; including natural hazards, climate change, and marine ecosystems. EMSO nodes have been deployed at key sites in European seas, starting from the Arctic, through the Atlantic and Mediterranean, to the Black Sea.

European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO)
EMSO Logo
Involved countries
HeadquartersRome, Italy
Membership
13 involved countries
Websitehttp://www.emso-eu.org

Overview

EMSO is one of the environmental RIs [2] on the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). The ESRFI Roadmap identifies RIs of pan-European importance that correspond to the long term needs of European research communities.

EMSO Sites Map

The different EMSO nodes were designed to address topics of regional importance: the biodiversity of mid ocean hot vents in the Azores region, the rapidly changing environmental conditions affecting the geosphere and biosphere of the Arctic, the deep-water ventilation in the eastern Mediterranean, the active seismicity and the associated geo-hazards of the Anatolian region.[3] EMSO infrastructure has the capacity to observe the deep and open ocean, below, at and above the seafloor, at the European scale, utilizing both stand-alone observing systems, and nodes connected to shore stations through high throughput fibre optic cable.[4] The mission of EMSO is to unite these regional observatories into a common research infrastructure, to implement more generic sensor packages to collect synoptic data series on oceanographic features of more than regional interest, to bring these data together in a uniform format accessible to the general public, and to ensure maintenance of this research infrastructure over a longer time-span than easily maintained by national funding programs.[5]

Ocean observatories

The global oceans cover 70% of the surface of the globe, consist of 95% of the living space, and are the core momentum of our planet’s physical, chemical, and biological cycles. As underlined in recent policy documents such as the Galway Statement [6] and Belmont Challenge[7], in order to understand the changes predicted in the coming decades, EMSO aims to have a continuous presence in the oceans; and in order to understand both the slow moving and rapid catastrophes, EMSO seeks to have continuous real-time data from which to learn and to derive adaptation and early warning systems. Ocean observatories provide power and communications to allow a sustained interactive presence in the ocean. This challenge can only be addressed as part of an international cooperation between USA,[8] Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe and other interested countries where EMSO takes a role for the European side.

Major science themes

The deployment of the EMSO distributed observatory nodes allows researchers to get useful data in order to understand the behaviour of the oceans and their impact on human society. In particular EMSO collects data concerning the following main scientific fields:[9]

  • Geosciences: gas hydrate stability, seabed fluid flows, sub-marine landslides, geo-hazard early warning, mid-ocean ridge volcanism.
  • Physical Oceanography: ocean warming, deep-ocean circulation, benthic and water-column interactions.
  • Biogeochemistry: ocean acidification and the solubility pump, the biological pump, hypoxia, continental shelf exchange, deep-ocean biogeochemical fluxes.
  • Marine Ecology: climate forcing of ecosystems, molecules to microbes, fisheries, marine noise, deep biosphere, chemosynthetic ecology.

EMSO-ERIC

The Preparatory Phase of EMSO was funded by the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), involving 12 countries of the European area (Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Greece, UK, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, the Netherlands), and Romania, that was involved as external interested country from 2010. The Preparatory Phase prepared the foundation for the adoption of the ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium), that will be the legal entity in charge of coordinating and facilitating access to these nodes of open ocean fixed point observatory distributed infrastructure.

The EMSO-ERIC will be the central point of contact for observatory initiatives in other parts of the world to set up and promote cooperation in this field. EMSO-ERIC will also integrate research, training, and information dissemination activities for ocean observatory nodes in Europe and to enable scientists and other stakeholders to make efficient use of the EMSO distributed infrastructure around Europe.

EMSO Partners

References
  1. "This page is the home page of the RI website - Research Infrastructures - Research - European Commission". Ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  2. Paolo Favali, and Laura Beranzoli. "EMSO: European multidisciplinary seafloor observatory." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 602.1 (2009): 21-27.
  3. Exploring the last great frontier, Projects Magazine, Issue 10, p. 79-81
  4. Favali, P., Beranzoli, L., D’Anna, G., Gasparoni, F., Marvaldi, J., Clauss, G., Gerber, H.W., Nicot, M., Marani, M.P., Gamberi, F., Millot, C., Flueh, E.R., 2006a. A fleet of multiparameter observatories for geophysical and environmental monitoring at seafloor. Annals of Geophysics 49, 659–680
  5. "Understanding the mysteries of the oceans". Projects Magazine. pp. 79–84. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  6. "Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation" (PDF). Ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  7. "Challenge". Igfagcr.org. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  8. "Coopeus". Coopeus.eu. Retrieved 2014-02-14.
  9. Ruhl, Henry A., et al. "Societal need for improved understanding of climate change, anthropogenic impacts, and geo-hazard warning drive development of ocean observatories in European Seas." Progress in Oceanography 91.1 (2011): 1-33.
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