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Abstract. Climate change has driven the European Union to propose a reduction in carbon emissions by increasing renewable energy production. Although Ireland is rich in renewable energy, especially offshore wind resources, it is failing to reduce its annual carbon emissions. This study endeavours to improve Ireland's marine spatial planning abilities and offshore renewable energy developments by harmonising and customising a unique geological dataset for incorporation into geospatial assessments of Ireland's continental shelf. A dataset of 1858 points, including 17 new seabed samples collected at strategic sites for this study, is created and used to build a series of geospatial outputs. Data are interpolated with empirical Bayesian kriging to use variogram analyses for probabilistically interpolating coded geological values. The interpolation results are validated through leave-one-out cross-validation and combined with bespoke models of bathymetry and seabed slope using map algebra. The final model reveals areas of relative probable seabed stability based on geological and geomorphological characteristics and is shown to comport with known conditions in several locations. Results suggest that the methods and results presented here could provide useful information to future planning activities and initial site selection assessments.

The “Little MonSta” benthic lander array consists of 8 ROV-deployable (remotely operated vehicle) instrumented lander platforms for monitoring physical and chemical oceanographic properties and particle sampling developed as part of the MMMonKey_Pro program (mapping, modeling, and monitoring key processes and controls in cold-water coral habitats in submarine canyons). The Little MonStas offer flexible solutions to meet the need to monitor marine benthic environments during a historically unprecedented time of climate-driven oceanic change, develop an understanding of meso-scale benthic processes (natural and man-made), and to calibrate geological environmental archives. Equipped with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), sediment traps, nylon settlement plates and homing beacons, the compact and upgradable lander platforms can be deployed by ROVs to precise locations in extreme terrains to a water depth of 3000 m. The array allows cluster-monitoring in heterogeneous environments or simultaneous monitoring over wider areas. A proof-of-concept case study was presented from the cold-water coral habitable zone in the upper Porcupine Bank Canyon, where the Little MonStas collected 868.8 h of current speed, direction, temperature, and benthic particulate flux records, as well as 192 particle samples subsequently analyzed for particular organic carbon (POC), lithic sediment, live foraminifera, and microplastics. The potential to upgrade the Little MonStas with additional sensors and acoustic releases offers greater and more flexible operational capabilities.