EMSO: European multidisciplinary seafloor observatory

Macrofouling of deep-sea instrumentation after three years at 3690m depth in the Charlie Gibbs fracture zone, mid-Atlantic ridge, with emphasis on hydroids (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa)

“…The significance of such macrofouling is perhaps most critical to the long-term cabled observatory community, who in the near future plan to place substantial scientific instrumentation platforms in the deep sea for extended periods of time (Priede et al, 2005;Katz, 2006;Barnes et al, 2008;Favali and Beranzoli, 2009;Ruhl et al, 2011). The danger of introducing such equipment into areas where macrofouling occurs is the potential elevated biological activity associated with artificial reefs as well the potential to obscure optical sensors such as camera or photomultipliers.…”

Societal need for improved understanding of climate change, anthropogenic impacts, and geo-hazard warning drive development of ocean observatories in European Seas

“…Here we outline major international science priorities in the four interconnected fields of geoscience, physical oceanography, biogeochemistry, and marine ecology, which will be advanced through observatory science. Efforts to outline relevant science objectives and design requirements have included the European Seafloor Observatory NETwork Concerted Action (ESONET CA; Priede et al 2005), ESONET Network Implementation Model (ESONIM), the Deep-Sea Frontier initiative (European Commission 2007), European Seas Observatory NETwork Network of Excellence (ESONET NoE), EuroSITES, and European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (EMSO) Preparatory Phase (Favali and Beranzoli, 2009), and the outputs of several other national and international ocean science projects and programmes (Table 1). These activities have been organising science requirement, logistical, fiscal, and legal aspects of building and operating dispersed ocean observatory networks.…”

A Study of the Remote Control for the East China Sea Seafloor Observation System

“…There is a particular need for observations with dedicated scientific instruments in the deep sea to record changes in a broad range of temporal and spatial scales and to monitor various extreme events, such as earthquakes and storms, which will be facilitated with an infrastructure that is able to provide continuous communication and power capabilities (Wang 2007). This is implemented with seafloor observation systems (Roy et al 2006), the construction of which marks a new phase in marine research and will promise major breakthroughs for geosciences (Favali and Beranzoli 2009).…”

“…Many projects and programs on seafloor observatories have been implemented or are in a planning stage at different locations, as, for instance, in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan, just to mention a few of the initiatives (Favali and Beranzoli 2006). In Canada the main efforts in this field are North East Pacific Time Series Underwater Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) and Victoria Experimental Network under the Sea (VENUS); NEPTUNE is by far the largest established seafloor observatory network used to study earthquakes and plate tectonics, marine processes and climate change, deep-sea ecosystems, and fluid flow in the seabed, and it employs stateof-the-art engineering and data management (Taylor 2009).…”