2003 Habitat Maps derived from Grey Nurse Shark (GNS) Project of Wolf Rock, Double Island Point, Queensland, Australia

Surveying habitats critical to the survival of grey nurse sharks in South-East Queensland has mapped critical habitats, gathered species inventories and developed protocols for ecological monitoring of critical habitats in southern Queensland. This information has assisted stakeholders with habitat definition and effective management. In 2002 members of UniDive applied successfully for World Wide Fund for Nature, Threatened Species Network funds to map the critical Grey Nurse Shark Habitats in south east Queensland. UniDive members used the funding to survey, from the boats of local dive operators, Wolf Rock at Double Island Point, Gotham, Cherub's Cave, Henderson's Rock and China Wall at North Moreton and Flat Rock at Point Look Out during 2002 and 2003. These sites are situated along the south east Queensland coast and are known to be key Grey Nurse Shark aggregation sites. During the project UniDive members were trained in mapping and survey techniques that include identification of fish, invertebrates and substrate types. Training was conducted by experts from the University of Queensland (Centre of Marine Studies, Biophysical Remote Sensing) and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service who are also UniDive members. The monitoring methods (see methods) are based upon results of the UniDive Coastcare project from 2002, the international established Reef Check program and research conducted by Biophysical Remote Sensing and the Centre of Marine Studies. Habitats were mapped using a combination of towed GPS photo transects, aerial photography, bathymetry surveys and expert knowledge. This data provides georeferenced information regarding the major features of each of Sites mapped including Wolf Rock

Composition of soil samples from injection location

CO2 leakage from subsurface storage sites is one of the main concerns connected with the CCS technology. As CO2 leakages into near surface formations appear to be very unlikely within pilot CCS projects, the aim of this work is to emulate a leakage by injecting CO2 into a near surface aquifer. The two main questions pursued by the injection test are (1) to investigate the impact of CO2 on the hydrogeochemistry of the groundwater as a base for groundwater risk assessment and (2) to develop and apply monitoring methods and monitoring concepts for detecting CO2 leakages in shallow aquifers. The presented injection test is planned within the second half of 2010, as a joint project of the University of Kiel (Germany), the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig, Germany) and the Engineering Company GICON (Dresden, Germany). The test site has been investigated in detail using geophysical methods as well as direct-push soundings, groundwater well installation and soil and groundwater analyses. The present paper presents briefly the geological and hydrogeological conditions at the test site as well as the planned injection test design and monitoring concept.

(Table 4) Mesozoolpankton abundance and biomass and relative percentage of key zooplankton groups along the Bulgarian coast, Black Sea

Results of studies during Project of an international expedition onboard R/V Vladimir Parshin in September-October 2005 are presented. Intensive development of Bacillariophyceae and Dynophyceae was recorded in coastal waters of Bulgaria, Turkey, and in the Danube River delta during period of investigations. Increase in algae population was accompanied by rising of chlorophyll a concentration up to 2.0-5.5 µg/l. In the deep water region it did not exceed 0.5 µg/l. Phytoplankton growth rate in the surface water layer varied from 0.1 to 1.0 1/day. This parameter and NO2+NO3 concentration, as well as the silicon concentration were correlative, as was described by the Michaelis-Menten equation. Phytoplankton growth was affected by basic nutrients. Zooplankton grazing varied from 0.10 to 0.69 1/day and average values in different regions varied by 1.5 times. Microalgae size range is one of major factors of grazing regulation. Rate of phytoplankton consumption was decreasing with increasing the largest diatom Pseudosolenia calcar-avis impact on total biomass of nano- and microphytoplankton.

The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) Version 1.0

The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) Version 1.0 is a new digital bathymetric model (DBM) portraying the seafloor of the circum-Antarctic waters south of 60° S. IBCSO is a regional mapping project of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO). IBCSO Version 1.0 DBM has been compiled from all available bathymetric data collectively gathered by more than 30 institutions from 15 countries. These data include multibeam and single beam echo soundings, digitized depths from nautical charts, regional bathymetric gridded compilations, and predicted bathymetry. Specific gridding techniques were applied to compile the DBM from the bathymetric data of different origin, spatial distribution, resolution, and quality. The IBCSO Version 1.0 DBM has a resolution of 500 x 500 m, based on a polar stereographic projection, and is publicly available together with a digital chart for printing from the project website (http://www.ibcso.org) and from the two data sets shown at the bottom of this page.

Data compilation of ESOP

The work in this sub-project of ESOP focuses on the advective and convective transforma-tion of water masses in the Greenland Sea and its neighbouring areas. It includes observational work on the sub-mesoscale and analysis of hydrographic data up to the gyre-scale. Observations of active convective plumes were made with a towed chain equipped with up to 80 CTD sensors, giving a horizontal and vertical resolution of the hydrographic fields of a few metres. The observed scales of the penetrative convective plumes compare well with those given by theory. On the mesoscale the structure of homogeneous eddies formed as a result of deep convection was observed and the associated mixing and renewal of the intermediate layers quantified. The relative importance and efficiency of thermal and haline penetrative convection in relation to the surface boundary conditions (heat and salt fluxes and ice cover) and the ambient stratification are studied using the multi year time series of hydro-graphic data in the central Greenland Sea. The modification of the water column of the Greenland Sea gyre through advection from and mixing with water at its rim is assessed on longer time scales. The relative contributions are quantified using modern water mass analysis methods based on inverse techniques. Likewise the convective renewal and the spreading of the Arctic Intermediate Water from its formation area is quantified. The aim is to budget the heat and salt content of the water column, in particular of the low salinity surface layer, and to relate its seasonal and interannual variability to the lateral fluxes and the fluxes at the air-sea-ice interface. This will allow to estimate residence times for the different layers of the Greenland Sea gyre, a quantity important for the description of the Polar Ocean carbon cycle.

Historical sea ice of the Baltic Sea (1960/61-78/79)

The Baltic Sea is a seasonally ice-covered, marginal sea in central northern Europe. It is an essential waterway connecting highly industrialised countries. Because ship traffic is intermittently hindered by sea ice, the local weather services have been monitoring sea ice conditions for decades. In the present study we revisit a historical monitoring data set, covering the winters 1960/1961 to 1978/1979. This data set, dubbed Data Bank for Baltic Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperatures (BASIS) ice, is based on hand-drawn maps that were collected and then digitised in 1981 in a joint project of the Finnish Institute of Marine Research (today the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)) and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI). BASIS ice was designed for storage on punch cards and all ice information is encoded by five digits. This makes the data hard to access. Here we present a post-processed product based on the original five-digit code. Specifically, we convert to standard ice quantities (including information on ice types), which we distribute in the current and free Network Common Data Format (NetCDF). Our post-processed data set will help to assess numerical ice models and provide easy-to-access unique historical reference material for sea ice in the Baltic Sea. In addition we provide statistics showcasing the data quality. The website http://www.baltic-ocean.org hosts the post-processed data and the conversion code.