The Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory

A pilot Coastal Observatory has been established in Liverpool Bay which integrates (near) real-time measurements with coupled models and whose results are displayed on the web. The aim is to understand the functioning of coastal seas, their response to natural forcing and the consequences of human activity. The eastern Irish Sea is an apt test site, since it encompasses a comprehensive range of processes found in tidally dominated coastal seas, including near-shore physical and biogeochemical processes influenced by estuarine inflows, where both vertical and horizontal gradients are important. Applications include hypernutrification, since the region receives significantly elevated levels of nutrient inputs, shoreline management (coastal flooding and beach erosion/accretion), and understanding present conditions to predict the impact of climate change (for instance if the number and severity of storms, or of high or low river flows, change). The integrated measurement suite which started in August 2002 covers a range of space and time scales. It includes in situ time series, four to six weekly regional water column surveys, an instrumented ferry, a shore-based HF radar system measuring surface currents and waves, coastal tide gauges and visible and infra-red satellite data. The time series enable definition of the seasonal cycle, its inter-annual variability and provide a baseline from which the relative importance of events can be quantified. A suite of nested 3D hydrodynamic, wave and ecosystem models is run daily, focusing on the observatory area by covering the ocean/shelf of northwest Europe (at 12-km resolution) and the Irish Sea (at 1.8 km), and Liverpool Bay at the highest resolution of 200 m. The measurements test the models against events as they happen in a truly 3D context. All measurements and model outputs are displayed freely on the Coastal Observatory website (http://cobs.pol.ac.uk) for an audience of researchers, education, coastal managers and the publi

Modelling the phytoplankton dynamics in a nutrient-rich solar saltern pond: predicting the impact of restoration and climate change

International audienceAn ecological model for the solar saltern of Sfax (Tunisia) was established and validated by comparing simulation results to observed data relative to horizontal distributions of temperature, nutrients and phytoplankton biomass. Sensitivity analysis was performed in order to assess the influence of the main ecological model parameters. First applied at the saltern's pond A1, the model was calibrated with field data measured over 4 years of study (from 2000 to 2003), which allowed an evaluation of parameters such as maximum growth rate of phytoplankton, optimal growth temperature and constant of half saturation for P/N assimilation by phytoplankton. Simulation results showed that the model allowed us to predict realistic phytoplankton variations of the study area, though we were unable to accurately reproduce the nutrient variation. The model was then applied to simulations of the impact of changes in phytoplankton biomass through scenarios such as hypothetic climate changes and saltern restoration