NSW-IMOS Node 2012-20137th Annual planning meeting, Sydney

University of Technology, SydneyUniversity of New South Wales

Dr Martina DoblinDr Moninya Roughan

IMOS is an initiative of the Australian Government being conducted as part of the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy

NSW node: oceanographic context

1 d 18 h 23 min 12 s

Infrastructure

Regional Focus on the shelf.– Coffs Harbour– Sydney– Batemans Bay

Data contributors and users

• Node > 110 Members• Postdocs (>15, 3 funded by NSW SLF)• Students (> 30Phd)• IMOS Technical Staff (> 6)• ARC Projects – across many facilities• Regular Node meetings (2 annually) and several eMII workshops.• Involvement in Bio-optics Working Group / Moorings QC team / and

international endeavours• Increasing outputs in top journals as well as regular public seminars

and outreach• Large number of partners who provide cash and in-kind support

Node Science and Implementation Plan

NSW node Science and Implementation Plan achievements in 2012/13

1. To contribute to national observations of decadal changes and climate variability of Australia’s boundary currents using common platforms and metrics;

2. To investigate the EAC, its separation from the coast, and the resultant eddy field along the coast of SE Australia;

3. To quantify oceanographic processes on the continental shelf of SE Australia;

4. To determine the biological response to oceanographic processes and climatic effects.

1. Decadal changes and climate variability of the EAC

• SEQ shelf array to quantify EAC transport –data needed for model assessment

Goodwin – paleoproxies of the EAC

Sun et al. (2012)Marine Downscaling of a Future Climate Scenario for Australian Boundary Currents. J. Climate 25: 2947

Climate variability East Coast Lows (ECL)

• Eastern Seaboard Climate Change Initiative (ESCCI).• Instigated by SIMS, now partnership between BOM and

NSW OEH. Funded by Environmental Trust• Developed Climate Hazard Tool – Identifies significant

rainfall/wind/wave/water-level events and relates ECL tracks.

www.reg.bom.gov.au/climate/reg/escci/matches.shtmlEntire Session at AMOS 2012 dedicated to ECLs.

AMOS 2012 Special Session

2. EAC separation and eddies

Everett et al. submitted

• 16-year analysis of Tasman Sea eddies

• Identified a region (‘Eddy Avenue’) where eddies have higher sea level anomalies, faster rotation.

• The frequency of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies within Eddy Avenue is 23% and 16% higher respectively than the broader Tasman Sea.

• Eddy Avenue eddies have more strongly differentiated biological properties

• Cyclonic eddies within Eddy Avenue have almost double the chlorophyll a (0.35 mg m-3) of anticyclonic eddies (0.18 mg m-3).

3. Oceanographic processes on the continental shelf of SE Australia

Development of a satellite index to assess the transient occurrenceof wind-driven up/downwelling and current-driven upwelling events,calibrated using in situ data including NSW-IMOS mooringsRossi et al., Seasonality of physical processes driving temperature and nutrient variability in the coastal ocean: a multi-sensor approach over the southeast Australian continental shelf.in prep for JGR

Mean number of wind-drivenupwelling days per month:

3 latitudinal regimes, with themaximum occurrence ofupwellings between 28-33.5oSwith a mean of 7-10 days ofupwellings per months in Spring.Further South, maximum inSummer (max 5 days/month).

Influence of the wind stress on the seasonality of the EAC intrusionsonto the shelf, from NSW-IMOS mooringsWood et al., in prep for JGR

Characterization / comparison of the cross-shelf dynamics inresponse to upwelling-favorable wind stress or EAC intrusions, from2 years of NSW-IMOS mooring data.

The EAC encroachment drives an onshore bottom flow, uplifting cold slope water.

The bottom onshore velocity and temperature gradient are linearly dependent on EAC intensity, with a similar behavior at Coffs Harbour and Sydney moorings .Schaeffer et al.,

Cross-shelf dynamics in a Western Boundary Current regime: Implications for upwelling.accepted in JPO.

Unprecedented observationshave allowed this discovery

Identification of slope water uplift from glider data and characterization of its properties and origin.

Slope water

EAC

Nemo13: Unit 2394-25 Sept. 2012

4. Biological response to oceanographic processes and climatic effects

scienceblogs.com

• Spatial and temporal analysis of surface Chl. ausing: 1) a hydrodynamic model (BRAN), 2) a wind-reanalysis product and 3) an eddy-census.

• North: more sporadic increases in surface Chl-a

• South: Chl. a was driven by a strong seasonal cycle, with phytoplankton biomass increasing up to 219 % annually each spring.

• The Stockton Bight region contained a persistently higher proportion of total shelf Chl. a biomass

Everett et al, submittedProgr. Oceanography

• Different processes have a dominant effect north and south of where the EAC separates from the coast ( 32◦ S).

• In the north, positive Chl. a anomalies occurred 43 % of the time when wind and currents were upwelling-favourable, and 17 % of the time when both were downwelling-favourable.

• The patterns of phytoplankton biomass observed here provide a proxy for determining prey fields for higher organisms

Everett et al, submittedProgr. Oceanography

NSW-IMOS: CPR and NRS plankton

Port Hacking: Calcifiers and acidification

Habitat-forming macroalgae

- Kelp cover increases with latitude/cooler temperatures- East coast has less kelp than west coast at similar latitude- Most variability at smallest (m - 100 m) and largest (100s km) spatial scales

Marzinelli et al. in prep.

Sal

Temp

CDOM

Chl.

Variability in the relationships between physical factors and kelp cover changes with depth

Fish tracking• 73 AATAMS receiver stations• 614 other receiver stations within

network– Short- and long-term projects– DPI and Marine Parks, UNSW,

UTS, NMSC

• CEFT (Coastal and Estuarine Fish Tracking)

• Marine Parks • National Marine Science Centre• SEACAMS• DPI Whaler Sharks• Freshwater (riverine arrays)

Current Coverage in NSW

• Curtains (cross-shelf)– Along-shelf movements

• Coastal arrays– Aggregation sites (SEACAMS)– Along-shelf movements

• Estuarine arrays– Along-estuary/river movements (5)

• Estuarine gates– Inter-estuarine movements

• Fisheries enhancements• VPS arrays

Tag deployments

• Between 1200-1400 transmitters deployed since 2003

• Spread across several trophic levels

• Migratory species– Grey-nurse shark– Great white shark– Kingfish (1000s)– Bull shark (100 s)– Dolphinfish (100 s)– Luderick (10s)– Rays (various species)

Tag deployments• Less-migratory species (but

important exploited species)– Mulloway– Flathead– Drummer– Whiting– Bream– Mullet

• Many many tags still need tobe added to database

Example of tag detections –kingfish and dolphinfish

Example data courtesy of S. Brodie and I. Suthers(UNSW), M. Taylor and C. Gray (NSW DPI)

Acoustic detection of top predators

Summary of science achievements

• Fully operational in 2012with use of data from allobservation platforms

• Now starting to see alarge increase in ourunderstanding of thesystem (albeit at relativelyshort time scales)

Other achievements

• Increase in NSW government support through the Research Attraction and Acceleration Program (RAAP)

• Attracted ARC LIEF grants headed up by Stefan Williams and Martina Doblin (~$1.5 M)

• Capstone subject in the SIMS MSc Marine Science and Management (based on IMOS data) received excellent feedback from students - two-fold increase in class size for 2013 (>40)

• The Port Hacking 50 m coastal station turned 70, with 100 m station to turn 60 in 2013

• Good media coverage:e.g. Sarah Clark ABC: featured Tim Ingleton at Port Hacking

Collaborative activities involving IMOS

• Federal partnership: NERP ProjectSolitary Islands Shelf Rocky Reef KEF (Key Ecological Feature)Marine biodiversity Hub - Rocky reef KEF. Collaboration involving UTAS,CSIRO, MPA, OEH, USyd, SIMS. (UTS, UNSW)

• Utilising IMOS facilities centred around Coffs Harbour (AUV, moorings, remote sensing, radar, gliders) to examine environmental drivers of distributions of rocky reef communities in NSW.

Collaborative activities involving IMOS

• University partnership: Port Hacking time-seriesMany research projectsvalue-adding to the IMOSdata streams

Jeffries & Seymour, UTS

Ajani & Armand, MacU

Major initiatives planned for 2013/14

• Data uptake into models – NSW node will play a leading role in interfacing with biogeochemical modellers to enhance pathways between observations and model parameters

• Integration – across different observation types has been successful; next challenge is to go across trophic levels and understand ecosystem response

Focus of the next node meeting in May 2013

IMPROVED OCEAN COLOUR DATA PRODUCTS WILL BE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE VIA IMOS – April 2013

Major Initiatives 2013-2014

• Improving accuracy of satellite data – For use in Marine Environmental Reporting: Currently modelling the linear inversion algorithms using availableradiometer and in situ optical data.

• The entire MODIS Aqua archive for NSW has been reprocessed using NASA 2012 calibrations and a Neural Network Atmospheric Correction Algorithm (Schroeder)

• CDOM absorption properties of EAC waters diverge from expected values for other clear waters

New opportunities that could be pursued

• Oceanographic and climate processes and their interaction with human uses of the coastal zone, particularly as it relates to infrastructure

critical research need all around Australia

SIMS well placed to do this:Partnership between IMOS and SHRP

Other partners: Finance and industry sectorsState government

Impediments to uptake and use

• Ocean colour - no climatologies (long-term/monthly/seasonal/yearly) as yet. Doesn’t enable anomaly analysis – hopefully when the processing of the entire back catalogue of MODIS data is complete, this will become available

• Animal tracking database fully transferred to IMOS and accessible

• Under CRIS, decreased number of observations, particularly in southern NSW

Future outlook: July 2013 – June 2014

AUV ANMN AATAMS (acoustic only)

CRIS 50% decrease in support for NSW deployments

50% decrease in salary andoperating support

50% decrease in capital

Existing cash co-investment

Ship-time and salary support maintained

Second AUV (ARC LIEF)

Salary support Operational support

In-kind co-investment

Salaries for data analysis + management

Data provision,NRS sampling maintained

Batemans Bay line maintained

New co-investment(NSW RAAP)

0.66 FTE+ ship time

0.66 FTE+ ship time

0.66 FTE+ ship time

AUV ANMNshelf moorings

AATAMS

50% decrease in visits but may be ok with support from partners

maintainPH time series, Syd + Bondi; lose other moorings and sensors; staff decline

maintaincomms + data but loss of capacity to fix problems;more efficient servicing

SRS Other moorings

Gliders CPR Deepmoorings

Radar

reduced Ocean Current, other products maintain

passive acoustic mooring until June2013

decrease in missions

Bris-SydSyd-Melbretained

EAC deep array until Dec 2013

retainedbut limited capacity to fix problems

Implications for NSW node

• Retain most of the capacity of the facilities but some science will be lost from mid 2013 to 2014

Some gains…

• Masters program will train more potential users of IMOS data

• And we’ll have a new ship!

Thank you!Industry Partners

NSW Office of Environment and HeritageInnovation and Industry (Fisheries) ,DSTA ( MHL), Sydney Water Corp, Oceanographic Field Services, NSW Office Science Medical Research,DSTO, Defence Maritime Services

SIMS Director and staffUNSW, UTS, USYD, MacqU, NSW IMOS leadership team Hardworking Node membersIMOS Office Staff

CPRacoustic mooring

Port Stephens

BatemansBay

AUV