Fact Sheet 3
Rapid Environmental Assessment
Background
The development and
implementation of policy and
management of the marine
environment requires knowledge
of the current status of the
ecosystem.
The OPEC Rapid Environmental Assessment (REA) uses data assimilation
to blend numerical models with observations to provide the best available
simulated data product. The OPEC REA demonstrates that coupled
oceanographic /marine ecology models can be operationalized in order to
interpolate and/extrapolate experimental observations to areas and time
periods not covered by existing observational networks.
Current marine monitoring
systems provide limited coverage
in space and time of ecosystem
properties. The aim of Rapid
Environmental Assessment (REA) is
to make available in near real time
the best available estimates of the
current state of the environment
to users.
In addition REA’s provide an indication of ecosystem properties which
cannot be measured in near real time (e.g. phytoplankton species) or
are difficult to observe (e.g. foodweb structure). Such estimates can
be updated in quasi-real time, by exploiting the causal relationships
which constrain the dynamic of those properties to those of measured
properties (e.g. a model which produce skilled assessment of nutrients and
chlorophyll is likely to produce reasonable estimates of primary production
and, possibly, of secondary production).
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OPEC has developed and
demonstrated this capability,
by providing information on the
key environmental indicators
for the recent past. The service
is aimed at supporting policy,
environmental management and
other downstream services.
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REA 1
REA 2
REA 3
The REAs consist of a series of model simulations, in a rolling hindcast
initiated every 3 months.
This approach has allowed the integration of operational observation
networks and operational ecological models to provide a valuable and
efficient method of adding value the monitoring of ecosystem properties.
Image: MJ Page
OPEC Project Office
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK
[email protected]
Project websites www.marineopec.eu | portal.marineopec.eu
European Project (283291) supported within DG SPACE for the Seventh Framework Programme for Cooperation
Using REAs in marine management
The OPEC REA data products have been produced for
the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and the
NE Atlantic. The data streams can be accessed from the
OPEC data portal (http://www.portal.marineopec.eu)
and include:
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Temperature
Salinity
Nutrients (nitrate, phosphours, silicate)
MLD
Oxygen
Primary Production
Chlorophyll
Plankton biomass
pH
These indicators have been chosen for their relevance to
the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, in particular,
biodiversity, foodwebs and eutrophication descriptors
of Good Environmental Status (GES). For example the
assessment of GES requires the definition of a baseline
reference for an indicator in order to quantify how the
ecosystem is changing. Figure 1 shows that the annual
mean chlorophyll in the Mediterranean was higher in
2012 that the average of the previous 10 years, implying
the system was more productive than average.
Rapid Environmental Assessment
Chlorophyll [mg m-3]
Total chl - Anomaly: REANLYSIS - REA01
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CLIM - REA01
-5
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LON
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-0.15 -0.12 -0.09 -0.06 -0.03 0.00 0.03 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.15
Figure 1. Chlorophyll anomalies for 2012, illustrating the difference
between the annual mean for 2012 and the climatology annual
mean for the years 2000-2010.
The potential of the REA to provide data coverage in
the absence of data is illustrated in figure 2. The data
coverage provided by ocean colour satellites is poor
during winter due to a combination of latitude and cloud
cover. By assimilating the satellite data into the model
we can extend the coverage to the whole region. In the
overlapping areas, model and satellite estimates agree
qualitatively in pointing out relatively high concentrations
along the British and Norwegian coasts and low
concentrations in the central and northern North Sea.
GlobColour data
Chlorophyll [mg m-3]
Summary
Figure 2. Chlorophyll distribution estimated from REA output (left) and
Globcolour data (right) on 28 February 2013 in the North East Atlantic.
Marine OPEC research has demonstrated a
capability to make a Rapid Environmental
Assessment of marine ecosystems in
European regional seas. The models
demonstrate skill for a range of indicators
including temperature, oxygen, nutrients and
chlorophyll. In combination with baseline
climatologies provided by the regional
hindcasts, they allow stakeholders to assess
whether the current state of the ecosystem
differs significantly from the long term mean.
This fact sheet was composed by the Icarus Allen ([email protected])
and the Modelling groups at PML and OGS.
Contact [email protected] for further details.
Fact sheets produced by OPEC’s Knowledge Exchange Team at Plymouth Marine Laboratory