Spotlight on Science
Each month, an expert from the Marine Institute will shine a light on their area of work, sharing insights on our ocean knowledge. This month, Russell Poole, a senior fisheries biologist at the Fisheries Ecosystem Advisory Service, shares insights about Ireland’s ocean-climate observation network. As the national agency responsible for supporting the sustainable development of our marine resources, the Marine Institute delivers scientific knowledge, expert advice and services to government, industry and a wide range of stakeholders.
Tracking the pulse of Ireland’s coastal waters
If you live on the Irish coast, you don’t need to be reminded how much the ocean shapes our lives – from the weather that rolls in from the Atlantic to the communities that depend on a thriving ocean economy.
The ocean is a vast carbon sink and helps balance the global temperature. And it hosts most of Earth's life, from microscopic phytoplankton to giant whales. But as the global oceans warm, this balance is shifting. More moisture enters the atmosphere, altering weather patterns and increasing the intensity of storms, floods, and droughts, with far-reaching effects on the life and ecosystems we depend on.
To protect this delicate balance and to navigate the growing challenges of climate change, it is crucial to build a clear picture of Ireland’s coastal waters and understand the interconnections between oceanic and atmospheric processes. Through a network of sentinel, long-term monitoring stations along the West Coast, the Marine Institute is gathering vital data that will help shape marine climate policy in Ireland and beyond.
Three sentinel sites are currently in operation: Mace Head and Lehanagh Pool in Co. Galway and, recently, a state-of-the-art buoy at Lake Furnace in Co. Mayo. Together, these monitoring sites continuously measure an array of physical, chemical, and biological ocean indicators, from temperature, nutrients, and oxygen levels to changes in plankton activity, carbon content, and water movement.
This initiative is part of the Marine Knowledge Scheme, funded through the European Maritime, Aquaculture and Fisheries Fund (EMFAF) 2021–2027 and co-funded by the Government of Ireland. The Scheme, implemented by the Marine Institute, promotes the sharing of marine and climate data to strengthen sustainable ocean management.
Long-term monitoring is essential to understand how climate change is transforming our seas. It allows scientists to track sudden shifts and gradual trends, providing crucial evidence for climate action and marine policy, including the Climate Action Plan, the Common Fisheries Policy, the National Marine Planning Framework, and EU environmental directives on habitats, birds, and water.
The data collected by these sentinel sites is already making a global impact. For example, information from Ireland’s monitoring network has contributed to the first worldwide synthesis of the lake surface water temperatures, which revealed that lakes are warming faster than previously thought, increasing the number of toxic algal blooms with risks to human and environmental health.
Closer to home, sentinel data from Ireland’s coastal lagoons helped scientists study phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms that form the base of the food chain. These observations show how the timing and depth of phytoplankton blooms are shifting as waters are warming. Such changes can reduce productivity across entire ecosystems, affecting fish populations and our food security.
Recent observations from Lough Furnace highlight how rapid changes can impact marine life. Strong winds were found to push low-oxygen deep water toward shallow coastal areas, where fish and other aquatic organisms were challenged by a sudden drop in oxygen. These findings show how physical forces, like wind and water mixing, can expose marine life to oxygen-poor conditions - a growing concern as climate change makes such events more frequent.
From the carbon cycle to plankton activity, Ireland’s ocean sentinels are providing the marine data we need to make informed policy decisions and design practical management strategies. They form part of the broader European effort to strengthen marine cooperation, contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water, and safeguard the health of our ocean for the generations to come.
More information can be viewed at https://emfaf.marine.ie/.
Near real time data can be viewed on a dashboard for Mace Head at:
https://app.konectgds.com/kiosk/16b317b3-0f28-40d2-a0e6-3b155ffaa16b
and for Lehanagh Pool at: https://app.konectgds.com/kiosk/168eb329-3c1f-4964-90d3-6af95afff6e8