Lampitt¹, Richard S., David S.M. Billett¹, Ekatarina E Popova¹, Ben D. Wigham¹, Uwe Send² and the ANIMATE partnership

¹Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK, Tel: 44 (0)23 80596347, Fax: 44 (0)23 80596247, E-Mail: R.Lampitt@soc.soton.ac.uk and ²Institut fuer Meereskunde, Kiel, Germany

Temporal changes at the NABE site (PAP) since 1989

One result of NABE in 1989 was to establish the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) as a time series study site. In contrast to almost all other such sites, observations have been made throughout the water column including the benthos. Observations and model results do not indicate major changes in upper ocean processes whereas the seabed has seen some fundamental shifts in ecosystem structure during the past decade. These are experienced particularly by benthic detrital feeders that depend on phytoplankton pigments. Subtle changes in upper ocean biogeochemistry have had far reaching consequences for organic matter export, leading to dramatic faunal responses at the seabed. In the 1990’s observations at PAP depended on research cruise, remote sensing, ships of opportunity and limited sampling equipment such as sediment traps and benthic cameras. Since 2002, the site has been established as one of three European observatory sites providing real time CTD data and retrospective data on pCO₂, nutrients, fluorescence, backscatter, currents profile as well as deep ocean particle flux. http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/animate/. It is expected that within the next two years almost all data will be retrieved in real time and will enter the public domain immediately. The PAP site is an ideal location to study open ocean processes and one of the JGOFS legacies has been not only a fine set of integrated observations in the Northeast Atlantic but also a time series site that will be a focus for research for many years to come. This poster presents a synthesis of insights gained.