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The ability to make measurements of phosphate (PO 4 3– ) concentrations at temporal and spatial scales beyond those offered by shipboard observations offers new opportunities for investigations of the marine phosphorus cycle. We here report the first in situ PO 4 3– dataset from an underwater glider (Kongsberg Seaglider) equipped with a PO 4 3– Lab-on-Chip (LoC) analyser. Over 44 days, a 120 km transect was conducted in the northern North Sea during late summer (August and September). Surface depletion of PO 4 3– (<0.2 μM) was observed above a seasonal thermocline, with elevated, but variable concentrations within the bottom layer (0.30–0.65 μM). Part of the variability in the bottom layer is attributed to the regional circulation and across shelf exchange, with the highest PO 4 3– concentrations being associated with elevated salinities in northernmost regions, consistent with nutrient rich North Atlantic water intruding onto the shelf. Our study represents a significant step forward in autonomous underwater vehicle sensor capabilities and presents new capability to extend research into the marine phosphorous cycle and, when combined with other recent LoC developments, nutrient stoichiometry.

The seasonally stratified continental shelf seas are highly productive, economically important environments which are under considerable pressure from human activity. Global dissolved oxygen concentrations have shown rapid reductions in response to anthropogenic forcing since at least the middle of the twentieth century. Oxygen consumption is at the same time linked to the cycling of atmospheric carbon, with oxygen being a proxy for carbon remineralisation and the release of CO₂. In the seasonally stratified seas the bottom mixed layer (BML) is partially isolated from the atmosphere and is thus controlled by interplay between oxygen consumption processes, vertical and horizontal advection. Oxygen consumption rates can be both spatially and temporally dynamic, but these dynamics are often missed with incubation based techniques. Here we adopt a Bayesian approach to determining total BML oxygen consumption rates from a high resolution oxygen time-series. This incorporates both our knowledge and our uncertainty of the various processes which control the oxygen inventory. Total BML rates integrate both processes in the water column and at the sediment interface. These observations span the stratified period of the Celtic Sea and across both sandy and muddy sediment types. We show how horizontal advection, tidal forcing and vertical mixing together control the bottom mixed layer oxygen concentrations at various times over the stratified period. Our muddy-sand site shows cyclic spring-neap mediated changes in oxygen consumption driven by the frequent resuspension or ventilation of the seabed. We see evidence for prolonged periods of increased vertical mixing which provide the ventilation necessary to support the high rates of consumption observed.

The initial online publication contained several typesetting errors. The original article has been corrected.

The continental shelf seas are important at a global scale for ecosystem services. These highly dynamic regions are under a wide range of stresses, and as such future management requires appropriate monitoring measures. A key metric to understanding and predicting future change are the rates of biological production. We present here the use of an autonomous underwater glider with an oxygen (O2) and a wet-chemical microfluidic total oxidised nitrogen (NOx-=NO3-+NO2-) sensor during a spring bloom as part of a 2019 pilot autonomous shelf sea monitoring study. We find exceptionally high rates of net community production using both O2 and NOx- water column inventory changes, corrected for air–sea gas exchange in case of O2. We compare these rates with 2007 and 2008 mooring observations finding similar rates of NOx- consumption. With these complementary methods we determine the O2:N amount ratio of the newly produced organic matter (7.8 ± 0.4) and the overall O2:N ratio for the total water column (5.7 ± 0.4). The former is close to the canonical Redfield O2:N ratio of 8.6 ± 1.0, whereas the latter may be explained by a combination of new organic matter production and preferential remineralisation of more reduced organic matter at a higher O2:N ratio below the euphotic zone.

There is an immediate need to better understand and monitor shelf sea dissolved oxygen (O2) concentrations. Here we use high-resolution glider observations of turbulence and O2 concentrations to directly estimate the vertical O2 flux into the bottom mixed layer (BML) immediately before the autumn breakdown of stratification in a seasonally stratified shelf sea. We present a novel method to resolve the oxycline across sharp gradients due to slow optode response time and optode positioning in a flow “shadow zone” on Slocum gliders. The vertical O2 flux to the low-O2 BML was found to be between 2.5 to 6.4 mmol m−2 d−1. Episodic intense mixing events were responsible for the majority (up to 90 %) of this oxygen supply despite making up 40 % of the observations. Without these intense mixing events, BML O2 concentrations would approach ecologically concerning levels by the end of the stratified period. Understanding the driving forces behind episodic mixing and how these may change under future climate scenarios and renewable energy infrastructure is key for monitoring shelf sea health.

This thesis provides new estimates for net community production (NCP) from two North Sea regions, using high temporal resolution oxygen measurements from a long-term monitoring buoy and from a fleet of submarine gliders during a pilot monitoring program. The buoy study reveals a net-heterotrophic system (O2 NCP = (−5.0 } 2.5) molm−2 a−1), despite a highly productive spring phytoplankton bloom (maximum O2 NCP >(485 } 129) mmolm−2 d−1). The glider study uses both oxygen and nitrate mass-balances and demonstrates new production rates consistent with Redfield (an O:N ratio of 8.7) during the Spring bloom (O2 NCP = (232 } 12) molm−2 d−1, NO3 - NCP = (26.8 } 0.7) mmolm−2 d−1). In addition, bottom mixed layer oxygen dynamics are explored using an array of seabed landers in the Celtic Sea. The oxygen fluxes, including respiration, are calculated and compared with incubation studies performed during the same observation campaign. The bottom mixed layer oxygen consumption is shown to be broadly similar to that as calculated by the incubation studies (O2 NCP ranged between 30 mmolm−2 d−1 to 47 mmolm−2 d−1). However, the time series reveals temporal variations which are missed with the incubations, including post-bloom increases in consumption and possible re-suspension-driven events. There is also evidence for large persistent vertical fluxes of oxygen. For shelf sea oxygen time series based NCP estimation, the largest source of uncertainty is derived from the determination of a representative water mass with which to perform an analysis, and the subsequent integration of oxygen observations. Spatial heterogeneity is often overlooked in both open-ocean and shelf-sea based studies. It is shown that the choice of which fluxes need to be quantified, and the length scales that observations should be integrated over, is highly dependent on the dynamics of the particular study region.

Coastal seas represent one of the most valuable and vulnerable habitats on Earth. Understanding biological productivity in these dynamic regions is vital to understanding how they may influence and be affected by climate change. A key metric to this end is net community production (NCP), the net effect of autotrophy and heterotrophy; however accurate estimation of NCP has proved to be a difficult task. Presented here is a thorough exploration and sensitivity analysis of an oxygen mass-balance-based NCP estimation technique applied to the Warp Anchorage monitoring station, which is a permanently well-mixed shallow area within the River Thames plume. We have developed an open-source software package for calculating NCP estimates and air–sea gas flux. Our study site is identified as a region of net heterotrophy with strong seasonal variability. The annual cumulative net community oxygen production is calculated as (−5 ± 2.5) mol m−2 a−1. Short-term daily variability in oxygen is demonstrated to make accurate individual daily estimates challenging. The effects of bubble-induced supersaturation is shown to have a large influence on cumulative annual estimates and is the source of much uncertainty.

Shelf seas play an important role in the global carbon cycle, absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and exporting carbon (C) to the open ocean and sediments. The magnitude of these processes is poorly constrained, because observations are typically interpolated over multiple years. Here, we used 298500 observations of CO 2 fugacity (fCO 2 ) from a single year (2015), to estimate the net influx of atmospheric CO 2 as 26.2 ± 4.7 Tg C yr −1 over the open NW European shelf. CO 2 influx from the atmosphere was dominated by influx during winter as a consequence of high winds, despite a smaller, thermally-driven, air-sea fCO 2 gradient compared to the larger, biologically-driven summer gradient. In order to understand this climate regulation service, we constructed a carbon-budget supplemented by data from the literature, where the NW European shelf is treated as a box with carbon entering and leaving the box. This budget showed that net C-burial was a small sink of 1.3 ± 3.1 Tg C yr −1 , while CO 2 efflux from estuaries to the atmosphere, removed the majority of river C-inputs. In contrast, the input from the Baltic Sea likely contributes to net export via the continental shelf pump and advection (34.4 ± 6.0 Tg C yr −1 ).

Monitoring temperature of aquatic waters is of great importance, with modelled, satellite and in-situ data providing invaluable insights into long-term environmental change. However, there is often a lack of depth-resolved temperature measurements. Recreational dive computers routinely record temperature and depth, so could provide an alternate and highly novel source of oceanographic information to fill this data gap. In this study, a citizen science approach was used to obtain over 7,000 scuba diver temperature profiles. The accuracy, offset and lag of temperature records was assessed by comparing dive computers with scientific conductivity-temperature-depth instruments and existing surface temperature data. Our results show that, with processing, dive computers can provide a useful and novel tool with which to augment existing monitoring systems all over the globe, but especially in under-sampled or highly changeable coastal environments.

Hull describes the photograph he found between the pages of his grandfather's notebook a year after his death. The photograph features a young man, with his right hand calmly resting on a traumatically bent and twisted keyed shaft, exuding a comfortable confidence that, bad as it looks, this humpty dumpty is family and will be put back together again. Machinery in its infancy, like an errant child, needed the steady and loving guidance of a parent, Hull asserts.