Scientists from the University of Plymouth, Heriot-Watt University and the Marine Biological Association are leading a new project exploring the consequences of floating offshore wind farms on ocean life.
The FRONTLINE project will employ AUVs, satellite remote sensing, digital video aerial surveys and seabird and fisheries tracking to investigate how the rapid expansion of these wind farms and climate warming is likely to affect oceanographic processes and marine life.
The study will gather data from the Celtic Sea, identified by the UK Government as a prime location for accelerating offshore wind infrastructure.
AUVs will be used to investigate key ecosystem drivers, from physical ocean features such as fronts to biological hotspots like plankton blooms and foraging fish at the bottom of the ocean food web.
Leveraging NERC’s Autosub Long Range 1500 will be used due to its ability to operate in strong tidal flows for weeks at a time.
Professor Stephen Votier, expert in Seabird Ecology at the Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute for Earth and Marine Sciences, is leading the project. He said: “Floating offshore wind farms have the potential to accelerate global net zero targets however less is known about the ecological consequences, from ocean physics to biodiversity. By focusing our team’s expertise on ocean fronts, which play a vital role in driving marine productivity and climate cycling, the FRONTLINE project will improve understanding of how physical structures could affect plankton and forage fish dynamics, with knock-on effects on marine predators and commercial fisheries.”