In an ambitious £3.5 million study using autonomous underwater vehicles, satellite remote sensing, aerial surveys, and seabird and fish tracking technology, researchers are setting out to determine the impact of floating offshore wind farms on life throughout the marine food chain.

Called Frontline, the four-year project will embark on its mission to collect data from the Celtic Sea, an expanse of UK water that has been identified – alongside the North Sea – by the British Government as a prime location for accelerating offshore wind infrastructure.

The aim of this study, led by researchers at Heriot-Watt University, will ultimately be to understand whether the rapid expansion of floating offshore wind farms (FLOW) would directly or indirectly impact upon marine processes and biodiversity across these areas. 

With funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and The Crown Estate, the project will employ state-of-the-art technologies, including autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), satellite remote sensing, digital video aerial surveys, and seabird and fisheries tracking to investigate both the impact of rapidly expanded FLOW development and climate warming.

Ocean fronts – such as those sites earmarked for FLOW expansion – are renowned hotspots for seasonal plankton blooms, commercial fisheries, and marine predators. Little is known, however, about the impact FLOW will have on these ecosystem dynamics. The study aims to bridge this knowledge gap and provide insights to guide new measures that protect marine ecosystems amid the increasing demands on our oceans.

Ultimately, it will ensure that the rapid expansion of offshore wind farms – which has been earmarked as vital for achieving global net zero targets – is delivered sustainably. To oversee things, the study will be led by Professor Stephen Votier, an expert in Seabird Ecology at the Lycell Centre, Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute for Earth and Marine Sciences.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

A team of project partners from across the UK, including from the Marine Biological Association, the University of Plymouth, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the Universities of Oxford and Liverpool, and HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd, will co-lead the study.

Employing digital video aerial surveys and using seabirds as ‘animal oceanographers’ and ‘sentinels of the sea’, the team will harness their ability to provide – quite literally – a bird’s-eye view on changing seas and turbine perception both above and under water. It’s hoped that such an approach will provide new insights into whether wind farm structures are creating collision hazards for seabirds and how ocean predator foraging habits are being affected.

Plymouth Marine Laboratory, meanwhile, will apply its own expertise in satellite remote sensing to locate and characterise all shelf-sea fronts near the FLOW sites, both in near-real time to guide the AUV sampling plans, and historically for seabird foraging studies.

The nation’s sweetheart, Boaty McBoatface will also be deployed as researchers utilise the Autosub Long Range 1500’s ability to operate in strong tidal flows for weeks at a time, to operate its digital plankton imaging technology to help provide a more mechanistic understanding of ocean ecosystem change.

Finally, in a scientific first, HiDef Aerial Surveying will also use the study to trial the deployment of acoustic recorders for detecting marine mammals around ocean fronts, which will provide insight into how they’re used by apex marine predators.

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