Marine Institute Ireland Water Chemistry Research Vessel Surveys North East Atlantic Ocean 1990 - Present

The WES circumnavigates the Island of Ireland every two years, alternating southabout and northabout, starting in the Irish Sea and ending in Galway. The WES collects multidisciplinary information on physical conditions (temperature, salinity), water chemistry (dissolved nutrients, total alkalinity (TA), dissolved organic carbon (DIC) and salinity), sediment chemistry (persistent organic pollutants (POPs)).

This contributes to data collection needs of various statutory drivers (Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD)), OSPAR assessments and provides a dataset on status and changing conditions (trends and variations) for key environmental variables. The annual Marine Institute ocean climate survey in the south Rockall Trough collects the following data: • Physical oceanographic data down to depths >3500 m (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO) and fluorescence) • Water samples are analysed on-board for some essential climate variables (salinity, DO, nutrients, DIC/TA) • Samples are also taken for later analyses at MI laboratories • CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons ) to help study ocean circulation. • pCO2 data in real-time using the CE GlobalOceanics underway system.