The Liverpool Bay Coastal Observatory

A pre-operational Coastal Observatory has been operating since August 2002 in Liverpool Bay, Irish Sea. Its rationale is to develop the science underpinning the ecosystem based approach to marine management, including distinguishing between natural and man-made variability, with particular emphasis on eutrophication and predicting possible impacts of climate change. Liverpool Bay has strong tidal mixing, receives fresh water principally from the Dee, Mersey and Ribble estuaries, each with different catchment influences, and has enhanced levels of nutrients. Horizontal and vertical density gradients are variable both in space and time. The water column stratifies intermittently. The challenge is to understand and model accurately this variable region which is turbulent, turbid, receives enhanced nutrients and is productive. The Observatory, with emphasis on physical and chemical / biological variables, has three components, for each of which the goal is at least some (near) real time operation – measurements; coupled 3-D hydrodynamic, wave and ecological numerical models; a data management and web-based data delivery system, see http://coastobs.pol.ac.uk (Howarth et al., 2006). In the next few years the Observatory will expand in spatial coverage and in capability, for instance through the deployment of gliders, forming a focus for Irish Sea studies.