![]() ![]() Scientists have been studying why these inshore patch reefs like Cheeca Rocks have been more resilient to environmental stressors, including coral disease, coral bleaching, and overfishing - and the MAPCO2 buoy helps in that effort. One of these buoys is deployed at Cheeca Rocks, a coral reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off of Islamorada, Florida Scientists chose Cheeca Rocks because of its important coral habitat, which has managed to stay relatively healthy compared to reefs farther offshore. These buoys gather long-term data on carbon dioxide in the ocean, allowing scientists to track how ocean acidification is progressing in different regions. There are currently 50 of these buoys worldwide, each of which is deployed either over a coral reef, in the open ocean, or in a coastal region. Moored Autonomous pCO2 (MAPCO2) buoys help scientists understand ocean acidification. Ocean acidification poses a big risk to marine life - as waters become more acidic, corals have a harder time building their skeletons, oysters and other shellfish have a harder time building their shells, and fish can experience worrisome behavioral changes. The ocean absorbs about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released in the atmosphere, and as that CO2 is absorbed, it changes the pH of the ocean. Keeping tabs on ocean acidification with the MAPCO2 buoy Peggy isn’t the only moored buoy gathering key ocean data in remote environments - learn more about Arctic moorings from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. Peggy is named for Peggy Dyson, who for 25 years, from her home in Kodiak, Alaska, reported the weather, family messages, and sometimes even paid bills for the mariners of the North Pacific Ocean. Data collected by Peggy has been used by scientists to study the cold pool and loss of sea ice in the Bering Sea, a region that supports large marine mammal and bird populations and some of the most profitable and sustainable commercial fisheries in the United States. Since 1995, Peggy has been taking year-round measurements of temperature, salt content, nitrate, chlorophyll and currents in the remote Bering Sea. NOAA’s biophysical mooring site 2 - nicknamed “ Peggy” - is one tough buoy. Background image from NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite on February 27, 2021, via Worldview. NOAA image, based on NOAA buoy data from EcoFOCI/S. ![]() In the early part of the 2010 decade, sub-zero winter temperatures were common. This graph shows Peggy's observations of water temperatures near the sea floor (depths of 60 meters, or 197 feet) from 2010 to mid-May 2021. NOAA's M2 moored buoy-nicknamed "Peggy"-records water temperatures and other physical and biological data from the surface to the floor of the coastal shelf, giving scientists an important glimpse into the status of the Bering Sea's summer cold pool. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |