Research*EU Magazine | Number 43 (June 2015)

Seas and oceans: Studying earth's final frontier

Contents:

To celebrate World Oceans Day and shed light on the challenges currently being faced by researchers, this issue of the Research*EU magazine focuses on research conducted in or related to seas and oceans. The magazine’s ‘special’ section contains 10 articles which can roughly be split into three topics: deep-sea exploration, preserving resources of the sea and better understanding the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems. Indeed we now know that CO2 emissions not only drive climate change but also cause the worrying trend of ocean acidification as the oceans are forced to absorb man-made emissions — which is in turn threatening living organisms.

This month’s interviews also reflect the diversity of ongoing sea and ocean-related research. Thanks to the CARBOCHANGE project, for instance, scientists recently made a giant leap forward in their understanding of the ocean’s carbon uptake, future trends and their effects on marine habitats. The ECO2 project looked into a similar CO2 leakage scenario but this time from below the seabed, with a thorough monitoring of ‘Carbon capture and storage’ (CCS) installations in the North and Barents seas off Sweden.

The other two projects, LINKFISH and ARROWS, remained at seabed level but for very different purposes. LINKFISH studied the role of macroalgae in the conservation of fish populations in the Mediterranean, while ARROWS focused on lost man-made artefacts. With support from archaeologists, the team created a new generation of deep-sea exploration robots capable of inspecting every corner of ship wrecks and other lost testimonies of human history.

These articles are followed by our usual sections on biology and medicine, social sciences and humanities, energy and transport, the environment, IT and telecommunications, industrial technologies and physics and mathematics, along with a list of upcoming scientific events.

Summary:

Health

Industrial Technologies

Climate Change and Environment

Energy

Digital Economy

• Primary Source

• Alternative Source