OceanVisions

OceanVisions is an ongoing project funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Grant. With this project I focus on different research infrastructures in marine science (ranging from ocean-going research vessels to scientific diving operations): How and what questions are asked in marine and ocean sciences when considering the type of research infrastructure available to do research? What does this mean for the governance of ocean and marine sciences in a time of climate and environmental emergencies? For this project, I conduct ethnographic research to investigate how research infrastructures impact the way the ocean and the marine environment are visualised, both for academic, policy, and lay audiences. I am interested in how practical considerations and the available observational techniques shape what is knowable and visible about the ocean.

Oceanographic vessels and biogenic reefs in the North Sea

In October 2023, I joined a group of scientists on a Dutch  oceanographic research vessel in the North Sea. The research onboard was interested in understanding the ecological processes of one of the last known biogenic reefs in the North Sea (off the Scottish coast). Biogenic reefs are reefs generally built by oysters or mussels, once very common  and now all but almost extinct due to anthropogenic effects. By understanding these processes the scientists on board are exploring whether such reefs can be re-wilded. The North Sea is host to over 40 wind farms and more than 2600 wind turbines. Under each wind turbine a layer of boulders and gravel-like material is placed to avoid erosion. These scour protection infrastructures are an optimal substrate for biogenic reef to grow and provide new ecosystem services. Researching these reefs with an oceanographic vessel    tends to produce scientific visualisations that foreground general and a bird's-eye view of what such an ecosystem could be like. And - as some of the scientists themselves reported - comes with risks. Ocean spaces are scattered with other activities and a vessel must negotiate around fishing gear, currents and high voltage cables. Furthermore, researching the bottom of the ocean from the topside of a large vessel risks missing out on ecosystem features that - while uncommon -  can be very important. 

Other scientists select to dive-in! In the summer of 2023, while global temperatures were reaching an all time high and news were reporting about multiple heatwaves, scientists from Tvärminne Zoological Station,  Finland, built a laboratory underwater to monitor the effect of marine heatwaves. They placed several incubation chambers at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and manipulated the temperature through pumping hot water in specially designed heating tubes (see more here). There is evidence of marine heatwaves in the Baltic Sea for a long time, but very little understanding of their effect on the ecosystem. Over the course of the experiment which simulated several heatwaves, the water was regularly sampled to monitor the bio-chemical processes. The scientists in Tvärminne had to negotiate work underwater to setup a very innovative – yet quite precarious – in-situ underwater experiment in the Baltic Sea. Because of its low biodiversity and salinity levels, high pollution, and relative average shallow depth the Baltic is often seen as a special or peculiar because and a likely image, a time-machine, of what the rest of the oceans could look like in the future.