EMSO, a Large-scale European Research Infrastructure Delivering Harmonized Environmental Marine Data through a Distributed Ocean Observation System

Abstract

European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO ERIC) is supported through the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) to lead the advancement of knowledge of the natural and anthropogenic processes in the ocean, seafloor and sub-seafloor to promoting an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach through long-term time series collected in 11 fixed key environmental locations from the North Atlantic, across Mediterranean Sea to the anoxic Black Sea. EMSO ERIC also supports the development and progress of marine technologies and responds to the environmental demands of European society, such as the Blue Growth Strategy of the EU H2020 Program. Its objective is to establish a distributed and smart sensor system, and to contribute to the identification of methodologies for the preservation of ocean-health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The aim of EMSO ERIC is to illuminate a wide variety of environmental processes frombiogeochemical and physical processes to the stability and sustainability of biodiversity and the complex functioning of the marine ecosystems. The increase of the sea level, the warming and acidification of the oceans are indicators of a constant global change. Phenomena like the contamination of nutrients by anthropogenic activities, the toxic algae blooms, and harmful pollution of plastics in the sea, are significantly growing. Modern societies demand a better knowledge of the oceans. EMSO ERIC represents the ability to address the social benefits of ocean observatories, meeting these social demands through services such as science, engineering & logistics, data management, communication, and industry & innovation. EMSO ERIC promotes the science of excellence and coordinates open ocean European observatories in interdisciplinary scientific research. In this scenario, a significant effort is made to define methodologies and best practices for coordinating and integrating different parameters coming from the observatories, improving the existing capacities in each Observatory, at the European Seas