CB-950 Data Buoy

Corals around the world are under threat. The buoys of the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) help face that threat, providing the entire world with weather patterns and data about climate change from their home in the Caribbean Sea. Since June 2018, a new, state-of-the-art oceanographic buoy has added ocean state and weather data in near real-time to the CREWS system—all accessible from a computer or smartphone. A better understanding of more threatened regions Installed by the Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI), which runs the CREWS system, the CCMI team helped describe the challenges the CREWS system needs to tackle.

In 2010, a design for the Liberty Island Restoration Project was completed and implemented, creating open water channels, emergent tidal marsh lands and floodplain habitats to sustain water fluctuations. The work was done in an effort to help wildlife living in the California Delta as well as fish species including delta smelt and Chinook salmon. But beyond just putting new marshes in place, it was important for those working on the restoration to confirm that all the work was making a difference. Doing something like that involves monitoring conditions around the area to see how its water quality and habitats are improving. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey’s California Water Science Center help in those monitoring efforts and oversee a network of data logging devices that cover the delta. It relies on a number of continuous monitoring stations that gather data on the area’s water quality, and has been collecting data for the last few years. Contributing to an ongoing effort

Recent studies into global climate change have identified an increase in Arctic warming rates. These are linked to increased trends toward more sea ice loss that are leading many to anticipate the Arctic will become a more popular shipping route. Coinciding with this expected expansion in use, agencies in the U.S., including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are preparing for more operations in the Arctic. For NOAA, that means testing and developing new ways to monitor in the region’s waters. Since the Alaskan offshore is a new locale for the observation network, researchers at NOAA are working out the kinks of monitoring there before any expensive sensors are placed in the Gulf of Alaska. They have a straightforward solution for long-term stations ready to go, and have turned their attention toward developing short-term platforms that can perform reliably in the harsh region.