TechOceanS

Technical ambitions

• Piloting and demonstrating novel nucleic acid samplers and sensors targeting the genetic code of aquatic organisms to identify them and quantify their populations.
• Improving imaging systems and image processing workflows so that machines can turn vast numbers of images into data about species, habitats and plastic pollution.
• Producing optical primary productivity (plant growth) and multiparameter optical sensors to measure energy entering the base of the food web and to investigate water quality.
• Creating biogeochemical and bio-assay enabled lab-on-chip sensors and microcytometers to measure a large number of parameters – nutrients, carbon dioxide, trace metals, bio-toxins, pollutants, single celled organisms and microplastics.

In short, the project developed innovative technologies and methods for deep sea sensing, sample collection and on-board analysis and AI-driven image processing and transmission.

Results

TechOceanS identified critical gaps in ocean monitoring and developed new or improved technologies to fill them. The new technologies expanded the ability to capture previously inaccessible data on the ocean’s biogeochemistry, biology and ecosystems. Among the results:

• Primary productivity sensorAn in situ sensor using time-resolved fluorometry that measures the rate at which the oceans fix CO₂ through photosynthesis.
• UVP6mA version of the Underwater Vision Profiler that reduced the minimum particle size for detection to 10 µm and for classification to 100 µm.
• AI image processingAI systems that group and identify organisms and landscapes in water-column and seafloor images from a wide range of camera systems, including those on autonomous underwater vehicles.
• Open best practicesProtocols and data collection techniques that feed the open-access Ocean Best Practices System and Better Biomolecular Ocean Practices platforms.
• Tested at seaIntegration, testing and demonstration in real coastal and open-ocean conditions at PLOCAN in the Canary Islands, during the first half of 2024.

The project closed with a final review at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in Oostende, Belgium. Sources: the TechOceanS overview page, the CORDIS article on the project results, the TechOceanS resources page and PLOCAN report on the closing meeting.

Ocean best practices

In addition to expanding scientific knowledge of the ocean, TechOceanS focused on improving ocean best practices. Partners worked closely with the IOC-UNESCO to develop training and standards covering metrology and operation of measurement systems. In addition, partners covered the application of management principles, standards, protocols and communications for open access data. In this way, the project aimed to ensure the developed best practices were truly global, inclusive and transparent.

Cyprus Subsea led Task T11.1 – Development and testing of best practices with our partners – Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN) and National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The best practices included analytical, metrology, electrical & mechanical interfacing, interoperability and metadata standards for sensor enabling observing systems.

Through the targeted technologies, diverse partner base and cooperation with concurrent projects, TechOceanS aimed to contribute to the growth of scientific knowledge, the transfer of marine technology and other key components of the Blue Economy as described in international accords such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Working Group, the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Cyprus Subsea’s contributions

Cyprus Subsea performed the integration of the Hydroptic UVP6-LP optical sensor with an M1 Seaglider. The Underwater Vision Profiler or UVP is designed to study large (>100 µm) particles and zooplankton simultaneously and to quantify them in a known volume of water. The UVP system makes use of computerised optical technology with custom lighting to acquire digital images of zooplankton in situ down to depths of 6,000 m.

In addition to process documentation, Cyprus Subsea integrated the UVP6-LP with the M1 Seaglider for TechOceanS. Cyprus Subsea fully integrated and tested the UVP6 on the M1 Seaglider. The sea test took place at the Polar Front during the 2021 Spring Bloom. Cyprus Subsea also supported Akvaplan-niva during a research cruise to the Northern Barents Sea. This research cruise was led by the Nansen Legacy programme at the University of Tromsø (UiT) Arctic University of Norway.