GB Row Challenge’s Row with a Purpose program was born out of a desire to understand how to preserve the marine ecosystem. Ocean research is costly and so citizen science is a way to cut down expenses. As ocean rowers we can offer our rowing vessel as platform for scientific equipment and our time to support scientists in understanding how to live sustainably with our ecosystems. Our team, Sea Change, which will participate in the 2024 edition, endorses this ambition fully.
Laura Fantuzzi works on this research as part of her PhD, the samples and data collected as we row around the UK will help her to shed light on the distribution and spatiotemporal variability of pollution as well as their relationship with biodiversity at the ecosystem level. We hope this will be useful as a case study to scale up marine monitoring as well as for informing policy and environmental coastal management.
Microplastics are an emerging concern due to their presence in every ecosystem on the planet and their small sizes, which make them available for small animals at the base of the food chain. Their presence is undetermined along most of the coast of Great Britain. During our GB Row Challenge, we will be carrying a pump designed by Harwin
Microplastics are an emerging concern due to their presence in every ecosystem on the planet and their small sizes, which make them available for small animals at the base of the food chain. Their presence is undetermined along most of the coast of Great Britain. During our GB Row Challenge, we will be carrying a pump designed by Harwin and Porvair Filtration Group, which filters particles out of seawater. We will need to ensure that these samples are properly stored on board. These particles will then be analysed by the University of Portsmouth and any microplastics quantified and characterised. This will give the first coherent national maps of microplastics in coastal waters and will add to those obtained from the 2022 and 2023 GB Row Challenge editions.
Environmental DNA informs on what species have crossed the area in the recent past only, as DNA degrades rapidly in the environment. It is an emerging popular conservation tool as it is not invasive or destructive. We will be carrying another pump system designed by Harwin, Porvair Filtration Group and NatureMetrics which will capture ve
Environmental DNA informs on what species have crossed the area in the recent past only, as DNA degrades rapidly in the environment. It is an emerging popular conservation tool as it is not invasive or destructive. We will be carrying another pump system designed by Harwin, Porvair Filtration Group and NatureMetrics which will capture very fine fragments of DNA from seawater. We will need to inject a chemical preservative into the sample, to ensure the stability of the DNA while the samples are stored on our boat for several weeks, ready to be analysed at NatureMetrics upon our return. The analyses will specifically target marine vertebrates, such as cetaceans, seals and fish. With this data we will help efforts to monitor and protect rare, endangered, commercial, or ecosystem keystone species in British waters.
Temperature and salinity are key components of what makes a location inhabitable by any given species. In recent decades, scientists have observed a shift of warm-water species moving towards the poles, as higher latitude ocean waters get warmer and suitable for warm-water wildlife. This also means commercial, rare, or keystone species w
Temperature and salinity are key components of what makes a location inhabitable by any given species. In recent decades, scientists have observed a shift of warm-water species moving towards the poles, as higher latitude ocean waters get warmer and suitable for warm-water wildlife. This also means commercial, rare, or keystone species will change where they live, with implications for many countries’ economies and ecosystems. Therefore, monitoring these parameters goes hand in hand with the biodiversity monitoring. The sensor is fully autonomous and is attached to our rudder – it will run independently as we row
With underwater sounds, one can perceive both biodiversity and anthropogenic noise pollution. Many marine animals use sound to communicate or feed. Not just dolphins and whales – fish and crustaceans too! Anthropogenic noise like ships, dredging, sonars, have changed the natural marine sound scape, and it can disturb animals by covering u
With underwater sounds, one can perceive both biodiversity and anthropogenic noise pollution. Many marine animals use sound to communicate or feed. Not just dolphins and whales – fish and crustaceans too! Anthropogenic noise like ships, dredging, sonars, have changed the natural marine sound scape, and it can disturb animals by covering up their sounds or even cause them physical damage. With a hydrophone or underwater microphone, we can study which animals live where as well as around what levels of human-made noise. We will carry a hydrophone in our rudder, which will run continuously, creating terabytes of data for the analysts at the University of Portsmouth to sort through, to detect biodiversity and anthropogenic noise.
The microplastics pump system is all metal until the (metal) filter, so it can’t shed any plastic onto the sample! The whole thing fits in one of the boat’s hatches. Our team member Kat Bruce is seen here storing a sample after the pump has run, on her GB Row Challenge in 2022.
The peristaltic pump and filter we use for sampling environmental DNA, built into the GB Row boat hull. Once the pump has filtered the water through the filter, we need to inject some preservative to maintain the DNA until analysis.
The sensor used to collect temperature and salinity data. It is attached to the rudder. It will be further fixed with a marine adhesive for the race.
The hydrophone is fitted inside the rudder and cabled to a recorder board, contained in this box which will be stored on board.
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