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Pontoon Time Series

 A time series was taken at the King Harry Pontoon to enable us to look at variability, both temporally and spatially.

 Temperature decreases consistently over depth

 Dissolved Oxygen is higher on the surface than at depth

 pH remains relatively constant through the time series

 Salinity increases with depth

 The flooding tide brings with it an influx of saltwater which is evident from the more Saline seawater pushing up into the middle and upper layers

 Chlorophyll concentrations increase with depth

Estuary

 The flow speed is much higher and more turbulent further upstream

 The flow speed is relatively low at the mouth of the estuary

 Dissolved Oxygen Saturation varies very little between stations

 Chlorophyll increases with depth due to a more stratified upper layer and nutricline thus optimal growth being at lower light but higher nutrients

Offshore

 Throughout the day the water column remained stratified.

 Dissolved oxygen increased rapidly throughout the morning and decreased slowly in the afternoon.

 Disparity between deep and shallow silicon and phosphate concentration was greater at the end of the sampling period (at 14:13 UTC) than at the start (08:38).

 Negative correlation was found between chlorophyll and silicon concentration.

 A deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) occurred at 30m between 11:48 and 13:05 (UTC).

 Thermocline was around 10-20m.

 Salinity remained fairly constant with depth.

 Dissolved oxygen peaked in the DCM.

 Turbidity increased with depth below 20m.

 Pseude-nitzschia was the most abundant phytoplankton genus.

Geophysics

 The side-scan showed the site surveyed between 50°12'29.9"N 005°01'49.9"W and 50°13'09.8"N 005°01'37.3"W showed a mainly homogenous habitat.

 The closest classification of the habitat type from the grab was ‘Infralittoral coarse sediment’ (SS. SCS. ICS).

 The habitat could not be fully identified, as none of the most abundant species were present in the grab.

 The most dominant species that were found in this habitat were Crepidula femicata and Echinodesmata Asterias Reubens