Instruments providing crucial data on oceans, climate change and marine biodiversity will be recovered along the coast of the US and in waters between Iceland and Greenland
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Trump officials are set to dismantle an observation system made up of 900 instruments in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that has provided crucial data on oceans, climate change and marine biodiversity for more than a decade.
In a notice, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had ‘initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)’.
Across the next 15 months, officials say the instruments – worth around $338million – will be recovered along the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, as well as in the waters between Iceland and Greenland.
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The OOI system, which first came into operation in 2016, was scheduled to run for at least 25 years. Now, scientists will be left in the dark after crucial data on ocean currents and climate will not be recorded.
Such data includes that on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) – a system of vital ocean currents known as the ‘global conveyor belt’ that shape global climate. Research has shown the AMOC may be at risk of declining by the end of the century, causing effects from plummeting temperatures in Europe to changing vegetation in the Amazon.
In addition, the global oceans are currently in a period of huge change, with events from mass coral bleaching to heightened water temperatures all requiring research to better understand. Without oceanic observations, ‘we are effectively choosing to navigate an increasingly volatile ocean with diminishing visibility,’ said Helen Findlay from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. For Findlay, uncertainty around the future of the AMOC ‘is precisely why long-term, consistent monitoring is more vital than ever.’
According to NSF head of media affairs, Mike England, the programme was not being cancelled entirely, though it is not clear what data collection instruments will be left.
‘The decision to descope aligns with NSF’s wider strategy of a nimbler approach to prioritise support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies, as well as smart lifecycle management within its research infrastructure portfolio,’ said England.
The announcement comes after the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to defund climate change mitigation strategies and scientific research – as Geographical reported earlier this year. Last month, the administration also announced an additional $ 1.1 billion in cuts to research covering topics such as marine wildlife, ocean currents, and fish populations.
Some have suspected that the move to ‘descope’ the OOI system is to appease fossil fuel companies. ‘Fossil fuel is heating our oceans by the zettajoule, so Trump’s corrupt fossil fuel stooges want to turn off the monitors,’ said Democrat from Rhode Island, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
If the data collection instruments were to be rebuilt in the future, scientists remain concerned that the endeavour would come with challenges. ‘If we want to put [the instruments] back out again, we need people who know how to do it, and the team that knows how to do it is being dismantled along with the infrastructure program itself,’ said Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry and Oceanography at Boston College, Hilary Palevsky.
‘We’re potentially at risk of having a gap in our ability to regain the expertise to do things that we had sort of just figured out how to pull off.’
