There is a wealth of data available to marine scientists to study the environment. These include measurements made from samples collected by boats, data from marine moorings, buoys and unmanned vessels as well as satellite data. For satellite data, this is now available at very high resolution so that a range of parameters and the intricate details of these in rivers, estuaries and the coast can be easily seen from space. Having all of these different sources of data available, makes it hard to analyse in a coherent, consistent and easily findable format. Data Cubes have been invented which are gridded and stacked arrays of different data sets, that can be interrogated easily and efficiently by scientists. The scientific organisation CSIRO in Australia has developed open data cubes, called AquaWatch Data Integration and Analysis System or ADIAS, that allows multiple users to easily interact with large archives of data. Through this platform, computer code, known as machine learning, can be used to turn some of the data sets into water quality parameters, to allow the assessment of whether coastal water is 'clean' or 'poor' quality. In both the western English Channel and eastern Australia, periodic flooding as a result of heavy rainfall is becoming more frequent. This is because the heating of inland water and the sea is causing more evapo-transpiration which results in high rainfall and then flooding. These flooding events can carry agricultural fertilisers, sewage effluent and, in some locations, heavy metals from mining tailing ponds from the rivers to the coast. This poses a risk to human health and to the environment through the deposition of high nutrients, suspended material, viruses and bacteria to the coast. This in turn can be deleterious to Seagrass beds and mud flats are important areas for depositing and drawing down CO2 from the atmosphere. These flooding events can be harmful to both seagrass beds and mud flats by blocking light that is normally available to seagrasses to photosynthesize and by introducing toxic material that disrupt mud flats. The project will measure the effect of flooding on seagrass beds and mud flats in Plymouth Sound, UK and the Fitzeroy River and adjacent coast of Australia. It will also provide maps of areas that are not effected by flooding to allow conservation groups to regenerate Seagrass beds. The information generated by the project will be a freely available to end-users to help the monitoring and management of water quality in the Plymouth Sound catchment. The project data and results will be showcased to interested parties through an end of project stakeholder event. The following groups will be invited to the event: Marine managers (FSA, DEFRA, CEFAS,), Fishery and Shellfishery end users (regional IFCA groups, OS-UK), Marine policy makers (DG-ENV, DG-MARE, OSPAR, ICES, OSPAR ICG COBAM Pelagic Habitats Expert Group), tourism and recreation groups (SAS, Sailing clubs, local anglers, SUP clubs) and Wildlife conservation and Environmental protection groups (UK Wildlife Trusts). Due to Brexit, collaboration with other European scientists is now restricted due to lack of funds. This project will facilitate knowledge and technology exchange between UK and Australia, now that EU collaboration is reduced.

Nitrogen-containing compounds, including glycine betaine (GBT), choline and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) are ubiquitous in marine organisms. They are used by marine organisms as compatible solute in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as increasing salinity, because they do not interfere with cell metabolisms. They also have beneficial effects in protecting proteins against denaturation due to chemical or physical damages. In the marine environments, these compounds are frequently released into the sea water due to the change of environmental conditions, such as viral attack or grazing. The released nitrogenous osmolytes serve as important nutrients for marine microorganisms, which can use them as carbon, nitrogen and energy sources. It is well known that the degradation of these nitrogenous osmolytes contribute to the release of climate-active gases, including volatile methylated amines. Methylated amines are important sources of aerosols in the marine atmosphere, which help to reflect sunlight and cause a cooling effect of the climate. There is an urgent need to understand the microbial metabolism of these compounds and their seasonal cycles in the marine water column, in order to better understand their role in marine biogeochemical cycles and their role in future climate change. Built on the recent progress on the discovery of the new pathway of TMAO degradation in marine organisms and the development of a powerful liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) method for simultaneous quantification of these nitrogenous osmolytes from the applicants' laboratories, this timely proposal aims to determine the seasonal cycle of nitrogenous osmolytes in the surface seawater and to address how these environmentally-relevant compounds are degraded and what are the major microorganisms that are involved in the process. The data generated will fill in a major gap in our knowledge of marine carbon and nitrogen cycles and the contribution of these compounds in future climate change through the release of climate-active molecules. Using newly developed analytic techniques, we aim to determine the seasonal cycle of standing concentrations of nitrogenous osmolytes in the surface seawater and microbial oxidation activities. These data will be incorporated to a biogeochemical model for future prediction of biogeochemical cycles of N-osmolytes under climate change. Using cultivated model organisms, we aim to define the key genes, enzymes and the metabolic pathways in GBT and TMAO degradation by marine planktonic microbes. Using molecular and single cell manipulation techniques, we aim to further determine the key microbial players involved in the metabolism of nitrogenous osmolytes in surface seawater from the English Channel. This work will generate novel knowledge about our understanding of microbial transformation of these nitrogen containing compounds, and will fill in a serious gap in knowledge of marine carbon and nitrogen cycles. The project is expected to further strengthen the UK as a leading country not only in the research of marine biogeochemical cycles and marine microbiology, but also in the development of cutting edge technology in environmental science.

Nitrogen-containing compounds, including glycine betaine (GBT), choline and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) are ubiquitous in marine organisms. They are used by marine organisms as compatible solutes in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as increasing salinity, because they do not interfere with cell metabolism. They also have beneficial effects in protecting proteins against denaturation due to chemical or physical damage. In the marine environment, these compounds are frequently released from these organisms directly into seawater due to changing environmental conditions, such as by viral lysis or grazing. The released nitrogenous osmolytes serve as important nutrients for marine microorganisms, which can use them as carbon, nitrogen and energy sources. It is well known that the degradation of these nitrogenous osmolytes contribute to the release of climate-active gases, including volatile methylamines. Methylamines are important sources of aerosols in the marine atmosphere, which help to reflect sunlight and cause a cooling effect on the climate. Our NERC-funded research is starting to understand the microbial metabolism of these compounds and their seasonal cycles in the coastal surface seawater, but our understanding across the world's oceans is limited. Of particular importance to the Earth's climate is the Southern Ocean. The Southern Ocean is an important player in the Earth climate system, and is an ideal region to study ocean-atmosphere connections because of its isolation from continental emissions and the strong circumpolar atmospheric circulation, rendering its air pristine. Opportunities to study the Southern Ocean are rare however, and it remains under sampled even for the most routine measurements compared to the rest of the World's oceans. We have a unique opportunity within the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) to make measurements and collect samples around the entire Southern Ocean, and near Antarctica. Twenty one other international projects will also be conducting research from the same expedition, and six of these projects have excellent links to our research. Unfortunately, there are no plans for after the expedition for the projects to collaborate and integrate data, which is a real missed opportunity. This proposal aims to develop a new international network with six ACE projects and use post-cruise activities to exploit data and knowledge generated to capitalise on our NERC-funded research on nitrogenous osmolytes and to increase its international breadth.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

The ocean plays a vital role in sustaining life on planet Earth, providing us with living resources and regulating climate. Ocean observations are required to understand how the ocean and climate has changed in the past and to characterise the status of the marine environment and its resources today. Furthermore, global ocean observations are essential for skilful forecasts needed for planning, resource management, policy development and restoring ocean health. The Argo array of profiling temperature and salinity floats has transformed our ability to understand and predict sea level change, ocean heat content and sea surface temperature and their impacts on weather, climate, ecosystems, people and infrastructure. The Argo array has a dual role in providing initial conditions for predictive systems and in driving new process understanding that has led to model improvement. However, major ocean biogeochemical challenges including understanding the ocean's role in anthropogenic carbon uptake, de-oxygenation of the global oceans, and ocean productivity and health are not addressed by the Core Argo array. BioGeoChemical Argo (BGC Argo) builds on the success of the Argo array through the addition of biogeochemical sensors for pH, oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll, suspended particles and downwelling irradiance. Data from BGC Argo will drive a transformative shift in the understanding of biogeochemical cycling in the ocean and its dynamics at large scales: processes which have a profound impact on a rapidly changing climate, ocean productivity and health. Transformation will come through the acquisition of data with unprecedented space and time resolution, which was impossible before the development of BGC floats. BGC floats already produce more oxygen profiles per year than all research ships combined. The BGC Argo Science and Implementation Plan calls for a global array. Pilot arrays have demonstrated the capacity to build the global array, but to date only a handful of the deployed floats have measured all 6 BGC parameters. The UK, through the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, has committed to contributing to the BGC Argo array. Having recently secured funding for 9 UK BGC floats (~15% of expected UK array), NOC has begun to deliver on that commitment and to develop a national facility for quality-control and distribution of the profile data in a timely way. We will procure and deploy a further 16 BGC Argo floats in the Atlantic (~25% of UK array), all equipped with the 6 parameters required by international Argo. Resources for deployment and lifetime costs of providing quality-controlled, open-access data for this step-change in capability are in place through Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) National Capability cruises and the British Oceanographic Data Centre. CLASS will fund a float coordinator to manage the floats and influence the development of the global array through the international Argo governance system.