Vision:
Establishing a national facility for oceanography studies at the Regional Centre, Visakhpatnam, National Institute of Oceanography to offer state-of-the-art services to Industry/Government agencies on the east coast of India. |
Team Members:
Sarma, V.V.
Sadhuram, Y.
Reddy, N.P.C.
Rao, M.M.
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Objectives:
- to establish a long-term ocean time-series station in coastal waters of the central east coast of India
- to find the variability in physical and biogeochemical properties and understand the processes responsible
- to find the variability in estuarine dynamics through diurnal and seasonal experiments in Krishna, Godavari, and Mahanadi estuaries
- to find the influence of river discharges on coastal and offshore circulation and biogeochemical processes
- to quantify the biogeochemical response of the Bay of Bengal ecosystems to extreme events and departures from regular processes
- to assess relative significance of nutrient supplies through river, atmospheric and groundwater discharges to new production
- to quantify physical and biogeochemical processes to enable developing forecasting models for the central east coast of India.
General description:
In recent times, the east coast of India has witnessed a phenomenal rise in the industrial activity. The activity ranges from aquaculture to oil industry. These intensified industrial activities can affect the health of coastal waters adversely. For instance, discharge of fertilizers from agricultural activities can cause eutrophication in coastal waters and may even result in fish mortality. On the other hand, the industry also requires the information on environmental quality of coastal waters from time to time in order to sustain/ run their operations.
Therefore, it is important that we conduct special experiments to set the limits of variability of climatic, hydrographic and biogeochemical properties of significance to environment and industry, and the processes responsible for controlling these limits. The information generated will be translated into predictive/forecasting models for the benefit of industry and society. The science produced while achieving these goals will be of fundamental importance to understanding basics of the monsoon driven oceanography in the world. In view of the sparse information from the waters and ecosystems along the east coast of India, as detailed above, the present study intends to collect high precision data to find limits of natural variability, possible impact of anthropogenic perturbations, and develop predictive models while understanding the science involving forcings on, functioning of and feedbacks from the western Bay of Bengal systems.
Scientific components and achievements:
Field measurements from second year (2008-09) onwards:
- Seasonal occupation of hydrographic sections (200m or 50 km) –(seasons trips)
- Hydrographic sections to be covered monthly (12 field trips)
- Tidal and seasonal studies at different locations along the estuaries of Krishna, Godavari and Mahanadi (5 spots in each estuary)
Automated physical and chemical measurements through deployments
Variables to be measured:
Meteorological parameters, sea level, currents, significant wave height, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, pH, alkalinity, total carbon dioxide, partial pressure of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, dimethylsulphide, surface pigments (Chlorophyl, in particular), primary productivity, plankton composition, zooplankton, suspended particulate matter, particulate organic carbon, nutrients in sedimentary pore waters, sedimentary organic carbon and its components.
Gadgets to be used:
Ship board equipments, in situ deployments from ships and boats, mooring of equipments for continuous monitoring (mostly benthic mounted) and remotely sensed information using satellites.
A hydrographic Section off Vizag will be selected for long-term time-series studies, in order to understand the influence of climate variability (such as Indian Ocean Dipole or El Nino-Southern Oscillation events on oceanic processes) and human perturbations on physical and biogeochemical processes in the coastal Bay of Bengal.
Facilities available:
Portable CTD
Current meters
Autoanalyser
Spectrophotometer
HPLC
Automatic weather station
Tide gauges
Coulometer
Gas Chromatographs
TOC analyzer with spares |
