Ambitious study to explore effects of offshore wind farms on ocean life

The consequences of floating offshore wind farms (FLOW) on life throughout the marine food chain will be explored in a new study led by Heriot-Watt University.

The ambitious 4-year FRONTLINE project, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and The Crown Estate, will employ state-of-the-art technologies – including autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), satellite remote sensing, digital video aerial surveys and seabird and fisheries tracking - to investigate how the rapid expansion of FLOW and climate warming affects oceanographic processes and marine life.

The study will gather data from the Celtic Sea, identified - alongside the North Sea - by the UK Government as a prime location for accelerating offshore wind infrastructure, with the aim of revealing if and how the rapid expansion of wind turbines farms FLOW installations in these new sites may directly or indirectly impact on marine processes and biodiversity via ocean fronts.

Ocean fronts are renowned hotspots for seasonal plankton blooms, commercial fisheries and marine predators however little is known yet about the impact of FLOW on these ecosystem dynamics. The study aims to bridge this knowledge gap, providing insights to guide measures that protect marine ecosystems amid the increasing demands on our oceans.

These findings will help ensure that the rapid expansion of offshore wind farms, vital for achieving global net-zero targets, is delivered sustainably.

Professor Stephen Votier, expert in Seabird Ecology at the Lyell Centre, Heriot-Watt’s Global Research Institute for Earth and Marine Sciences, is leading the £3.5m project.

He said: “Floating offshore wind farms have the potential to accelerate global net zero targets however less is known about the ecological consequences, from ocean physics to biodiversity.

“By focusing our team’s expertise on ocean fronts, which play a vital role in driving marine productivity and climate cycling, the FRONTLINE project will improve understanding of how physical structures could affect plankton and forage fish dynamics, with knock-on effects on marine predators and commercial fisheries.”

The study is being co-led by project partners across the UK, including the Marine Biological Association (MBA), the University of Plymouth, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), the Universities of Oxford and Liverpool, and HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd.

Employing digital video aerial surveys and using seabirds as ‘animal oceanographers’ and ‘sentinels of the sea’, the team will harness their unique ability to provide a birds’-eye view on changing seas and turbine perception both above and under water. This novel approach will provide new insights into whether wind farm structures are creating collision hazards for seabirds and how ocean predator foraging habits are being affected.

PML will apply its expertise on satellite remote sensing to locate and characterise all shelf-sea fronts near the FLOW sites, both in near-real time to guide the AUV sampling plans and historically for seabird foraging studies.

The MBA and the University of Plymouth are jointly leading AUV deployments in the Celtic Sea to investigate key ecosystem drivers, from physical ocean features to biological hotspots like plankton blooms and forage fish at the bottom of the ocean food web.

Leveraging NERC’s Autosub Long Range 1500—famously known as Boaty McBoatface— which is unique in its ability to operate in strong tidal flows for weeks at a time, they will enhance its capabilities with digital plankton imaging technology developed at the University of Plymouth. This innovation will complement a comprehensive suite of environmental sensors, providing a more mechanistic understanding of ocean ecosystem change.

In another scientific first, HiDef will also use the study to trial the deployment of acoustic recorders for detecting marine mammals around ocean fronts, which will provide insight into how they’re used by apex marine predators.