SmartBuoy

These autonomous systems are moored, automated, multi-parameter recording platforms used to collect marine environmental data. The data they collect aid or provide:

evidence used for eutrophication assessments
improved understanding of environmental variability
new insights into ecosystem function
monitoring change in marine biodiversity
improved model validation and testing
confirming satellite imagery of the sea ("ground truthing").
Over ten years of high-frequency data has provided our customers with robust data sets, enabling them to make sound decisions about water quality, for example.

Our SmartBuoys collect high-frequency timeseries of surface (at 1 metre) salinity, temperature, turbidity, oxygen saturation, chlorophyll fluorescence and nitrate concentration. Water samples are collected and preserved onboard for later analysis of nutrients and phytoplankton species. Deployments can, for instance, highlight increases in nutrient-rich freshwater inputs and the variable timing of springtime blooms.