Shore Patrol

AAAS: “Shore Patrol,” There is an “ambitious and unprecedented effort to deploy legions of the small sensors…all along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.” The fancy name for this effort: the Atlantic Ocean Coupled Coastal Temperature and Biodiversity Observation Network, which has embedded nearly 1800 sensors at 162 locations along the Atlantic’s eastern and western shorelines. “Satellites and airborne sensors provide only coarse measurements along these rugged continental edges, and buoys typically float too far from shore to allow accurate readings.” Climate change + other factors are affecting this notoriously harsh + dynamic intertidal zone, where waves + tides create a complicated mosaic of microhabitats. ‘Another data point: Research assistant Mar Humet Caballero delicately pressed a tiny square black device against the shell of a limpet to “listen” to its heartbeat…instrument produces an infrared beam that passes through the shell and reflects off the snail’s beating, three-chambered heart.’ [An increased heartbeat may mean the limpet is experiencing heat stress]. Scientists collaborating around the world are installing sensors along stretches of South America, Iceland…islands off Brazil and in the southern Atlantic, including South Georgia Island and the Falkland chain. Collaboration is part of what good science is all about.

Graphic of sites on Atlantic shore, scientist drilling for an installation of sensor, scientists in boat scouting sites