Dunstaffnage
Marine Laboratory (DML), Scotland
Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory (DML) is a world class research facility
on the west coast of Scotland. It is Scotland's only fundamental marine
research institution. DML is owned and operated by the Scottish
Association for Marine Science (SAMS), an Association with over 110 years
of international expertise in marine science. SAMS is also an academic
partner in the University of the Highlands and Islands project. Science
programme funding is provided by the Natural Environmental Research
Council (NERC) in addition to considerable funding from the European
Union, Government departments and agencies and industry. The Dunstaffnage
Marine Laboratory has an annual turnover of more than £3 million.
The
Laboratory employs over 110 scientists and support staff, who play a major
role in many national and international scientific research programmes.
The research covers a broad spectrum of issues from deep sea fisheries to
biogeochemistry and climate change and ranges geographically from the
South Pacific to Antarctica, from the shores of Loch Etive to the deep
waters of the abyssal plains off the west of Scotland. SAMS supports a
prestigious Research Fellowship programme.
Two U.K. national facilities are hosted at DML; the NERC Centre for Scientific Diving and the marine section of the Culture Collection for Algae and Protozoa.
The Laboratory is involved in the development of autonomous underwater landers with Aberdeen University and has recently been awarded nearly £1 million from the Joint Infrastructure Fund to build a new workshop, offices and pontoon.
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has also provided £350,000 for a new UHIp/SAMS Data Warehouse Facility to house the network provision for the developing university Wide Area Network.
The distribution and abundance of marine animals are often affected by the physical and chemical characteristics of their environment. The objectives are to assess and quantify the effects of natural environmental variation and man's impacts on the health and abundance of marine species of direct and indirect commercial importance. The main project areas include a long term (5 years plus) assessment of physical and chemical influences on year class strengths of inshore gadoid (cod-like) populations and the use of artificial reef habitats to enhance inshore fisheries (to include the deployment of the world's largest experimental artificial reef complex starting construction in 2000).
Coastal Impact Research Group
The coastal impact
research group is involved in a wide range of research relating to man’s
impact on the marine environment. We have studied the potential impacts of
oil exploration on the West Coast of Scotland, sewage outfalls and the
construction of harbour structures. A key area of concern is the impact of
marine fish farming on the marine environment both in terms of organic
carbon/nutrients and chemicals (e.g. metals, antibiotics and sea lice
treatment agents). A major strength is in modelling the deposition and
benthic effects of particulate organic material and associated chemicals:
our DEPOMOD computer model is extensively used
by the regulators (SEPA) in the discharge consenting process. We are
currently co-ordinating a major collaborative study into the ecological
effects of sea lice treatment chemicals (MAFF funded) and are shortly to
start work on two European Union contracts: the first, MERAMED, concerns
the environmental impact of fish farming in the Eastern Mediterranean and
the second, BIOFAQs, co-ordinated at DML, involves research into the use
of in-situ biological filters to minimise impacts of effluent from fish
farms.
The group also has an interest in the use of lipid
markers to determine the source of the organic material found in areas
such as deep sea loch basins.
K. Black, C. Cromey, T. Nickell, P. Provost, S. Craig
& R. Dean