Science Evidence Data and Digital Portfolio Annual Report 2024 - 2025

Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystems (CCBE)

Headlines

• Our Oceanography Team completed 3 surveys on MRV Scotia (spring, autumn and winter), primarily along standard hydrographic monitoring lines in the Faroe Shetland Channel and northern North Sea (plus west coast locations in Loch Ewe and Loch Broom), collecting just under 550 salinity, 830 chlorophyll, 1100 nutrient, 600 dissolved oxygen and 40 TA/DIC samples. They carried out 8 zooplankton tows and holographic camera profiles, deployed and recovered 8 oceanographic moorings and 7 passive acoustic moorings, and recovered one Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
• A new version of the Firth of Forth & Tay and wider Scottish east coast hydrodynamic model has been developed in collaboration with partners in NERC/ TCE-funded ECOWind PELAgIO project, to investigate the potential impacts of large offshore wind farms on physical and biogeochemical water column processes in our shelf seas. Approx. 45,000 CPU hours were used for model development and implementation on our High Performance Computer cluster.
• The Clean Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme (CSEMP) carried out extensive sample collection for contaminant analysis: e.g. 73 biota (fish and mussels) and 89 sediment samples were collected for the analysis of polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. 12 mussel pools and 57 sediment samples were collected for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons analyses. 158 biota samples and 106 sediment samples were collected for the analysis of metals. 102 sediment samples collected in 2023 - 24 were analysed for metals (contracted to Cefas).
• The CSEMP carried out further sample collection for biological effects analysis e.g. 550 fish were assessed for fish disease and samples collected for liver neoplasm and age assessment. 273 fish samples were collected for PAH bile metabolite analysis, 157 fish samples were collected for EROD analysis, 400 samples were collected for micronuclei analysis. 303 historic PAH bile metabolite samples processed.
• Seafloor litter data was collected on 5 International Bottom Trawl surveys (IBTS) and submitted to ICES Database of Trawl Surveys (DATRAS). Seafloor litter was collected on 7 non-IBTS surveys. Microplastic in surface water data was collected on 3 CSEMP surveys from 55 catamaran trawls.
• Environmental genomics team visited 28 marine and 20 freshwater sites and analysed 122 seawater and 69 river water samples for presence of marine and freshwater invasive non-native species environmental DNA (eDNA).
• Invasive non-native species team responded to four enquiries from the general public, reporting presence of suspected marine invasive non-native species and carried out a survey in Loch Creran to support control and management of highly invasive non-native carpet sea squirt.
• The Plankton team participated in the successful Defra mNCEA project ‘Pelcap’ which investigated plankton as natural capital, integration of new technologies into existing time series, eutrophication, environmental drivers of plankton variability and potential for the inclusion of Harmful Algal Blooms and ‘tiny’ plankton into statutory assessment.

Key Work in 2024 - 2025

1. Statutory monitoring, assessment and reporting serving the 2025 publication of the UK Marine Strategy.

Validation of the 2025 Programme of Measures published under Part 3 of the UK Marine Strategy.

Contributes to:

Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) and the North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2030 (NEAES 2030), which require all Member States to take the coherent and collaborative action necessary to protect Europe’s seas. The UK Marine Strategy sets out the legislative framework to achieve conservation goals. Key to this objective is assessment and reporting and the implementation of a programme of management measures. Monitoring and assessment is also required by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 to provide underpinning evidence for the National Marine Plan 2.

2. Monitoring and mapping tools supporting spatial management with respect to: Marine Restoration, Marine Protected Areas, and the distribution of key marine species such as sandeel.

Contributes to:

SG deliverables set out in the: Future Fisheries Management Strategy, Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and the forthcoming National Marine Plan.

3. The provision and drafting of evidence that provides better contextual advice relating to ecosystem processes and climate change.

Contributes to:

The Blue Carbon Action Plan, Scottish Blue Carbon Forum, Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029.

Climate Change Plan and UK Climate Change Risk Assessment.

Case study: Flapper skate in the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area

The flapper skate, Dipturus intermedius, is the largest of all European skates and rays and is an ecologically important predator and a popular target of recreational angling. It has experienced a significant decline over the last century, as a result of overfishing, and disappeared from much of its former geographical range, including all European waters. This decline resulted in the establishment of the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area (LStSJ MPA) in 2014 by the Scottish Government and is the only MPA dedicated to an elasmobranch (sharks, skates and rays) in Europe. Protection of a resident population of flapper skate was the main conservation objective of the LStSJ MPA designation. To understand if the MPA was having a positive impact on skate, MD SEDD and NatureScot established a monitoring programme involving participatory science. These results have been published in the journal “Aquatic Conservation”.

Monitoring the effectiveness of the LStSJ MPA requires an assessment of the state of the resident flapper skate population within the MPA. Key metrics such as resident population size, mortality rate, rates of movements within and outside the MPA are needed to assess population recovery and the potential for spillover effects to benefit the wider area. Capture- Mark-Recapture programmes, involving the recapture of fish marked (using artificial or natural tags) at previous sampling occasions, allow the estimation of such metrics. The Capture-Mark-Recapture programme used in this study relies on both a conventional tagging programme and participatory science. The conventional tagging programme was led by

NatureScot, the Marine Directorate and the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network while participatory science relied on trophy pictures submitted by recreative anglers and compiled in a photo-identification catalogue developed by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) and NatureScot. The clear benefits of participatory science are:

I. the use of non-destructive sampling methods compatible with conservation objectives (catch and release by rod and line),

II. a significant increase of sampling power at minimum cost and

III. raising awareness on the conservation objectives through public involvement in the monitoring programme.

Following the introduction of fishing restrictions, a substantial increase in resident skate abundance was observed. As the scale of this trend was not mirrored in the wider west of Scotland area, it appears to demonstrate a recovery of the resident skate population within the LStSJ MPA following the introduction of fisheries measures. The recovery was associated with an increase in survival rate within the MPA. The limited movement of skate between sites within the MPA and to a site outside the MPA, indicated a low level of spillover between the MPA and the wider area, suggesting a structure composed of multiple local, discrete populations.

This study demonstrates that spatial fishery restrictions have the potential to markedly benefit populations of elasmobranchs, like flapper skate, which have a high site-fidelity. The recovery of the flapper skate may be accompanied by recovery of other demersal species and could have wider ecosystem impacts.