Connectivity of Hard Substrate Assemblages in the North Sea (CHASANS)

全球对能源的需求以及对全球变暖和能源安全的担忧促使许多国家寻找新的、可持续的能源来源。与此同时，石油和天然气行业正在寻求在其生命周期即将结束时退役重要的基础设施。目前正在进行明显的过渡，这给基础设施管理带来了挑战。在离岸工业提出的问题中，有一些是由于其结构的生物殖民而引起的。该项目的目的是描述结构之间的连通性，并了解当北海北部的网络拆除或增加结构时对其他部门的影响。该项目是与几个部门、政府和工业伙伴共同设计的，重点将是将科学成果转化为海上行动。殖民的重要性既是因为需要使开发有效(以成本效益地生产可靠的能源)，也是为了确保开发在环境上是可以接受的。“环境可接受”包括多个方面，从维持健康的海洋生物到避免与其他海洋使用者发生冲突，包括可能对开发地点拥有优先主权的渔民。这个项目的研究将是多样化的，涵盖了许多因素。该项目的一个重点将是部署一个标准监测系统，旨在利用实用和有效的方法促进数据收集。该系统的中心是沉淀板，这些沉淀板将逐渐被生物污染的海洋无脊椎动物殖民。这些生物可能会阻碍能量捕获装置的性能，但也可能是海洋生物茁壮成长的基础。包括合适的壁龛在内的结构可以为螃蟹和龙虾等较大的生物提供生存空间，增加它们的“礁石效应”。珊瑚礁效应对加强海洋生物(生物多样性)可能很重要，但也应该有利于商业渔业，补偿渔民失去一些机会。然而，也可能存在危险，例如可能增加入侵物种的传播，研究也将考虑这一点。归根结底，我们希望找到一种方法，确保近海基础设施对海洋环境是积极的补充，我们的研究将指向这一目标。

A global demand for energy in parallel with concerns about global warming and energy security are motivating many nations to look for novel and sustainable sources of energy. At the same time the Oil ad Gas Industry is looking to decommission significant infrastructure as it comes to the end of its life cycle. There is a clear transition underway which brings challenges of infrastructure management.Among the issues raised by the offshore industries are those arising from the biological colonization of their structures. This project is aimed at describing the connectivity between structures and understanding the consequences for other sectors when structures are removed or added to the network in the norther North Sea. The project has been designed with several sectoral, governmental and industrial partners and there will be a strong emphasis on converting the scientific results into action at sea.The importance of colonization arises both from the need to make the developments efficient (to produce a reliable source of energy cost effectively) and to ensure the developments are environmentally acceptable. "Environmentally acceptable" covers a multitude of points, ranging from maintaining healthy sea life to avoiding conflicting with other sea users, including fishers who may have a prior claim on the development sites. The research in this project will be diverse to cover the many factors. A keystone of the project will be deployments of a Standard Monitoring System designed to facilitate data collection using practical and effective methods. That system centres on settling plates that will be progressively colonized by biofouling marine invertebrates. These organisms can impede the performance of the energy capturing devices, but can also be a foundation of thriving sea life. Structures including suitable niches can provide living space for larger organisms such as crabs and lobsters, adding to their "reef effect". The reef effect can be important to enhance marine life (biodiversity) but should also be beneficial to commercial fisheries, compensating fishers for some loss of access. However, there can also be dangers such as potentially adding to the spread of invasive species, and the research will also consider that. Ultimately, we want to find a way to ensure that offshore infrastructure is a positive addition to the marine environment and our research will be directed to that end.