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Wyville Thomson Ridge Survey WTR0924S (Blog #1): The two faces of Wyville Thomson Ridge MPA

By James Albrecht and Stephanie Clarkson

Find out more about our offshore survey work in our latest blog post, from our offshore surrey team, who have recently set sail to Wyville Thompson Ridge Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

As part of JNCC’s MPA monitoring programme, a team of scientists and engineers from JNCC and the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate are surveying Wyville Thomson Ridge MPA in July and August 2024, aboard the Marine Research Vessel (MRV) Scotia.

Image 1: JNCC survey scientists onboard MRV Scotia, departing from Aberdeen
(photo courtesy of Tom Tangye).

The Wyville Thomson Ridge is a distinctive plateaued ridge that extends from the Scottish Shelf towards the Faroese Shelf. The ridge’s peak reaches approximately 300 m below sea-level and the flanks of the ridge descend to over 1,000 m. The Wyville Thomson Ridge itself cuts between the southern end of the Faroe Shetland Channel and the northern end of the Rockall Trough. This locates the ridge in a unique position, with cold deep-water moving down from the Arctic to meet the northern side of the ridge, and warmer Atlantic waters moving up to meet the southern side of the ridge. This occurrence results in the north and south faces of Wyville Thomson Ridge providing a home for a range of different species, including the presence of Arctic species within UK waters.

Another interesting aspect of the Wyville Thomson Ridge are the iceberg ploughmarks. During previous ice ages, when sea-levels were much lower than they are today, icebergs that drifted across the ridge would scrape the ridge’s plateau and create furrows, with large boulders being pushed up onto the furrows' edges. These iceberg ploughmarks and boulders still stand proud to this day and form important habitats for a variety of filter feeding animals (such as sponges and soft corals).

Wyville Thomson Ridge MPA covers the part of Wyville Thomson Ridge within UK waters. It is a Special Area of Conservation designated for the protection of rocky reefs (Annex I reefs – including the area of iceberg ploughmarks). The conservation objective for the designated reef feature of the MPA is to maintain or restore to favourable condition. For further information on the Wyville Thomson Ridge MPA, please visit the MPA’s site information centre.

Image 2: Map showing the location of Wyville Thomson Ridge MPA and surrounding geographic features.

This survey aims to acquire a robust long-term monitoring dataset to contribute towards the monitoring time-series which will look to analyse the change in condition of the feature protected within this MPA. This data will predominately be collected through drop-frame camera surveys at stations from across the entire site. Where possible, conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) transects will also be undertaken to collect environmental data within the MPA.

The survey team set sail on 23 July, and are due to return to shore in mid-August, so do stay tuned to our blog and follow @JNCC_UK on X/Twitter to find out more.

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