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Secchi Disk Study

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By Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0, https___commons.wikimedia.org_w_index.php_curid=287428
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Secchi Disk Study

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Seafarers can take part in a unique global study, using a mobile phone app to record the effects of climate change. The public science project measures the amount of phytoplankton - minute organisms at the very start of the marine food chain - currently residing in the world’s oceans. To check the levels of phytoplankton in our ocean, they've developed a simple piece of equipment that you can order or make yourself and a free smart phone app for sailors and fishermen to use wherever they are in the world.

WHAT

Help researchers understand the impact of climate change on phytoplankton

HOW

Use one of the oldest and simplest marine scientific tools to map the ocean's phytoplankton and submit your findings via a free app

WHERE (LAND) 

Global

WHERE (SEA) 

All Seas

TOPICS:

SPECIES:

EQUIPMENT/TASKS:

GOOD TO KNOW

The free app is called Secchi after Father Pietro Angelo Secchi, an astronomer who invented the disk device in 1865 to measure water turbidity in the Mediterranean.

RUN BY

Secchi Disk Foundation

SUITABLE FOR

Beginner

PARTICIPANT LOCATION

Offshore (>12nm), Inshore (<12nm), Coast/Beach

PROJECT SOCIALS 

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IF WE CAN JUST GET A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE GLOBAL POPULATION OF SAILORS INVOLVED, WE CAN GENERATE A DATABASE THAT WILL HELP US UNDERSTAND HOW LIFE IN THE OCEANS IS CHANGING. IT WOULD HELP US LEARN MUCH MORE ABOUT THESE IMPORTANT ORGANISMS AT A CRUCIAL TIME WHEN THEIR HABITAT IS ALTERING DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE.

Dr Richard Kirby, Project Leader, Secchi Disk Study

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