This piece is the 2024 remastering of The Sonification of the Western Channel Observatory, originally published in October 2021. In this piece, data from the WCO L4 station is sonified. The 2024 remastered version was prepared for submission to the Climate Creatives Challenge, round 4: https://www.climatecreativeschallenge.com/
The Western Channel Observatory’s L4 buoy is 4 miles off the coast of Cornwall and is the site of several long term oceanographic and marine biodiversity datasets. At L4, the water’s nutrients, phytoplankton and zooplankton are measured every week by PML. In this piece, these datasets were sonified and represented by Violin, Cello and Piano parts, then set to music where the data value is linked to the pitch.
The video shows how dynamic and vibrant a healthy marine ecosystem can be, highlighting annual blooms, overwintering, trophic cascades and more. By showing how much every year differs, this piece communicates the importance of long term monitoring to understand the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems.
The WCO is NERC-funded National Capability operated by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML). The L4 station is the site of several long term oceanographic and marine biodiversity datasets. The L4 station is 4 miles off the coast of Cornwall, about halfway to the Eddystone Lighthouse. The nitrate concentration (top), phytoplankton biomass (mid) and zooplankton biomass (bottom) and other measurements are taken every week at L4 using the PML research vessels, and hourly by an automated buoy. This data is all made publicly available via the WCO website and the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC).
The annual cycle of both phytoplankton and surface nutrients at L4 can be seen in this timeseries. The nutrients are replenished in the winter by storms mixing nutrient rich deep water with surface layers. In the spring and summer, the phytoplankton bloom, consuming much of the nutrients.
Phytoplankton are consumed by zooplankton, become limited by shorter days and increased mixing, and the bloom fades. The annual cycle repeats, but no two years are quite the same.
The data value is linked to the pitch. High data creates louder and higher pitch notes. The figure shows both the original data and the data after sonification. Melodic and rhythmic musical context is added through the bass and drum parts. Each month of L4 data is used to generate one musical beat, so a full year is exactly three bars.
The musification process used in the Earth System Music project is fully described in de Mora et al. (2020): DOI:10.5194/gc-3-263-2020
Thanks to PML’s Andrea McEvoy, Angus Atkinson, Tim Smyth and Claire Widdicombe for the help accessing, interpreting and describing the L4 data!
The data used here is available:
– Nutients: https://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk/l4_nutrients.php
– Phytoplankton: https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/c9386b5c-b459-782f-e053-6c86abc0d129/
– Zooplankton (note that the up to date version was used here, which will be published soon): https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/published_data_library/catalogue/10.5285/827b5179-90a1-69d8-e053-6c86abc06f55/
The WCO website includes a more in-depth explanation of the science, the history and the data of the Western Channel Observatory: https://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk/index.php
More videos from PML: https://www.youtube.com/user/PMLAdministrator
About me: I’m Dr. Lee de Mora, a marine ecosystem modeller and musician based in Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, in the UK. I’ve helped develop and evaluate the UKESM model and the ESMValTool model evaluation suite. I also play bass and guitar in the Plymouth based band, Glass Curtain: http://glasscurtainband.weebly.com .
About PML: For over 40 years, PML has provided evidence-based environmental solutions to societal challenges by applying cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research that benefits society and promotes stewardship of marine ecosystems. Since 2002, and in association with a wide range of national and international partners, PML have provided these capabilities as an independent company limited by guarantee with charitable status.
If you enjoy this, please like and subscribe.
Socials:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeedeMora
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeedeMora
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lee-de-Mora
#Music #Science #ClimateChange #MarineScience #Ocean #OriginalMusic #MarineBiology #Piano #midi #reaper #PML #NERC #UKESM #UKRI #COP26
1 Comment
So cool!