Contract Announced for Climate Change Monitoring Buoys in the Caribbean

Xylem’s YSI Integrated Systems and Services (USA) has been awarded a contract for five marine monitoring buoys by The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). The buoys will collect high-quality data for researchers studying climate change in the Caribbean Sea, including the waters of Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, and Trinidad & Tobago. 

“The Caribbean is a unique part of the world. Our waters are the ‘bread basket’ for the region, and we must be diligent in protecting and sustaining them,” says Dr. Kenrick Leslie, CCCCC executive director. “We are very excited to build our education and research infrastructure with the addition of this important technology project for addressing the impacts of climate change on the Caribbean ecosystem.”

The customised YSI EMM 2000 buoys will measure, record and transmit real-time water quality and meteorological data as key components of a Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS).

Coral reefs play an extremely important role in the Caribbean economy for tourism as well as food production and food security. The regions’ unique reefs have been impacted by rising sea temperatures and pollution. Long-term monitoring of environmental conditions in the Caribbean will help researchers track the health of the reefs, among the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet, and mirrors similar systems already installed at key reef sites in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Data will allow development of climate models and ecological forecasting in coral reef ecosystems.

“The CREWS system integrates products from a number of Xylem brands and exemplifies true collaboration amongst the Xylem teams, providing a cohesive solution for CCCCC,” says Chris McIntire, president of Xylem Analytics. The Xylem products included in the CREWS system include the YSI EXO2 water quality sondes; SonTek Argonaut XR velocimeters; meteorological sensors and cellular or GOES satellite telemetry. The stations will take long-term measurements of sea temperature, depth, salinity, algae, turbidity, dissolved organic matter, as well as wave velocity and weather data. Data acquisition systems on the buoys will gather and transmit the data. Solar panels will power the entire system.

Caribbean researchers and scientists from national and regional universities, government coastal marine research departments and non-governmental organisations are expected to use and benefit from the data to be generated by the CREWS stations. The CREWS system will be expandable with additional sensors and parameters—such as CO₂ and underwater photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)—to accommodate visiting researchers who later join the collaborative project.

The CCCCC will work with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and YSI to install and operate this network, beginning in spring 2013.

The CREWS project is funded by the European Union and the Global Climate Change Alliance in the amount of US $617,000 (€ 465,000) and is part of a wider climate change project – “The Global Climate Change Alliance Caribbean Support Project” being implemented by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre.