National Facility for Scientific Diving

03/04/2024

Please consider signing this petition to help save the hyperbaric chamber at Dunstaffnage, Oban. It is an essential service and the only facility on the west coast of Scotland supporting recreational and commercial divers, the aquaculture industry, as well as navy and police divers.

Prevent the closure of the NHS Recompression Chamber at Dunstaffnage, near Oban.

27/08/2021

This recently published paper on the biological communities associated with kelps was supported in part by diving services provided by the NFSD.

ABSTRACT: Foundation species elevate local biodiversity and underpin critical ecological processes and functions. Kelp species are distributed along ~25% of the world’s coastlines, where they serve as foundation species in intertidal and subtidal habitats. As well as ameliorating environmental con...

09/08/2021

Our latest paper, which involved using scientific diving for specimen collecion, is published here: www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/bot-2020-0023/html

This study aimed to survey algal model organisms, covering phylogenetically representative and ecologically relevant taxa. Reports about the occurrence of sulfonates (particularly sulfoquinovose, taurine, and isethionate) in marine algae are scarce, and their likely relevance in global biogeochemica...

10/03/2021

Global monitoring of the depth-resolved temperatures of inshore coastal waters could be augmented by recreational divers acting as citizen scientists. Divers control their dive profiles using decompression computers and these also measure and record temperature but to varying levels of accuracy and precision. A PhD project running at the University of East Anglia is evaluating the potential for dive computer information to contribute to oceanographic datasets. The practical experiments have been supported by NFSD funding. Celia Marlowe, the PhD candidate, has had her first paper from the study published today in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science -

There is a lack of depth-resolved temperature data, especially in coastal areas, which are often commonly dived by SCUBA divers. Many case studies have demonstrated that citizen science can provide high quality data, although users require more confidence in the accuracy of these data. This study ex...

20/01/2021

The field dive officer post for the British Antarctic Survey Rothera base is now being advertised for next season. The link is:

We are looking to appoint a Field Dive Officer (FDO) to support scientific SCUBA diving operations at our Rothera research station. The FDO is responsible for the supervision and organisation of all diving activities at Rothera. Requests for diving are made through the FDO and the FDO must be presen...

22/10/2020

A new paper has been published in the journal 'Biodiversity and Conservation' jointly with the Marine Biological Association and Aberystwyth University. NFSD divers contributed through the use of photogrammetry techniques to quantify the extent of crustose coraline algae in the understory environment of the kelp forests and also to measure the fine-scale rugosity of the reef substrate.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-020-02070-x

19/10/2020

As part of the team, the NFSD contributed to the large scale review of the conservation gains and key challenges from the BIOT MPA over the last 10 years.

Given the recent trend towards establishing very large marine protected areas (MPAs) and the high potential of these to contribute to global conservation targets, we review outcomes of the last decade of marine conservation research in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), one of the largest MP...

02/10/2020

Andrew Mogg is a post-doctoral researcher employed at Tritonia Scientific Ltd., and a past member of the National Facility for Scientific Diving team. While working for both organisations, Andy and his colleague Dan Bayley from the University College London have been developing and evaluating a range of methodologies for applying structure from motion 3D modelling techniques for surveying and monitoring the structural complexity of underwater environments and habitats. Based primarily on coral reefs, although applicable for other underwater aplications, a pre-print of their work is published online and open access in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution today:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/2041-210X.13476

07/08/2020

Our diving support for the QICS programme contributes to this review that will be published in September: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103120

23/07/2020

Between 2014 and 2018, the NFSD provided the diving and logistical input that supported a lot of the Scottish component of this study:

natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/a-cry-for-kelp-quantifying-primary-productivity-in-cold-water-marine-forests?badge_id=591-scientific-reports

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-69238-x

Rates and drivers of primary productivity are well understood for many terrestrial ecosystems, but remain poorly resolved for many marine ecosystems, particularly those within in coastal benthic environments. We quantified net primary productivity (NPP) using two methods as well as carbon standing s...

13/05/2020

The study that we supported examining seaweeds growing on artificial reefs, that was published earlier in the year online, is now published in the April issue of the Journal of Applied Phycology - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-019-01918-2