The Western Channel Observatory (WCO), located in the Western English Channel off southwest UK, provides one of the world's longest-running records of coupled physical, biogeochemical and ecological observations. Traditional weekly sampling over almost four decades, has revealed long-term trends in plankton seasonality, community succession, and ecosystem variability, but many biological responses occur on timescales that are difficult to resolve through conventional monitoring alone.
Recent advances in automated imaging technologies are providing new opportunities to observe plankton communities at much higher temporal and spatial resolution. At the WCO, imaging technologies including FlowCam, the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) , the Automated in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS), and an underway Plankton Imager are being combined with microscopy-based observations and environmental measurements to characterise plankton communities from hourly to seasonal timescales and from a fixed coastal station to transect scales. This combination provides a unique opportunity to examine how the different approaches complement one another and to assess the additional ecological insights gained through higher-frequency observations.
Drawing on examples from across the WCO observing system, including observations collected during a recent sustained marine heatwave, this presentation will explore how high-frequency imaging can resolve rapid changes in plankton community structure that are often missed by weekly sampling. By integrating imaging, environmental and long-term ecological observations, the WCO provides a unique opportunity to examine ecosystem responses to environmental variability while evaluating how emerging technologies can be effectively incorporated into sustained monitoring programmes.