LandSeaLot Integration Labs: Spotlight on the North Aegean Lab
What is an Integration Lab?
LandSeaLot Integration Labs (LILs) are testing sites in which researchers and partners are developing a common strategy for observing land-sea interface areas throughout Europe. LILs are piloting new methods, technologies and community-based approaches to improve how we observe, study and understand essential areas like river mouths, estuaries and deltas. These observations provide key knowledge to scientific and stakeholder communities, enabling them to tackle important societal challenges.
Exploring the North Aegean
The North Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment located between Greece and Turkey. It connects to the Black Sea in the northeast via the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, and to the rest of the eastern Mediterranean in the south. The area’s topography is characterised by numerous islands, and its benthic habitat features underwater sea caves, coastal lagoons and marshes.
Benefiting from low salinity and nutrient rich waters from rivers and Black Sea , the North Aegean is home to vast quantities of fish. It includes important fishing grounds such as the Strymonikos Gulf and Thracian Sea, which produces around 30% of Greece’s capture fisheries and plays a key role in the economy. Over time, tourism has emerged as the dominant industry and fostered significant socio-economic development.
Addressing Challenges at the Evros Delta
Running through the Balkans and forming the border between Greece and Turkey in its lower course, the Evros River flows into the Aegean Sea and at its coast forms a 188,000 m2 delta.
Over the past century, increased industrial and agricultural activity has significantly raised nutrient concentration in river waters. Along with plastic release, these changes impact human and ecosystem health and risk affecting local livelihoods.
At the North Aegean LIL, scientists and local communities are working together to learn how nutrient inputs and plastic pollution from the Evros River affect the health of the North Aegean Sea and the animals living in it.
Improving Observation
Understanding Nutrients
To study nutrients, LandSeaLot researchers use two models: a hydrochemical model that simulates discharge from the Evros River and levels of nitrogen in the water, and a high-resolution hydrodynamic/biogeochemical model that charts the impact of river nutrients on the coastal ecosystem. These models will integrate River Evros discharge, much of which derives from agricultural activities, and nutrients gathered from in situ (on-the-ground) monitoring, as well as satellite data. By growing shared knowledge about nutrient levels and dynamics in the area, researchers hope to contribute to the creation of early warning systems for pollution events which can help authorities mitigate or avoid the impacts of these events.
Understanding Plastics
The team are also studying how plastic waste travels through the Evros River and ultimately flows into the North Aegean. They are focussing on both macroplastics (large plastic material like bottles and bags) and microplastics (smaller plastics that result from the disintegration of plastic, which can be almost invisible). Through their work with LandSeaLot, researchers in the area hope to better understand the type and amount of plastics found in the area as well as their origin and fate.
To track plastic pathways from the river to the North Aegean, scientists will use computer models that can simulate the drift of plastic particles at the river-sea interface. Images from cameras installed in branches of the river, will be analysed by algorithms to monitor macroplastics as they travel towards the sea. This activity will provide valuable information about the size and volume of macroplastics that flow through the river to the coastal area.
These observations will be further enhanced with satellite data, emerging technologies, and local collaborations – including the recruitment of local fishers who will integrate observation into their every day activities.
Emerging technologies and new collaborations
Growing shared knowledge
LandSeaLot scientists are teaming up with local organisations and citizen scientists to gather information on parameters like temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, oxygen levels and plastics. These efforts will be done with the help of cost-effective technology: small, affordable sensors and other devices that are typically more accessible and easier to use than traditional observation methods. The scientific team will collaborate with local university members and personnel from the Evros River Management Unit to test and install buoys, sensors and gather and evaluate data.
Fishers track plastics using enhanced nets: a novel approach
A novel citizen science collaboration is set to launch in October 2025 with the training of local fishers in the use of Manta nets. These special nets can collect large amounts of microplastics for further analysis in an accessible and cost-effective manner. Later in the month, stakeholders will meet for hands-on training in observation technologies, empowering new groups to observe together and grow our shared knowledge about how human actions are impacting the land-sea interface.
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