The Trump administration is dismantling a US$368 million (S$470 million) deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) said it would send ships in June to begin removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington state, Alaska, North Carolina, and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea.
Scientists have used data from the system to understand how the ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, how changes in ocean temperature such as marine heat waves might affect fisheries or signal bigger shifts in the climate, and coastal flooding along the East Coast.
The station in the Irminger Sea has been key to understanding changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, a global conveyor belt of water that some scientists are concerned may be weakening as a result of climate warming.
A collapse of the current could have severe weather effects.
The Irminger Sea moorings are fixed to seafloor 2804m below the surface and are part of an international collaboration among scientists who are studying the overturning current.
Michael England, a spokesman for the National Science Foundation, said the decision to dismantle the network, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, “aligns with NSF’s wider strategy to have a nimbler approach to prioritising support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure”.
Craig McLean, who was the acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the first Trump term, said the move was part of a pattern in the Trump administration.
“This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit,” McLean said.
“By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership.”
The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years.
Removing the instruments could take 15 months.
Seismic instruments positioned around an active underwater volcano off Oregon will continue operating until 2028. NYTIMES
