Land-Ocean Interaction Study (LOIS)
Programme background
LOIS investigated sediments, nutrients and contaminants from the watershed to the edge of the coastal shelf. The programme quantified and modelled fluxes of these materials and investigated how they are transformed as they move through river catchments, estuaries and coastal seas.
This highly interdisciplinary study considered riverine, atmospheric, estuarine, coastal and shelf processes. The work included a major geological study of the sedimentary record across the coastal zone to determine how fluxes of material have influenced sea level, climate and land use.
The main study area was the UK East Coast from Berwick upon Tweed to Great Yarmouth, concentrating on the Humber and its catchment, and to a lesser extent the River Tweed. A shelf edge study focused on an area to the west of Scotland.
The large data sets from the riverine monitoring network, from long-term deployments of mooring systems, from cruises and from remote sensing are being maintained by five Data Centres, making data available to scientists and other interested people. Much of the data is available through a series of LOIS CD-ROMs.