EMAN7 stands for Environmental impact of Methane seepage and sub-seabed characterization at LoVe-Node 7. The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and industry (equinor, Total and Conoco Phillips), and consists in a consortium between UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, UiB and IMR.

EMAN 7 project aims to understand the environmental impact of methane seepage from the sea floor in Lofoten-Vesterålen area in Norway. Methane seepage can cause ocean acidification, which in turn may threaten the ecosystem.

LoVe Ocean Observatory, launched in 2020, makes it possible to consistently monitor the ocean off the coast of the Norwegian archipelago Lofoten and Vesterålen throughout the seasons. Norway is the first country to have strategically built cabled observatories within a vulnerable ecosystem in an area of high biological productivity as well as intense CH4 emissions. Several monitoring platforms (nodes) are placed on 60-kilometer-long fibre optic and electric cables, making it possible for most of them to be operative 24/7, all year round.

One of the nodes of LoVe is deployed on an active methane seepage area. Using ship measurements and time series from physical and biochemical sensors, we will investigate methane emission dynamics and past evolution, the causality between methane seepage and oceanic parameters as well as climate change, and how it affects biology and in particular coral reefs that live near the seepage.