Understanding trophic links between marine plankton to consumers to improve assessments of UK pelagic habitats

Lead Research Organisation: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
Department Name: CPR Survey

Abstract

Phytoplankton are responsible for 50% of global photosynthetic productivity, recycling nutrients to sustain life in our oceans. Even within the microscopic size of phytoplankton there is a huge size range, from 2 microns to 100 microns. The smallest phytoplankton are called Picophytoplankton are are less than 2 microns in size and can contribute up to 55% of the phytoplankton biomass in UK marine waters and are very adaptable. They are made up of thousands of different varieties of species, but some types, especially cyanobacteria are well studied using a method called flow cytometry based on their size and photosynthetic pigments. Cyanobacteria can thrive in low nutrient environments and associated with weaker energy transfer at each stage of the food chain. The next size is nanophytoplankton which range from 2-20 microns in size and are more complex, again made up of thousands of species and some types can be studied using flow cytometry whilst others are counted using a microscope. Larger phytoplankton are called microphytoplankton. Zooplankton are tiny animals or protozoa that eat phytoplankton and known as primary consumers. They are eaten in turn by young fish. Microphytoplankton and Zooplankton are easier to count on a microscope because they are easier to see and are used in official government assessments of marine health for sustainability to ensure larger marine organisms are getting enough food from phytoplankton or zooplankton. Currently small phytoplankton are not included in these assessments because their monitoring is less universal.

Several recent studies show Phytoplankton and Zooplankton are changing in UK waters. In the Western English Channel, small-sized cyanobacterial phytoplankton have been increasing in the summer seasons over 50 years. At the same time, key zooplankton such as small crustaceans called copepods, have declined by 50% over the same period in summer. They normally feed on phytoplankton and is a concern. It is known that size of plankton can affect how much energy moves up the food web to fish and marine mammals, with smaller phytoplankton associated with less energy transfer. One possible link between smaller phytoplankton and zooplankton is the timing of their appearance. If larger phytoplankton are growing and peaking earlier this may not match the timing of zooplankton or young fish key growth stages. Our team has already found time-based relationships within smaller phytoplankton and environmental variables and found that smaller phytoplankton growth characteristics are quite consistent across different UK water bodies using a novel method called Continuous wavelet transformation(CWT). Our earlier exploratory studies of interactions even within small phytoplankton aggregate groups and bacteria have confirmed relationships within these biological groups and also with environmental variables like temperature and nitrogen-based nutrients.

Our aim now is to see if CWT can identify time-based relationships across the marine food web from smaller phytoplankton and larger phytoplankton, zooplankton and young fish. This approach has not been used before. Ultimately we want to create a statistical model to see if smaller phytoplankton affect the growth of larger marine organisms. Additionally we want to use this approach to find key relationships that can easily be used to measure food webs in official governmental assessments of marine health, such as OSPAR.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description Our research group explored time-based relationships between different sets of plankton and how small plankton are related to larger plankton. This is important as its a measure of how much food and energy gets transferred to larger marine animals. It is also a measure of ocean productivity, such as carbon drawdown and oxygen production required to maintain the balance. Using a special method called wavelet coherence, we could find relationships between plankton and ocean variables that are influenced by human activity, such as ocean temperature. We built a model to show how ocean temperature can influence fluctuations in plankton groups which explain up to half the the relationships. We have explored the use of these plankton as lifeforms and their readiness to act as indicators of ocean health. We have published a paper looking at the smallest (tiny) planktonic organisms and their use as indicators and found that the tiny plankton make up the majority of biomass and abundance in the English Channel. This project was carried out in close collaboration with a second project with the UK Pelagic Habitats Expert Group where we provided recommendations for food webs and nutrient cycling.
Exploitation Route The findings have been recommended to DEFRA and to the UK Pelagic habitat Expert Group where we will explore their utility as indicators of good environmental health. This will be the start of the process of recommendations to integrate all planktonic lifeforms into the UK Marine Strategy to monitor the health of UK seas.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Environment

Government

Democracy and Justice

URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079
 
Description The findings have been reported to DEFRA and the UK Pelagic Expert Group where they will be used to further assess the use of recommended lifeforms as indicators for the UK Marine Strategy to measure the health of UK seas.
First Year Of Impact 2024
Sector Environment,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Contribution to policy and practice review science article
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/focsu.2023.1298800/full
 
Description Internal science advisory report to Defra on indicator development for tiny plankton
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079
 
Title New wavelet coherence based model on plankton interactions developed 
Description The research team developed a temperature wavelet predictive model to understand the annual fluctuations of plankton groups with each other, and with environmental drivers influenced by human activity, in this case sea surface temperature. This is a novel approach to investigate ecological interactions in this region, the English Channel monitoring station L4. A network of temporal interactions was mapped and the model developed to explain how much of the observed variability in abundance of plankton group matched up to the model's predicted values. 
Type Of Material Biological samples 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact This is a rare model of how plankton interact with each other from the tiniest cells to zooplankton that are prey for fish that will allow us to predict temperature responses on groups of plankton. It is very hard to trace the effects of a change all the way up a food web to fish. Such a method will be invaluable to quantitatively predict food webs and sustainability and biodiversity for monitoring healthy seas for the UK Marine Strategy. Additionally, the methodology can be applied and expanded for better predictive modelling of marine systems. 
 
Title Understanding trophic links between marine plankton to consumers to improve assessments of UK pelagic habitats 
Description Collated set of plankton data from the Western Channel Observatory station L4 and modelled coherence output tables at different significance levels. Sent to BODC 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The data will be available in 2 years or after publication of results, whichever comes first. The data is in a package of different planktonic datasets that is onerous to collate individually. It will allow researchers to evaluate the method and compare them to their own datasets. It provides transparency of methods and datasets 
 
Description Academic-policy collaboration developing novel methodology and application on long-term time series datasets 
Organisation Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Myself, Lawrence Sheppard, Clare Ostle, Abigail McQuatters-Gollop attend the UK Pelagic Habitat Expert Group alongside PML scientists (see below). We were able to discuss critical issues on plankton sustainability and a roadmap to monitoring plankton and wider marine biological health to protect functional biodiversity, food webs and ecosystem resilience. We collaborated with them to initially understand tiny plankton dynamics at station L4 alongside wider datasets and used a novel method to interpret plankton temporal dynamics alongside environmental variables influenced by human pressures. We then took it a step further to understand how responses from tiny plankton influence a wider set of planktonic organisms and developed models on human-influenced environmental pressures to develop a better understand on how changing environment impacts trophic food webs. This is an area of interest for PML scientists, I have lead a study that led to a publication that we both co-authored. I have now written further grants that include PML team in developing trophic food webs further using novel datasets.
Collaborator Contribution Angus Atkinson from PML provided critical advice for this grant application and throughput the project on plankton food web dynamics at station L4, an area he had been studying for a long time. Through him we could access several PML staff expertise (Malcolm Woodward, Glen Tarran, Elaine Fileman, Claire Widdicombe, Andrea McEvoy) interpreting the dataset PML those staff had generated. This has allowed us to develop novel methodology, test critical plankton size theory and compare our modelled outputs to with known phenomenon developed by their team. PML also provided all the data for this study. They co-aurthored a publication and will be co-authoring another one planned for later this year.
Impact Research paper (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079), press release (see URL above), policy paper to defra. Multi-disciplinary project involving taxonomy, ocean biogeochemistry, physics, numerical ecology, ecology and microbiology.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with UK Pelagic habitat expert Group 
Organisation Centre For Environment, Fisheries And Aquaculture Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We have used methodology in this grant to assess other time-series provided by these partners align with each other. We found broad common patterns that allowed us to assess how the smallest plankton groups (tiny plankton) vary with anthropogenically influence environmental variables. We have led a project and research paper on the use of this method for assessing these tiny plankton as potential indicators for marine health assessments.
Collaborator Contribution Members of these organisations provided data, contributed to discussions, science output, co-authored a paper and contributed to reports to DEFRA. They made applications for further research, that has been partly agreed. The other we are hopeful of getting.
Impact Publication in Ecological Indicators, Report to Defra, small amount of funding to continue investigating plankton relationships for indicator development.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with UK Pelagic habitat expert Group 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We have used methodology in this grant to assess other time-series provided by these partners align with each other. We found broad common patterns that allowed us to assess how the smallest plankton groups (tiny plankton) vary with anthropogenically influence environmental variables. We have led a project and research paper on the use of this method for assessing these tiny plankton as potential indicators for marine health assessments.
Collaborator Contribution Members of these organisations provided data, contributed to discussions, science output, co-authored a paper and contributed to reports to DEFRA. They made applications for further research, that has been partly agreed. The other we are hopeful of getting.
Impact Publication in Ecological Indicators, Report to Defra, small amount of funding to continue investigating plankton relationships for indicator development.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with UK Pelagic habitat expert Group 
Organisation Marine Scotland Science (MSS)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We have used methodology in this grant to assess other time-series provided by these partners align with each other. We found broad common patterns that allowed us to assess how the smallest plankton groups (tiny plankton) vary with anthropogenically influence environmental variables. We have led a project and research paper on the use of this method for assessing these tiny plankton as potential indicators for marine health assessments.
Collaborator Contribution Members of these organisations provided data, contributed to discussions, science output, co-authored a paper and contributed to reports to DEFRA. They made applications for further research, that has been partly agreed. The other we are hopeful of getting.
Impact Publication in Ecological Indicators, Report to Defra, small amount of funding to continue investigating plankton relationships for indicator development.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with UK Pelagic habitat expert Group 
Organisation Scottish Association For Marine Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We have used methodology in this grant to assess other time-series provided by these partners align with each other. We found broad common patterns that allowed us to assess how the smallest plankton groups (tiny plankton) vary with anthropogenically influence environmental variables. We have led a project and research paper on the use of this method for assessing these tiny plankton as potential indicators for marine health assessments.
Collaborator Contribution Members of these organisations provided data, contributed to discussions, science output, co-authored a paper and contributed to reports to DEFRA. They made applications for further research, that has been partly agreed. The other we are hopeful of getting.
Impact Publication in Ecological Indicators, Report to Defra, small amount of funding to continue investigating plankton relationships for indicator development.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaborative research on trophic connections with Plymouth Marine Laboratory 
Organisation Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Our research team analysed several of their long-term time series using a novel unique wavelet coherence method and generated a model. We further developed recommended lifeform pairs to recommend for the UK Marine Strategy that led to a publication, and further funding
Collaborator Contribution Angus Atkinson, Glen Tarran, Andrea McEvoy, Claire Widdicombe, Malcolm Woodward, Elaine Fileman provided the data, advice on interpreting the data, classifying the data for internal reports and for publications. This added impact to the publication and allowed us to succesfully receive further funding
Impact Data and modelled outputs have been deposited at BODC with a 2 year embargo or when the paper is published. Internal reports have been given but are not open to public as far as I am aware
Start Year 2022
 
Description Policy translation partnership 
Organisation Centre For Environment, Fisheries And Aquaculture Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution This project was discussed with Mike Best from the environment agency and other project partners as part of a wider UK Pelagic habitat expert advisory group that included CEFAS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Plymouth, Marine Scotland Science, SAMS. Our project aims aligned well with this group that sought to better understand plankton responses to human-influenced environmental pressures and how they link up the trophic food web, ultimately to identify potential indicators for policy in maintaining Good Environmental Status for UK seas. Myself and my team managed the project, collated data from PML and used novel temporal analysis methods to better understand links between ocean variables that are influenced by human pressures and plankton responses. This research team developed indicators and communication products (University of Plymouth), the MBA developed models of plankton dynamics, wrote an interim and final report for defra and wrote a current research paper in Ecological Indicators (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079).
Collaborator Contribution Mike Best lead overall efforts to bring in £75,000 funds from DEFRA (of which £36.5K went to researchers in this project) to deliver applied goals from this NERC project, notably the development of data products and indicators to measure environmental status of UK seas for the UK marine strategy and OSPAR. Mike provided leadership the UK Pelagic habitat expert group including representatives from five to seven organisations and supported efforts in capturing additional UK marine plankton datasets, liased with defra on funding and outputs and provided high level science advice and co-authorship on papers. Through this, he was able to secure future funding from defra to develop this work. Cefas provided datasets, leadership, scientific input and co-authorship on the above paper. Marine Science Scotland provided data, scientific advice and co-authorship on the above paper. Paul Tett from SAMS provided research advice, research outputs, co-authorship on this study, particularly on indicators and translation of science to policy.
Impact Policy report to defra with identified indicators, Data and associated modelled data deposited at BODC, publication and a second publication planned this year. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving ocean biogeochemistry, mathematical modelling, physics, plankton ecology, microbiology and taxonomy. Press release on the Ecological Indicators paper: https://www.mba.ac.uk/small-but-mighty-study-highlights-the-abundance-and-importance-of-the-oceans-tiniest-inhabitants/?_gl=1*c6jrsz*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjE5Njg5MTgxLjE3MDk4MTg5ODg.*_ga_PXG31YFK9X*MTcwOTgxODk4Ny4xLjAuMTcwOTgxODk4Ny4wLjAuMA..
Start Year 2021
 
Description Policy translation partnership 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution This project was discussed with Mike Best from the environment agency and other project partners as part of a wider UK Pelagic habitat expert advisory group that included CEFAS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Plymouth, Marine Scotland Science, SAMS. Our project aims aligned well with this group that sought to better understand plankton responses to human-influenced environmental pressures and how they link up the trophic food web, ultimately to identify potential indicators for policy in maintaining Good Environmental Status for UK seas. Myself and my team managed the project, collated data from PML and used novel temporal analysis methods to better understand links between ocean variables that are influenced by human pressures and plankton responses. This research team developed indicators and communication products (University of Plymouth), the MBA developed models of plankton dynamics, wrote an interim and final report for defra and wrote a current research paper in Ecological Indicators (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079).
Collaborator Contribution Mike Best lead overall efforts to bring in £75,000 funds from DEFRA (of which £36.5K went to researchers in this project) to deliver applied goals from this NERC project, notably the development of data products and indicators to measure environmental status of UK seas for the UK marine strategy and OSPAR. Mike provided leadership the UK Pelagic habitat expert group including representatives from five to seven organisations and supported efforts in capturing additional UK marine plankton datasets, liased with defra on funding and outputs and provided high level science advice and co-authorship on papers. Through this, he was able to secure future funding from defra to develop this work. Cefas provided datasets, leadership, scientific input and co-authorship on the above paper. Marine Science Scotland provided data, scientific advice and co-authorship on the above paper. Paul Tett from SAMS provided research advice, research outputs, co-authorship on this study, particularly on indicators and translation of science to policy.
Impact Policy report to defra with identified indicators, Data and associated modelled data deposited at BODC, publication and a second publication planned this year. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving ocean biogeochemistry, mathematical modelling, physics, plankton ecology, microbiology and taxonomy. Press release on the Ecological Indicators paper: https://www.mba.ac.uk/small-but-mighty-study-highlights-the-abundance-and-importance-of-the-oceans-tiniest-inhabitants/?_gl=1*c6jrsz*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjE5Njg5MTgxLjE3MDk4MTg5ODg.*_ga_PXG31YFK9X*MTcwOTgxODk4Ny4xLjAuMTcwOTgxODk4Ny4wLjAuMA..
Start Year 2021
 
Description Policy translation partnership 
Organisation Marine Scotland Science (MSS)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution This project was discussed with Mike Best from the environment agency and other project partners as part of a wider UK Pelagic habitat expert advisory group that included CEFAS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Plymouth, Marine Scotland Science, SAMS. Our project aims aligned well with this group that sought to better understand plankton responses to human-influenced environmental pressures and how they link up the trophic food web, ultimately to identify potential indicators for policy in maintaining Good Environmental Status for UK seas. Myself and my team managed the project, collated data from PML and used novel temporal analysis methods to better understand links between ocean variables that are influenced by human pressures and plankton responses. This research team developed indicators and communication products (University of Plymouth), the MBA developed models of plankton dynamics, wrote an interim and final report for defra and wrote a current research paper in Ecological Indicators (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079).
Collaborator Contribution Mike Best lead overall efforts to bring in £75,000 funds from DEFRA (of which £36.5K went to researchers in this project) to deliver applied goals from this NERC project, notably the development of data products and indicators to measure environmental status of UK seas for the UK marine strategy and OSPAR. Mike provided leadership the UK Pelagic habitat expert group including representatives from five to seven organisations and supported efforts in capturing additional UK marine plankton datasets, liased with defra on funding and outputs and provided high level science advice and co-authorship on papers. Through this, he was able to secure future funding from defra to develop this work. Cefas provided datasets, leadership, scientific input and co-authorship on the above paper. Marine Science Scotland provided data, scientific advice and co-authorship on the above paper. Paul Tett from SAMS provided research advice, research outputs, co-authorship on this study, particularly on indicators and translation of science to policy.
Impact Policy report to defra with identified indicators, Data and associated modelled data deposited at BODC, publication and a second publication planned this year. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving ocean biogeochemistry, mathematical modelling, physics, plankton ecology, microbiology and taxonomy. Press release on the Ecological Indicators paper: https://www.mba.ac.uk/small-but-mighty-study-highlights-the-abundance-and-importance-of-the-oceans-tiniest-inhabitants/?_gl=1*c6jrsz*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjE5Njg5MTgxLjE3MDk4MTg5ODg.*_ga_PXG31YFK9X*MTcwOTgxODk4Ny4xLjAuMTcwOTgxODk4Ny4wLjAuMA..
Start Year 2021
 
Description Policy translation partnership 
Organisation Scottish Association For Marine Science
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This project was discussed with Mike Best from the environment agency and other project partners as part of a wider UK Pelagic habitat expert advisory group that included CEFAS, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of Plymouth, Marine Scotland Science, SAMS. Our project aims aligned well with this group that sought to better understand plankton responses to human-influenced environmental pressures and how they link up the trophic food web, ultimately to identify potential indicators for policy in maintaining Good Environmental Status for UK seas. Myself and my team managed the project, collated data from PML and used novel temporal analysis methods to better understand links between ocean variables that are influenced by human pressures and plankton responses. This research team developed indicators and communication products (University of Plymouth), the MBA developed models of plankton dynamics, wrote an interim and final report for defra and wrote a current research paper in Ecological Indicators (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24001079).
Collaborator Contribution Mike Best lead overall efforts to bring in £75,000 funds from DEFRA (of which £36.5K went to researchers in this project) to deliver applied goals from this NERC project, notably the development of data products and indicators to measure environmental status of UK seas for the UK marine strategy and OSPAR. Mike provided leadership the UK Pelagic habitat expert group including representatives from five to seven organisations and supported efforts in capturing additional UK marine plankton datasets, liased with defra on funding and outputs and provided high level science advice and co-authorship on papers. Through this, he was able to secure future funding from defra to develop this work. Cefas provided datasets, leadership, scientific input and co-authorship on the above paper. Marine Science Scotland provided data, scientific advice and co-authorship on the above paper. Paul Tett from SAMS provided research advice, research outputs, co-authorship on this study, particularly on indicators and translation of science to policy.
Impact Policy report to defra with identified indicators, Data and associated modelled data deposited at BODC, publication and a second publication planned this year. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving ocean biogeochemistry, mathematical modelling, physics, plankton ecology, microbiology and taxonomy. Press release on the Ecological Indicators paper: https://www.mba.ac.uk/small-but-mighty-study-highlights-the-abundance-and-importance-of-the-oceans-tiniest-inhabitants/?_gl=1*c6jrsz*_up*MQ..*_ga*NjE5Njg5MTgxLjE3MDk4MTg5ODg.*_ga_PXG31YFK9X*MTcwOTgxODk4Ny4xLjAuMTcwOTgxODk4Ny4wLjAuMA..
Start Year 2021
 
Description Collaboration with ICES WGPME members on Marine Strategy Framework Directive indicator development 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Every European country is developing their own plankton indicators that provide a measure of marine health to comply with the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. This directive is very similar to the UK Marine Strategy and many members are looking at similar groups of organisms with similar issues. I have led the ICES Working Group for Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology (WGPME) since 2019 and every year we update ourselves on current knowledge and methods that brings in best practice for the science advice. As UK seas are shared with many European countries and even across the Atlantic Ocean this alerts us to large scale changes and priorities. The WGPME has formal reporting outputs reporting on progress and every 3 years writes a science report (due 2024). We have developed a shared data access point to allow other stakeholders to utilise aggregated data. This is accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, governmental and at the regional managerial scale down to researchers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.ices.dk/community/groups/pages/wgpme.aspx
 
Description Convening ICES Annual Science Conference session integrating molecular tools for policy and marine management 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This was a conference session (session F, September 12, 2023) at the Intergovernmental Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) that advises governments on marine sustainability. i am the chair of ICES Working Group for Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology. The session was to present and discuss ways in which molecular tools could be integrated into marine management. The trophic links project used long-term datasets of tiny plankton but these were rather broad, and generated questions on how we can develop more precise indicators using molecular data. This is a broad issue within other marine biological long-term datasets such as as those generated by microscopy. Therefore i helped organise this session with co-convenors from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Marine Institute Canada to integrate molecular data into existing long-term datasets. 91 people attended the actual session, we ran 3 polls on opinions and had several question and answer sessions. I co-wrote a report with these conveners recommending future action which has or will be published on ICES websites.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.ices.dk/events/asc/2023/Pages/Theme-session-F.aspx
 
Description Press release of publication related to tiny plankton indicators 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact This press release was to explain the paper and its impact on our understanding of marine plankton and how it will help shape management of marine seas. The article was written by the University of Plymouth with an easy to understand infographic and shared by five organisations that co-authors belonged to. Co-authors also shared this article or short summaries of the paper on social media. As a results two students from John Hopkins university in the USA studying science writing asked us for an interview on the article showing that it reached a wide range of audiences. They understood the main message and the take away that tiny plankton dominated the oceans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024