The PI's request funding to design, build, integrate, field test, and make available a stable shared-use instrument called that Multiple Vehicle EcoGenomic Automated Sampler (MiVEGAS), for a broad community of microbial oceanographers across the United States. The MiVEGAS is a novel instrument comprised of an integrated robot system that can automatically and adaptively survey, sample and preserve different size classes of microbial plankton. Deployments can range from a few days to over three weeks. The robot system can be launched from shore unattended by ships. It can survey and sample to depths of 300 m, with an operational range exceeding 1000 kilometers and an endurance of greater than 10 days. The MiVEGAS instrument has the potential to provide capabilities that no other instrument available today, and will provide new ways to observe and characterize diverse microbial plankton, enabling correlation of oceanographic parameters with microbial diversity and activity at high spatial and temporal resolution. The joint development effort is a collaboration between the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and the Center for Microbial Ecology: Research and Education (C-MORE), a multi-institutional NSF-sponsored Science and Technology Center.
Broader Impacts:
With the proposed development there are many excellent opportunities for training and development of students and technicians. The combined technology has the potential to collect extremely useful data. The knowledge gained will be fundamental to our understanding of productivity in the oceans and of climate change; the proposal will foster interdisciplinary interactions among engineers, machinists, oceanographers, molecular biologists, genomicists, and microbiologists; and attention to minority and educational outreach is appropriate. Both institutions have a strong background supporting education and research and have existing mechanisms to engage students ranging from middle school to graduate school including women and underrepresented groups, including naïve islanders.
