A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation for the R/V Savannah. The R/V Savannah is a 92 foot coastal research vessel operated by Skidaway Institute of Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet. The request includes four items listed by priority:
1) Acrobat Towed Vehicle 2) Optical Nitrate Sensor 3) Deck Incubation Units 4) Stereo Microscope
Broader Impacts: The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.
Through this project award, two systems were added to the oceanographic instrumentation inventory of the R/V Savannah, a 92-foot coastal class research vessel operated by the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO, located in Savannah, Georgia). The R/V Savannah is part of the University National Oceanographic Laboratories (UNOLS) research fleet. The award was for instrumentation only (no personnel time supported). The items supported through this award were: 1) A Satlantic Instruments Inc. ISUS V3 optical nitrate sensor (with battery pack, cabling, and shipping case); 2) two Opti-Temp Inc. OTC-0.75 air-cooled chiller units to provide temperature control for 2 deck incubator units (designed and constructed at SkIO with materials for frames and incubators also part of the award). The Satlantic ISUS unit estimates the concentration of nitrate, often a limiting nutrient in marine systems. This is accomplished by measurement of the full-UV absorbance spectrum of nitrate, with corrections for bromide and sulfide absorption and variability in lamp output. The primary application for scientific parties using the R/V Savannah will be for studies of the coupling of physical and biological processes on the outer continental shelf and upper slope of the South Atlantic Bight, where upwelling of nitrate from subsurface waters can result in blooms of phytoplankton (microscopic algae). This enhancement of primary production has an important impact on the planktonic food web, including enhancing food resources for larval fish. The Satlantic ISUS unit has been configured to mount on the ship’s carousel/CTD profiler, and will be operated as part of the ship’s profiling/water sampling system (SeaBird Electronics, Inc. SBE-25 CTD unit, a number of ancillary sensors and 8-L water sampling bottles). Mounts for the ISUS unit and battery pack were constructed in the SkIO shop and the unit was tested and utilized in a cruise to the outer continental shelf in May, 2011. It is anticipated that the ISUS unit will be extensively used in a project focusing on outer-shelf phytoplankton blooms in the winter of 2011-2012. We also anticipate that the ISUS unit, along with a range of other ship-supplied oceanographic instrumentation, will be utilized in ongoing educational programs, including projects coordinated by Savannah State University that emphasize training of students from populations that are presently under-represented in marine sciences, including training of current and future K-12 educators. Two deck incubators, constructed in the SkIO shop, use the Opti-Temp chiller units for temperature control for shipboard experiments. Precise control of temperature is a critical requirement for various incubation experiments, including estimates of primary production (uptake of inorganic carbon or production of oxygen through photosynthesis), uptake of various substrates by microorganisms, and tracking changes in biomass or taxonomic indicators for microbial communities. The ship power supply system has been modified to accommodate simultaneous operation of both deck incubators and an isotope van. Frames for the incubators will allow the units to be easily craned on/off the ship and secured for cruise applications. It is anticipated that the incubators will be used for a number of biological process studies. Furthermore, a heat-exchange system will be constructed to modulate temperature fluctuations in larger seawater containers, such as deck-mounted tanks used to transport live specimens to shore laboratories.
