A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Thomas Thompson, a 274? general purpose Global research vessel and the R/V Clifford Barnes, a 66? general purpose Coastal vessel. Both vessels are operated by the University of Washington as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. The request includes two items listed by priority:
1) Knudsen Chirp 3260 Deep Water Echosounder System 2) So-Low C85-12 -80°C freezer
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.
The University of Washington’s School of Oceanography operates the research vessels R/V Thomas G. Thompson and R/V Clifford A. Barnes. These platforms allow scientist from all over the United States to conduct basic oceanographic research funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. These vessels support a wide range of research that can range from understanding the nature of oceanic circulation and its impacts on climate and the biological productivity of the oceans to constraining the geological behavior of submarine faults and volcanoes. This grant provided funding for a second -80°C ultra cold freezer for the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. This freezer was requested a) to provide enough low temperature storage space to hold biochemical samples collected during successive NSF-sponsored cruises in the Bering Sea during 2010 on the; and b) to provide subsequent users of the ship a back-up freezer system for their ultra cold storage needs to protect the integrity of samples they collect for genetic and biochemical analyses. A freezer of the same make and capacity as the existing one was purchased in time to load it on the ship just before the first Bering Sea cruise departed Seattle, and both freezers were in use for several months. Later in the year the older freezer stopped working; we had it repaired after the ship returned to Seattle. The repair took more than three months, but because the second freezer had been obtained with these grant funds, a -80°C freezer was still available during subsequent cruises. Both freezers are now aboard the ship and available for use during cruises, thus providing a cost-effective means to minimize the risk of compromising expensive sample collections because of a freezer malfunction.
