A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation for the R/V Blue Heron, an 86 foot Coastal vessel owned by the University of Minnesota and operated by the Large Lakes Observatory as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) research fleet.
The Large Lakes Observatory operates the largest university-owned research vessel on the Great Lakes, the R/V Blue Heron. Built in 1985 for fishing on the Grand Banks, the Blue Heron was purchased by the University of Minnesota in 1997, sailed from Portland, Maine, up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Duluth, and converted into a limnological research vessel during the winter of 1997-98. She is outfitted with state-of-the-art research equipment, has berthing for 11 crew and scientists, and can operate 24 hours per day for up to 21 days in between port calls. The Blue Heron is part of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), and is available for charter by research scientists on any of the Great Lakes. In 2012, the vessel completed 65 funded days where 26 (40%) were for NSF. In 2013, Blue Heron will sail 55 days. 24 of these (44%) will be for NSF.
Oceanographic instrumentation requested in this proposal includes: Underway system upgrade $16,975 Satellite phone network $1,596 $18,571
Broader Impacts
The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two of the Proposal Guidelines. They provide infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). 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 Minnesota Duluth purchased additional sensors for the underway sampling system on the research vessel Blue Heron using funds provided by the National Science Foundation in grant OCE-1317331 ‘Oceanographic Instrumentation, RV Blue Heron 2013’. The additional sensors were requested by the users of the vessel and included a pH sensor to measure pH of lake water, a CDOM sensor to measure the amount of colored dissolved organic matter contained in lake water (this organic matter is often derived from plant material from land that makes its way out into the lake) and a thermosalinograph to more accurately measure the salinity of lake water. Equipment purchased for the RV Blue Heron is used by researchers and educators that use the vessel. Therefore, the equipment is available to all users of the vessel, from scientists funded by the National Science Foundation to University of Minnesota classes that take students out on the vessel to learn about oceanographic research. During the 2014 and 2015 season, two projects funded by NSF used the additional underway sampling system sensors: J. Austin, OCE-1445567 ‘RAPID – Response of Lake Superior to anomalously high ice cover during the winter of 2013-2014’ and R. Ricketts, OCE-1430015 ‘EAGER- Introducing Early Career Scientists to Research on the Great Lakes’. Additionally, state funded projects, such as E. Brown’s Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources funded project ‘Evaluating Lake Superior's Health in a Changing World’, and R. Ricketts and T. Hrabik’s Minnesota Department of Natural Resources funded project ‘Lake Superior Hydroacoustics Project, 2014’ as well as multiple educational cruises collected data from the additional sensors.
