There is a serious community-wide deficiency in our ability to collect and preserve biological samples across a broad spectrum of oceanographic platforms. The PIs suggest that what is clearly needed is a single system that can be easily adapted to multiple platforms servicing a broad range of applications across the biological oceanographic community.
The PIs request funding for a 3-year development program to build and field two low-cost, high-sample capacity modular, autonomous biological sampling devices (MABs). This will include a standalone mooring-ready unit (6000 m depth rating) and a second unit adapted for a 20 cm diameter AUV. The units will be capable of filtering and preserving multiple distinct biological size classes simultaneously, and will be deployable in any aquatic setting from a variety of platform modalities (AUV, ROV, mooring, observatory node).
Broader Impacts:
The benefits of the sampler proposed herein cut across several disciplines, given the potential for acquiring multiple size fractions from a water sample. This capability will be useful from both a biological and a geological/biogeochemical perspective. In the former case, studies of zooplankton, phytoplankton, and bacterioplankton communities will be accommodated in what should be a highly efficient and cost-effective manner relative to conventional, ship-based sampling. In the future, intelligent tracking of biological features (e.g., chlorophyll patches, particulate thin layers) by AUVs will enhance the utility of such high-capacity samplers and the data generated from this material.
