Scripps Institution of Oceanography will undertake an instrumentation development proposal to develop a bottom- transecting vehicle and sampling system to make consecutive measurements of sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC) over long time scales. Some of the most difficult ocean science data to collect, especially for seafloor benthic ecosystems, involve temporal variations in biogeochemical cycles. Temporal infusions of organic matter represent an important food supply to vast areas of the deep sea. The measurement of benthic community oxygen consumption via SCOC has been developed as a means of quantifying organic material mineralization and the flux of nutrients through the community. The ability to make SCOC measurements over periods of time will benefit ongoing NSF-sponsored research projects. The instrument system will be designed to operate autonomously on the sea floor to depths of up to 6,000 meters for periods of up to six months per deployment. SCOC will be measured with respiration chambers and an oxygen micro- profiler at up to 26 different sites per mission. The development of this bottom-transecting instrument as an autonomous programmable platform will also provide new technology for conducting time-series measurements of a variety of parameters in oceanic bottom water and sediments.
