OS41E-01 INVITED 08:00h
Latest Developments in the Installation Planning for Stage 1, NEPTUNE Regional Cabled Observatory, Northeast Pacific
NEPTUNE is a proposed innovative network of over 30 sub-sea observatories linked by over 3300 km of powered, fiber-optic cables covering the Juan de Fuca Plate (200,000 sq km), Northeast Pacific. Each observatory will host and power many scientific instruments on the surrounding seafloor, in boreholes in the seafloor, and buoyed up into the water column. Remotely operated and autonomous vehicles will reside at depth, recharge at observatories, and respond to distant labs. Continuous near-real-time multidisciplinary measurement series will extend over 30 years. Shore stations will be located in Port Alberni, BC and Nedonna Beach, OR. Major research themes include: the structure and seismic behavior of the ocean crust; the dynamics of hot and cold fluids and gas hydrates in the upper ocean crust and overlying sediments; ocean climate change and its effect on the ocean biota at all depths; and the barely known ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity of the deep-sea. All involve interacting processes, long term changes, and non-linear, chaotic, episodic events that are hard to study with traditional means. VENUS, MARS, and NEPTUNE will use many of the same cable and engineering systems with the former two acting as test-beds for the latter. NEPTUNE is an US/Canada (70/30) partnership with the total facility cost of about $250M. Over $40M has already been funded for NEPTUNE design and development and for VENUS and MARS. Funding for NEPTUNE Canada's installation contribution (CAN$62.4M) was announced in October 2003. With US NSF/MREFC funding not anticipated before FY 2006, the Northern Loop (Stage 1) of the Project will be installed by NEPTUNE Canada, which comprises a consortium of 12 Canadian universities, lead by the University of Victoria. Housed in new quarters at UVic, NEPTUNE Canada has hired a dozen staff members, with more of be appointed, and has purchased the former Teleglobe TPC4 Shore Station at Port Alberni. Current activities include: a) issuing an RFQu and RFP for the Wet Plant (cable/nodes) with a contract to be signed in Spring 2005, deployment in 2007 and most sensors deployed in 2008; b) arranging three Ocean Observing Systems workshops in 2004 to establish the community experiments, the desired observing systems, and the preferred node locations, c) initial planning for the Data Management and Archiving System (DMAS), and d) establishing MOUs with partner agencies including NSF/ORION, HIA/NRC, and DND. UVic also acts as the lead for the VENUS Project (www.venus.uvic.ca): a shallow-water, coastal observatory in southern BC whose installation has been funded for 2002-06. Over 60km of cable will be divided into three lines: Saanich Inlet (anoxic fiord), across the Strait of Georgia (from Fraser River delta), and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (active circulation with Pacific Ocean). VENUS and Stage 1 of NEPTUNE will thus form a linked coastal/regional ocean observatory system. NEPTUNE North and VENUS will be among the first of many such cabled ocean observatories.
http://www.neptunecanada.ca
OS41E-02 INVITED 08:20h
Science Enabled by Ocean Observatory Acoustics
Ocean observatories have the potential to examine the physical, chemical, biological, and geological parameters and processes of the ocean at time and space scales previously unexplored. Acoustics provides an efficient and cost-effective means by which these parameters and processes can be measured and information can be communicated. Integrated acoustics systems providing navigation and communications for mobile platforms and conducting acoustical measurements in support of science objectives are critical and essential elements of the ocean observatories presently in the planning and implementation stages. The ORION Workshop (Puerto Rico, 4-8 January 2004) developed science themes that can be addressed utilizing ocean observatory infrastructure. The use of acoustics to sense the 3-d/volumetric ocean environment on all temporal and spatial scales was discussed in many ORION working groups. Science themes that are related to acoustics and measurements using acoustics are reviewed and tabulated, as are the related and sometimes competing requirements for passive listening, acoustic navigation and acoustic communication around observatories. Sound in the sea, brought from observatories to universities and schools via the internet, will also be a major education and outreach mechanism.
http://www.oce.uri.edu/ao/IASOO_subcomm.htm
OS41E-03 08:40h
Cyberinfrastructure (CI) for Interactive Ocean Observatories: LOOKING Ahead
Investments in next-generation facilities to achieve a permanent, interactive telepresence throughout remote or hostile environments can empower a broad spectrum of autonomous sensornet facilities through the NSF Major Research Equipment and Facililties Construction Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). These systems must involve powerful suites of generic cyberinfrastructure tools designed to optimize access and benefits to a large academic and public user base. Many future research and educational efforts focused throughout the ocean basins, especially within heavily populated coastal regions, will be empowered by these new systems. Our project LOOKING (Laboratory for the Ocean Observatory Knowledge Integration Grid) is developing prototype CI for the OOI to achieve these goals. In the case of ocean observatory networks, it is essential to establish powerful network infrastructures linking the wet or subsea portion, with a host of shore station facilities. These components in turn must seamlessly communicate with an ensemble of data repositories, and relevant computer and visualization resources designed to serve a widely diverse ocean science community with real time, broadband access to all observatory system data, products, and metadata. This infrastructure must be secure, reliable, and resilient. It must meet the potentially ambitious latency, bandwidth, and performance requirements demanded by a set of evolving autonomous sensor platforms over a period of decades. This Grid environment must seamlessly interconnect all relevant national and international research and education nets accessible through high speed, next generation communication networks. The primary components of LOOKING are remote services that fulfill the CI needs of the ocean observatory community. These services arise from overarching science and education requirements: 1) Instrument Services operate at the sensor end of an ocean observatory, and are dominantly but not exclusively wet. 2) Infrastructure Services operate within the ocean observatory itself, providing data, time distribution, and power functions to instruments; 3) Data Services interface the ocean observatory to users, whether human beings or modeling programs. In an appropriately designed and functioning system, none can stand alone, nor can they be developed in isolation. These services and associated middleware layers must be designed from the outset to interact seamlessly and transparently.
OS41E-04 INVITED 08:55h
Phytoplankton Dynamics on the New England Inner Shelf: Time Series Observations at the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory
Cabled coastal ocean observatories combined with new sensor developments are permitting studies of plankton community structure and rate processes with unprecedented detail. To better understand what regulates phytoplankton dynamics on the inner continental shelf of the northeastern US, we have begun time series observations at the Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), a nearshore cabled research facility. We deployed a custom-built submersible automated flow cytometer (FlowCytobot) during spring to autumn of 2003 and 2004. FlowCytobot makes near continuous measurements of pico/nanophytoplankton abundance, cell size, and cell fluorescence characteristics. Our observations show a classic late spring bloom of \it{Synechococcus}\rm, which was also accompanied by an increase in abundance of picoeukaryotic phytoplankton. Subsequently, there were changes in cell abundance and in size structure of the community over a range of time scales throughout the summer and autumn. In addition to cell abundance, FlowCytobot observations also allow us to monitor changes in daily growth rate of specific populations of cells. Application of a matrix population model that represents diel changes in size distribution of \it{Synechococcus} \rm suggests that there are substantial variations in cell specific growth rate at MVCO, presumably in response to changing growth conditions in the region. Longer times series of phytoplankton abundance and growth rate at this site are likely to provide important insights into seasonal and interannual regulation of the nearshore ecosystem.
OS41E-05 INVITED 09:15h
Watching the Ocean in the COOL room: The Evolution of the Shelf-Wide New Jersey Shelf Observing System (NJ SOS)
To study changes occurring within the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), we have constructed a shelf-wide ocean observatory. While initial efforts focused on using an undersea cable, our experience during a series of Coastal Predictive Skill Experiments was spatial data was the most highly valued scientific and operational commodity. To that end we have focused on developing a subsurface capability to mirror the existing spatial mapping capabilities of satellites and HF Radar. While satellites and CODARs have been operational for several years, the Slocum Gliders have matured into operational tools this last year. Currently in situ spatial data in our ocean observatory is collected with a fleet of autonomous underwater Slocum Gliders that can collect physical and bio-optical data throughout the year under all weather conditions. We have flown the Glider over 5000 kilometers in MAB during 2003-2004 carrying a range of physical and bio-optical sensors. Our efforts have focused on understanding biogeochemical dynamics on the MAB. The subsurface spatial sampling capabilities of the Gliders have revealed highly energetic subsurface features associated with coastal upwelling, the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool, and shelf-slope exchange processes. These subsurface dynamics reveal a great deal variability that is missed by the CODAR and satellite imagery. We will review these results highlighting how the operational shelf-wide New Jersey Shelf-Wide Observatory is evolving to better study the mesoscale dynamics of the MAB.
http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool
OS41E-06 09:35h
Interactive Ocean Observatories are Essential for Global Assessment of Plate-tectonically Modulated Microbial Input to the Deep Ocean
A major new planetary-scale research thrust can only be addressed with interactive, next-generation ocean-observatory capabilities. These new research opportunities arise from the possibility that input into the ocean of chemosynthetically derived microbial biomass from below the seafloor rivals the biomass from primary photosynthetic productivity near the top of the ocean. All three types of plate boundaries and many plate interiors vent microbe-bearing fluids into the deep ocean continuously AND episodically. Unpredicted episodes increase nutrient output and venting volume by as much as a factor of 100 for weeks to months at a time (Lilley et al.,2003, Nature). Because of the highly non-linear nature of these fluxes, quantification of such processes represents essential, but unconstrained, variables in equations for carbon budgets and bio-flux in the deep ocean. Triggering events and their induced fluxes must be detected, located, responded to, and quantified before their relative importance to the global-ocean system can be evaluated. Addressing these issues requires an essential new capability in the ocean sciences. High-power and high-bandwidth cabled systems will enable remote and long-term experimentation with processes via thousands of stationary and/or mobile sensor platforms on, below, and above the seafloor. The Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks (ORION) program is currently working with NEPTUNE Canada to produce a plate-tectonic-scale, regional cabled ocean observatory (RCO), an ideal platform for adaptive surveillance and quantitative response to fluid-flux generating events at the margins and interior of the Juan de Fuca (JdF) Plate. The W. M. Keck Foundation is supporting a pre-NEPTUNE exploration of the linked processes involved in the deformation-fluid/microbial flux concept. Thirteen seismometers (3 broadband, 10 short-period) and 45 fluid-movement/chemical sensors are co-deployed on three different, but adjacent, plate boundaries at the northern end of the JdF Plate: the Endeavour spreading segment, the Nootka transform fault, and the convergent margin at the toe of the Cascadia subduction complex. All sensors are capable of measuring time-varying behavior for a year. A novel deep-sea remote sensor capable of autonomous detection of microbial output at the seafloor will be added to the existing ensemble in 2005-6. These instrument systems will be phased into NEPTUNE, scheduled to come on line in 2007-8. As of September 2004, we also have a live satellite-mooring link from a seismometer and flow meter at a cold-seep site near the intersection of the Nootka transform and the Cascadia prism. The ultimate goal is to utilize the power of NEPTUNE-like installations to quantitatively assess the regional, and eventually, the global, fluxes and biodiversity associated with this newly recognized tectonically-generated phenomenon of subseafloor microbial productivity. Fully characterizing this planetary-scale process requires establishing a permanent presence on the seafloor to continuously observe, document, and interact with co-varying processes driving fluid expulsion, the chemical consequences, and the microbial responses. Similar phenomena may operate on other planets; we might even export approaches learned on earth. *The Keck Team includes more than 25 scientists and engineers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Inst., Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Univ. of Victoria, Inst. of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, BC, and Univ. of Washington.
OS41E-07 09:50h
Design and Planning for an Arctic Ocean Observatory on the Beaufort Shelf
Evidence is mounting that a complex suite of interrelated atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial changes are now underway in the arctic, affecting every part of the polar environment. Such changes are consistent with global climate modeling studies that consistently show the arctic to be one of the most sensitive regions to climate change. Understanding and quantifying these changes is complicated by the lack of time series data from the circum-arctic environment. Study of the Arctic Ocean is limited by sea ice and harsh weather that restrict access through much of the year. These constraints limit data acquisition and distort understanding of events, processes and biology of most of the Arctic Ocean. Without these data, it will not be possible to predict future change or the consequences of change. The Study of Arctic Environmental Change (SEARCH) program will develop capabilities for environmental monitoring, but cabled observatories are not now part of SEARCH. The planned Barrow Global Climate Change Research Facility will include a slant-drilled seawater intake, extending from on shore to beyond the ice gouge zone on the Beaufort Shelf. A cable could be routed through this intake to connect seafloor instrumentation to science support facilities in Barrow. In conjunction with existing facilities in Barrow that monitor the atmosphere and ocean surface, a seafloor observatory would permit study of the coupling between atmospheric and oceanographic processes and offer unique opportunities for research, environmental monitoring, education and the Barrow community. The proposed observatory could substantially augment SEARCH by collecting time series data on many processes and variables encompassing both regional and basin-wide length scales. For example, the larger spatial scales might be sampled using acoustic tomography and AUVs, while the highly variable shelf environment could be sampled from cabled moorings containing a variety of sensor systems. These measurements, combined with surface observations from Barrow, would open a window on the shelf, its biology, oceanography and geology. The data collected from these sensors, available in realtime over the Internet would be an outstanding educational resource as well.