SGER: Modification and Testing of the Time Series - Submersible Incubation Device (TS-SID) on the Bermuda Test Bed Mooring

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9614160 Taylor This Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) award will validate newly developed instrumentation for autonomous biological activity measurements. The Time Series - Submersible Incubation Device (TS-SID) is a mooring-compatible, automated instrument for performing multiple, in situ microbial incubation experiments. Each incubation involves a cleaning cycle, procurement of a 400 ml sample at depth with simultaneous introduction of tracer, and the preservation of up to four pairs of subsamples during incubations of user-determined length. Testing under real-world conditions is necessary to validate performance and permit publication of results. Specific goals are to: A) Modify the subsample distribution valve to prevent leaking and construct a mooring-strength stainless steel cage to meet the technical requirements of the Bermuda Test Bed Mooring program. B) Perform incubation tests in shallow water to confirm proper instrument functioning and establish the incubation protocol to be used in the Test Bed Mooring studies. C) Place the instrument on the Bermuda Test Bed Mooring to perform autonomous primary production measurements. This new instrumentation addresses the need to reduce the temporal disparity between key biological measurements, and correlative high resolution physical and biophysical measurements, as well as to provide a means for investigating underlying physiological response of microorganisms to changes in the environment. Because most of the labor intensive manipulations have been automated, it is possible to increase the frequency of measurements in biological time series studies (up to several measurements per day) for directly quantifying the effects of seasonal or episodic physical phenomena upon biological activities, such as phytoplankton primary production.