Development of an Autonomous Sampling Network for Plankton, Hydrography and Currents. Phase I. Incorporation of Plankton Imaging Capability into Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

0000580Davis 该研究项目是在国家海洋学伙伴计划（NOPP）的赞助下进行的。它解决了生物海洋学的一个主要挑战，即预测能力的发展。渔业产量、污染物转移、碳循环以及海洋中的声光传输等紧迫问题都需要准确的预测。绝大多数海洋物种至少在其生命的一部分时间内是浮游生物，因此其种群在洋流运输过程中生长和死亡。风暴、水团相互作用和捕食者-猎物斑块等偶发因素是海洋种群变异的主要来源。目前，我们的预测能力受到数据稀疏以及无法以足够的时间和空间分辨率进行采样以捕获控制种群规模的情景特征的限制。自动浮游生物识别（通过光学成像）和自主水下航行器（AUV）设计的最新技术进步使得在时间和空间上以高分辨率自主地对与其他环境变量（例如温度、盐度、光、营养物、荧光、水流）相关的浮游生物进行采样成为可能。最终，部署在世界海洋特定区域的配备有浮游生物成像系统的 AUV 网络可以提供时间和空间上的准天气高分辨率数据。该项目将通过将视频浮游生物记录仪 (VPR) 集成到 REMUS AUV 中，将浮游生物成像技术与 AUV 技术相结合。 VPR 是一种水下视频显微镜，可对尺寸在 100 微米到 2 厘米范围内的浮游生物和其他颗粒物进行成像。 REMUS AUV 旨在结合长基线和超短基线导航，在预编程任务中携带科学仪器的有效载荷。使用可充电铅酸电池时，续航时间长达 6 小时；使用一次锂电池时，续航时间长达 18 小时，REMUS 非常适合重复空间/时间数据采样。 VPR 设计将采用模块化设计，以便可以在其他 AUV 中通用。该初始设计将允许使用小波压缩硬件进行板载实时压缩和数字化视频存储。然后，压缩视频将被上传，以供自动图像处理系统进行分析。 新的 VPR-REMUS 系统将使用欧拉和拉格朗日采样方法在各种栖息地进行测试，以自动量化浮游生物类群、荧光、水文学和水流的分布模式。

0000580DavisThis research project is conducted under the auspices of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP). It addresses a major challenge in biological oceanography, which is the development of predictive capability. Pressing issues such as fishery yields, pollutant transfer, carbon cycling, and sound and light transmission in the ocean all require accurate predictions. The vast majority of marine species are planktonic during at least a portion of their lives and therefore have populations that grow and die while being transported by ocean currents. Episodic factors such as storms, water mass interactions, and predator-prey patchiness are a major source of variability in marine populations. At present, our predictive capability is limited by the sparseness of data and the inability to sample with adequate time and space resolution to capture episodic features that control population size.Recent technological advancements in automated plankton identification (via optical imaging) and in design of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) make it plausible to sample plankton in association with other environmental variables (e.g. temperature, salinity, light, nutrients, fluorescence, currents) autonomously with high resolution in both time and space. Ultimately, networks of AUVs equipped with plankton imaging systems deployed in specific regions of the world ocean can be envisioned to provide quasi-synoptic high-resolution data in time and space.This project will merge plankton-imaging technology with AUV technology by incorporating the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) into the REMUS AUV. The VPR is an underwater video microscope that images plankton and other particulate matter in the size range of 100 microns to 2 centimeters. The REMUS AUV is designed to carry a payload of scientific instrumentation on pre-programmed missions using a combination of long and ultra-short baseline navigation. With up to 6 hours of endurance using rechargeable lead acid batteries or 18 hours from primary lithium cells, REMUS is well suited for repetitivespace/time data sampling. The VPR design will be made modular such that generic use in other AUVs will be possible. This initial design will allow for on-board real time compression and storage of digitized video using wavelet compression hardware. The compressed video then will be uploaded for analysis with an automated image processing system. The new VPR-REMUS system will be tested in a variety of habitats using Eulerian and Lagrangian sampling methods to automatically quantify distribution patterns of plankton taxa, fluorescence, hydrography, and currents.