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

0000580戴维斯这个研究项目是在国家海洋学合作计划（NOPP）的赞助下进行的。它涉及生物海洋学的一个主要挑战，即发展预测能力。诸如渔业产量、污染物转移、碳循环以及海洋中的声音和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，因此其种群在洋流的运输过程中生长和死亡。风暴、水团相互作用和捕食者-猎物斑块等事件性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和无法以足够的时间和空间分辨率进行采样以捕捉控制种群规模的情景特征的限制。（通过光学成像）和自主水下航行器（AUV）的设计使得与其他环境变量相关的浮游生物采样变得合理（例如温度、盐度、光、营养物、荧光、电流）自动地在时间和空间上具有高分辨率。最后，可以设想在世界海洋的特定区域部署配备浮游生物成像系统的自动潜航器网络，以提供时间和空间上的准天气高分辨率数据，该项目将把浮游生物视频记录仪（VPR）纳入REMUS自动潜航器，从而将浮游生物成像技术与自动潜航器技术结合起来。 VPR是一种水下视频显微镜，可以对100微米至2厘米大小的浮游生物和其他颗粒物进行成像。REMUS自主式潜水器的设计目的是在使用长基线和超短基线导航相结合的预先编程的任务中携带科学仪器的有效载荷。使用可充电铅酸电池可持续6小时，使用原锂电池可持续18小时，REMUS非常适合重复的空间/时间数据采样。VPR设计将采用模块化设计，以便在其他AUV中通用。这种初始设计将允许使用小波压缩硬件对数字化视频进行板载真实的时间压缩和存储。然后，压缩视频将被上传，用于自动图像处理系统的分析。 新的VPR-REMUS系统将使用欧拉和拉格朗日采样方法在各种生境中进行测试，以自动量化浮游生物分类群、荧光、水文和海流的分布模式。

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.