MRI: Acquisition of two Autonomous Moored Profilers for Lake Ecosystem Research

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The PI's request funding to acquire two Autonomous Moored Profilers, and a suite of sensors for each platform, for deployment in Lake Superior, the world?s largest freshwater lake by area. The requested instrumentation will provide physical, biological, and chemical data on timescales relevant to biogeochemical processes, and will expand this detailed view into the winter season, for which existing data is extremely sparse due to the variable ice cover in this region, which is not stable enough for ice-based observations but is sufficiently robust to preclude work on any of the available research vessels in the region. The use of two autonomous moored profilers will allow the PI's to detail the importance of biogeochemical processes in nearshore vs offshore regimes.Broader Impacts: The University of Minnesota-Duluth has a strong commitment to undergraduate education, being its principal focus. The Large Lakes Observatory (LLO) combines that with an excellent track record in research. The study will expand our knowledge of the intricacies of the inner workings of large lakes. The close integration of project research with education will most certainly enhance experience for students both undergraduates and graduates and inform the public. This is a new and potentially valuable application for a relatively new and unproven class of profiler that has a high probability of success and contributing to the testing and demonstration of this emerging class of profilers has high value to the research community.