RAPID: Long-duration AUVs as tools to explore Mesoscale feature-Aggregate Interactions (MAGI)

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Remote areas of the ocean are difficult to sample for short-lived or episodic features. This project will use a new sampling platform, the Wave Glider, and provide a continuous presence in the central North Pacific gyre. The six month duration of the mission will allow repeated sampling as well as spatial coverage previously unavailable. This mission will incorporate phytoplankton specific sensors as well as a set of optical sensors that will provide information on distribution, physiology and aggregation of a unique diatom-nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium symbiosis. When completed, this program will have generated the first data sets that follow these diatom blooms over extended periods in the region. Access to this instrumentation was facilitated by the PacX challenge, an international competition to produce high quality research from long-duration autonomous vehicles in the North and South Pacific Ocean. As a result of winning that competition, the principal investigator has been awarded the use of 6 months of the Honey Badger Wave Glider time in 2014. The Wave Glider is a wave-powered surface vessel capable of extended duration missions. In order to maximize this the principal investigator will outfit the glider with advanced sensors to quantify zones of intense diatom activity and aggregation along mesoscale features in the Pacific (Project MAGI: Mesoscale feature-AGregate Interactions). This program will recruit a Hispanic graduate student and thus address the NSF's interest in increasing STEM diversity. This research effort will develop a novel sampling platform that demonstrates the ability to sample the physical environment simultaneously with relevant physiological data on important components of the phytoplankton. The project will engage the public by creating a web-based presentation of the data that will be available both on the web as well as in a public large screen display in the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Center visitor center (40,000+ visitors per year). The availability of the data will also allow for the creation of specific educational exercises for classroom use and workshops for teachers and create programs that teach marine concepts aligned with state educational benchmarks.