IDBR: TYPE A: Development of an Animal Tracking Tag for Biological Research: Refractive Index for Rapid Georeferenced Salinity Measurements over a Wide Dynamic Range

SRI国际公司获得了一项奖励，以开发小型标签，这些标签将附着在海洋动物身上，并从海洋环境中获取数据。第一个原型标签的尺寸将适用于大中型动物，如企鹅、海龟和鲨鱼。这些数据标签将记录对了解动物迁徙至关重要的信息。在更广泛的应用中，通过标签获得的数据量的增加将为科学家和决策者提供有价值的信息，帮助他们了解海洋和其他水生环境的复杂特性和变化，从而有助于保护工作。重要的研究领域包括河口环境，在那里快速剖面可以记录动态条件，以及低盐和高盐地区，如窒息泻湖，沿海孤立湖泊和冰下湖泊。这些数据将增强我们了解季节变化、人类人口和活动引起的变化以及全球气候变化的能力。本项目将支持3名本科生实习（1名化学工程师和2名生物学家）。该项目还将包括为一所未被充分代表的群体比例很高的当地高中制定海洋盐度测量课程计划，以提高对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育的兴趣，并鼓励年轻学生考虑在工程和科学领域从事多学科职业，同时考虑环境保护。创新标签中的传感器将测量水温、深度和盐度（溶解盐的数量），这些都是生态系统健康的相关指标。所产生的数据将以地理为参照；也就是说，标签将提供收集信息的位置。这些标签将不同于目前的商业设备，通过检测和记录光与传感器相互作用的变化来测量盐度作为水的光学特性（折射率）的函数（正在申请专利）。光学测量的主要优点是操作速度快，动态范围宽，可达到的分辨率具有成本效益。标签收集的参数将提供有关海洋环境的宝贵信息，这些信息可以与特定动物为满足其基本食物和繁殖需求而旅行的地点相关联，并将提供与海洋种群减少有关的栖息地变化的见解。

An award is made to SRI International to develop small tags which will be attached to marine animals and acquire data from the ocean environment. The first prototype tags will be sized for medium to large animals, such as penguins, turtles, and sharks. These data tags will record information central to understanding animal migration. In more general applications, the increased amount of data obtained by the tags will provide valuable information to scientists and policymakers to help understand the complex properties and changes in the ocean and other aquatic environments, thus aiding conservation efforts. Important areas for study include estuarine environments, where rapid profiling can record dynamic conditions, and low and high salinity areas such as choked lagoons, coastal isolated lakes, and subglacial lakes. The data will enhance our ability to understand seasonal variations, changes caused by human populations and activities, and global climate change. This project will support three undergraduate student internships (one chemical engineer and two biologists). The project will also include a lesson plan on ocean salinity measurements for a local high school with a high percentage of underrepresented groups to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and to encourage young students to consider multidisciplinary careers in engineering and the sciences with environmental conservation in mind. Sensors in the innovative tags will measure water temperature, depth, and salinity (the amount of dissolved salts), which are interrelated indicators of ecosystem health. The data produced will be geo-referenced; that is, the tag will provide a location of the collected information. These tags will differ from current commercial devices by measuring salinity as a function of the optical properties of the water (the refractive index) by detecting and recording changes in the interaction of light with the sensor (patent pending). The major advantages of the optical measurement include fast operation, wide dynamic range, and cost effectiveness for the attainable resolution. The parameters collected by the tag will provide valuable information about the marine environment that can be correlated to locations where specific animals travel to satisfy their basic food and reproduction needs, and will provide insight into habitat changes linked to declining marine populations.