Sea Education Association/SSV Corwith Cramer & SSV Robert C. Seamans Oceanographic Instrumentation

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Sea Education Association (SEA) requests funding from the National Science Foundation to update existing oceanographic equipment in its sailing research vessel laboratories in order to continue training undergraduates in the marine sciences, and to further collection of data from under-sampled areas of the oceans for submission to national archives. The SSVs Corwith Cramer and Robert C. Seamans operate in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, respectively, supporting educational programs and oceanographic research. The equipment requested will be used by undergraduate students and collaborating scientists from colleges and research institutions throughout the country. All data generated will be freely shared with the entire oceanographic community via submission to the NSF Research Vessel data archive Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R). Although SEA vessels are not operated through the UNOLS umbrella, the organization has provided numerous examples of quality personnel both to the scientific and technical support communities. Financial support of their efforts is necessary to ensure this pipeline remains productive. This proposal requests fund for the following Oceanographic Instrumentation:Two (2) SBE CTD packages $44,747Two (2) LED epifluorescence packages $31,562Two (2) UV/VIS Spectrophotometers $11,422 $87,731Broader ImpactsThe principal impact of the present proposal is under Merit Review Criterion 2 of the Proposal Guidelines (NSF 13-589). It provides infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.