An autonomous bottom-transecting instrument for making long time-series measurements of phytopigment fluorescence and acoustically detectable sediment structure to abyssal depths

PI建议开发一种自主的海底横切仪器，ROVER II，能够对到达海底的新鲜植物碎屑进行长时间序列估计。此外，该仪器还将同时监测沉积物的结构特征，这些特征影响沉积物群落活动的空间和时间异质性，最终影响沉积物中生物地球化学过程测量的信噪比和分辨率。探测器II将能够对作为沉积物表面新鲜植物碎屑指示物的植物色素荧光进行非侵入性时间序列测量，同时对相同沉积物进行声学成像，以提供结构特征（例如洞穴和动物）的三维剖面图。沉积物群落代谢测量（如沉积物群落耗氧量）与二维氧成像研究相结合，将在相同的沉积物上进行沿着样带，包括多达50个地点，没有对接，充电，数据下载。该仪器将处理的关键问题将有助于回答在海洋地球化学循环背景下有关大洋-海底耦合的重要问题。这些问题包括：1）到达海底的植物碎屑的质量和数量如何，2）灌溉（非扩散性迁移）在测量沉积物矿化方面有多重要，3）新鲜碎屑到达海底会在沉积物群落中引起什么反应？

The PI proposes to develop an autonomous bottom-transecting instrument, ROVER II capable of making long time-series estimates of fresh phytodetritus arriving on the sea floor. In addition, this instrument will concurrently monitor the structural features of the sediment that influence spatial and temporal heterogeneity in sediment community activity, ultimately affecting the signal to noise ratio and resolution of measurements on biogeochemical processes in the sediments. ROVER II will be capable of conducting non-invasive time-series measurements of phytopigment fluorescence as an indicator of fresh phytodetritus on the sediment surface, while imaging the same sediments acoustically to provide 3-dimensional profiles of structural features (e.g. burrows and animals). Sediment community metabolism measurements (e.g. sediment community oxygen consumption) coupled with 2-dimensional oxygen imaging studies, will be conducted on the same sediments along transects including up to 50 sites without docking, recharging, and data download. The critical questions that will be addressed with this instrument will help answer significant questions regarding pelagic-benthic coupling in the context of biogeochemical cycling. These questions include: 1) what is the quality and quantity of phytodetritus reaching the sea floor, 2) how important is irrigation (nondiffusive transport) in measuring mineralization in sediments and 3) what responses are elicited in the sediment community by the arrival of fresh detritus on the sea floor?