Layered Organization in the Coastal Ocean: Acoustical Data Acquisition, Analyses and Synthesis - I
2007
Holliday, D V | Greenlaw, C F
Our near-term objectives during FY 2007 were focused on completion of our 2006 field work. Working with researchers from several different institutions, we have been studying layered organization in the coastal ocean (LOCO). Our most recent field project involved deploying, and maintaining an array of oceanographic sensors at a fixed shallow water site in the northeastern corner of Monterey Bay, CA during the late summer and early fall of 2006. Our first objective was to make available to the LOCO research team as much information as we could in near real-time regarding the presence of thin mesozooplankton layers and their vertical location in the water column. Rapid access to these data allowed LOCO team members to make informed decisions regarding their own sampling protocols as they collected data describing other factors that may influence the growth, lifetime and decay of these thin vertical biological structures. As a secondary objective, we deployed several advanced acoustical sensors for which we did not require real-time access to the data. By increasing the number of frequencies at which acoustic backscattering was measured, one of these sensors improved the size resolution we could achieve in describing the mesozooplankton. We also deployed two sensors with the intent of detecting very small gas bubbles. One was used to examine depths at which thin phytoplanton layers were present in water column, and the other was used to study the top few mm of the shallow, sandy seabed. We were testing a hypothesis that photosynthesis could create conditions that would lead to the formation of small bubbles on the phytoplankon in thin layers.
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