Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

MIDAS (Multiple Instrument Data Acquisition System) is the ship's underway data acquisition system.  Water flows through the system pumped from approximately one meter below the surface passing by sensors that measure various water quality parameters like temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, and turbidity.

MIDAS is a PC based Multiple Instrument Data Acquisition System (MIDAS) controlled by a rack mounted dual processor Digital Server 3000R with 21" monitor, and 10 gigabyte hard drive. A National Instruments 16 port serial expansion board allows modular integration of instrumentation, rapid sampling rates, and the maintenance of a real-time data display. Analog sensor signals are converted to a serial format for output to the host PC using using R.M. Young A/D devices. The controlling software was developed using National Instruments LabVIEW, to allow accessibility and ease of modification.

A real time graphical display provides charting and data display to the ships two labs as well as anywhere else on the ships network. Navigational data is acquired from a Starlink differential GPS or a Trimble GPS with a Micronet Receiver Station. The Micronet Receiver Station is a land based differential system privately maintained (provided for LUMCON’s use by Doug Chocrane Technologies, Lafayette, Louisiana), with sub 5-meter accuracy and available out to 300 miles in the Gulf of Mexico. A sea water flow-through system provides sea surface temperature, conductivity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and transmissometry data using: a Sea-bird Electronics SBE 21 Thermosalinograph; a Sea-Bird Electronics SBE 38 Remote Digital Immersion Thermometer; Turner Designs Model 10 Series Fluorometers; and a WETLabs 10 centimeter or 25.0-centimeter path length transmissometer. MIDAS also integrates the data from the ships meteorological suite into the data set and display. The meteorological suite consists of a R.M. Young 05103 Wind Monitor, a R.M. Young model 61201 Barometric Pressure sensor, a R.M. Young TS05327 Temperature and Relative Humidity sensor and photo synthetically active radiation (PAR) is measured with a LI-COR LI-190SZ Quantum Sensor.

Most applications of the standardized dinoflagellate diel vertical migration (DVM) hypothesis consider a surface goal in daylight and a subsurface nutrient goal at night because of the visibility of surface blooms. The sub-surface nutrient source, however, can be so deep that dinoflagellates are unable to reach the surface during a 12 h ascent. At least three literature reports document a sediment-oriented expression of an alternative DVM pattern characteristic of continental boundaries with wider, more gently sloping shelves that can yield high biomass, near-bottom dinoflagellate accumulations. The targeted dinoflagellate niche, here termed 'Benthic Dinoflagellate Migration' or 'BenDiM', is influenced by light and nutrient gradients but is unique in that a DVM exists between a nutrient source near or at the sediment-sea interface and a light intensity in the lower euphotic zone that supports a net increase in population size. The project specifically deals with: 1) the different dinoflagellate species that occupy the BenDiM niche on the continental shelf off Panama City, FL between the 60 m and 20 m contours between May and Nov; 2) the light acclimation, the nutrient uptake capabilities, and the behavioral patterns required of different dinoflagellate species that occupy the BenDiM niche; and, 3) the effect of representative physical water motion on the formation, transport and fate of the different BenDiM dinoflagellate species populations. The study includes: 1) a pelagic/benthic field program with three 7-day cruises during different months between May and Oct in 2008 and Jul 2009; 2) laboratory studies on the light, nutrient, and behavioral characteristics of BenDiM dinoflagellates that allow successful competition with near-bottom pelagic diatoms and the microphytobenthos; and 3) a physical-biological modeling study to plan, integrate and extend the field and laboratory results. The cruise program applies standard UNOLS ship capabilities extended with instrumentation that includes: 1) an Acrobat undulating system instrumented with SeaBird CTD-O2 system, Biospherical PAR, SeaPoint Chlorophyll and CDOM Fluorometers, Seapoint Turbidity, Satlantic ISUS Nitrate Sensor, Brooke-Oceans Laser Optical Plankton Counter, and General Oceanics Flow Meter with integrated GPS and echo sounding location system and a real-time graphical display of the collected data, 2) the FlowCAM, and 3) the autonomous vertical profiler (AVP). The laboratory effort applies a proven motion analysis system for studying dinoflagellate behavior and a well-developed mesocosm capability for studying dinoflagellate physiology, biochemistry, and behavior. The modeling effort builds on an existing, biologically intense modeling approach that incorporates parameterization of dinoflagellate physiology, biochemistry and behavior in a representative physical field.