RAPID: Oceanographic Instrumentation: R/V OCEANUS 2010 RAPID Response

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests a variety of items for R/V Oceanus to help fulfill the change of scope for OCE-0926699, Dr. Tracy Villareal, PI. The original plan was to study he diazotrophic communities in the Gulf of Mexico, but the oil spill has seriously affected these communities. The scope of the study will now concentrate on the impact of the spill on the planktonic communities. The studies will include fluorimetric and analytic measures of hydrocarbons, functional and taxonomic changes in microbial and metazoan communities, and isotopic signatures of both the dissolved and particulate fractions of the spill. The instrumentation requested in this proposal is necessary to fulfill the change in scope. Broader Impacts: The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two, providing 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.