23/01/2014
Animal Oceanographers in SOOS
Mark Hindell1 and Daniel Costa2
1Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
2University of California Santa Cruz
POGO_SOOS Workshop 23/01/2014
Animal Oceanographers in SOOS
• Measure animal behavior
• Diving behavior
• Movement patterns
• Relative to oceanography
• Coverage in sea‐ice
• Sensors
• T = ±0.01°C
• S = ±0.02 mS
• Depth 2 dBar ± 0.3 • Chlorophyll‐ via fluorescence
• O2 under development
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Animal Oceanographers in SOOS
• Tag Costs
• CTD w Argo locations
• $6,000 USD
• CTD‐GPS location
• $8,000 USD
• CTD w Fluorescence
• $7,650 USD
• Argos data acquisition costs
• $100 USD per tag month
• Elephant and Weddell seals
• 2.5 profiles per day
• 5 month duration up to 1 yr
• 500 m depth up to 2000m
• $17 per CTD profile
(excluding logistics)
Tags Provide Data on Animal Behavior
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Also Features of the Water Column
2006‐2010
121,211 CTD profiles collected during MEOP
33,075 CTD profiles collected under ice
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Contribution of animal‐borne sensor data to ocean studies
Seal CTD data reveals Antarctic Bottom water formation in Prydz Bay (Tamura et al. 2013, Nature Geoscience)
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Future strategies (1) • Animal borne sensors are already a major contributor to international oceanographic programs – stopping this data source would be akin to cancelling the Argo program (almost!)
Two steps required to ensure on‐going contributions:
1. Systematic quality control to ensure uptake by the highest level of oceanographic analysis – e.g. the World Ocean Database. The Climate Variability and Predictability program (CLIVAR) has established a scientific steering committee to oversee this process.
Future strategies (2) 2. Ensure that animal borne tags become part the on‐going operational data collection by national marine programs (….as Argo currently is).
• The Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) is a model of what can done. In 4 years (post MEOP) over 60K CTD profiles collected from the Southern Ocean, and this is likely to continue at cost of less than $1.5 million (or $0.38 million per year)
• Now need to encourage other national programs to join this effort. • ….that is what POGO can do for SOOS
CTD profiles collected by IMOS 2010‐2013
Deployment site
Campbell
Casey
Davis
Kerguelen
Macquarie
Total
No. of CTD profiles
9772
13115
20011
8235
10815
61948
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