Abstracts of Oral Presentations O-01 New Underwater Robotic Vehicle
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Trench Connection Symposium (10-13 November 2010) Abstracts of Oral Presentations O-01 New Underwater Robotic Vehicle Technology for Science Operations to 11,000m Depth Andrew D. Bowen, Dana R. Yoerger1, Louis L. Whitcomb2 1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 2 Johns Hopkins University Exploration and understanding of the extreme environment present in deep ocean trenches relies on technological innovation. This paper reports on the design, development, and deep sea trials of the Nereus underwater vehicle – a novel operational underwater vehicle designed to perform scientific survey and sampling to the full depth of the ocean of 11,000 meters. Nereus operates in two different modes. For broad area survey, the vehicle can operate untethered as an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of exploring and mapping the seafloor with sonars, cameras and other sensors. Nereus can be converted at sea to become a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to enable close up imaging and sampling. The ROV configuration incorporates a lightweight fiber optic tether to the surface for high bandwidth real-time video and data telemetry to the surface, enabling high-quality teleoperation. A manipulator, lightweight hydraulic power unit, and platform are added to provide sampling capabilities. In addition to describing the detailed vehicle design and performance during its initial operations to Challenger Deep, this paper will expand on the scientific capabilities offered buy such a radical approach to deep ocean exploration. We will review the motivation for this project and present an overview of Nereus vehicle’s scientific capabilities with a view forward to how such new technologies can provide improved access to the Hadal Environment. The Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle, shown during recent operations in the Cayman Trough, is designed to operate in two modes to depths of 11,000m. Nereus is configured with a light fiber optic tether, a robot arm, sampling gear, and additional cameras for teleoperation of close-up imaging, sampling, and manipulation missions. Trench Connection Symposium (10-13 November 2010) O-02 Recent Results and Future Science Enabled by the Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle Nereus Timothy M. Shank1, Patricia Fryer2, Eleanor Bors1, and Andrew Bowen1 1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA USA 27543. 2University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, HI USA 96822 On June 1, 2009, the Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) successfully completed its first 10,900 meter depth dive at 11° 22.1N 142° 35.4E in the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific. This 26 hour dive was one of four dives conducted deeper than 9,000m during the expedition. During this inaugural cruise, we: 1) observed and sampled more than one dozen trench species, including stalked anemones, sea cucumbers, novel polychaete worms, diverse foraminifera, and abundant amphipod crustaceans; 2) conducted a single transect from the subducting plate across the trench to the over-riding plate revealed markedly different faunal compositions from 9,000m to 10,900m area; 3) discovered fundamentally different habitats in the trench just based on substrate type alone, including fine and coarse muds, boulders, and manganese nodule crust; 4) observed the impact of the disturbance of sedimented habitats (liberating microbial material) yielded a marked influx of mobile shrimp-like amphipods and polychaete worm fauna; 5) discovered the presence of anthropogenic material as well as long-term stability of putative dredge tracks (through sedimented habitats) potentially created between 8 to 30 years ago in the western Challenger Deep. The lightweight fiber optic, LED lighting, high bandwith video and telemetry vehicle designs and their scientific application and performance will be discussed. The vehicle can operate untethered as an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of microbathymetric and biological mapping and optical imaging of the seafloor, while also converted into a remotely operated vehicle that enables close up manipulation, sampling and imaging. The science-enabling capability of this new full ocean depth Nereus HROV permits a broad range of fundamental scientific questions that now excite hadal research. These include testing models of fluid expulsion from the oceanic lithospheric plate during subduction, biogeographic and ecological comparison of hadal communities among neighboring and distant trenches, the adaptive strategies of hadal fauna, including osmoregulatory and protein osmolyte systems, water-rock interactions in the shallow supra-subduction zones, the history of mantle anisotropy/deformation, the very nature of trench-related chemosynthetic and non- chemosynthetic ecosystems, and the factors that influence deep faunal zonation and directed the evolution in these extreme environments. Trench Connection Symposium (10-13 November 2010) O-03 Beyond the Abyss: An overview of the HADEEP (UK) project Alan Jamieson, Toyonobu Fujii, Martin Solan, Dan Mayor, Phil Bagley, Stuart Piertney, Monty Priede Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, UK, AB41 6AA Corresponding Author: [email protected] The project HADEEP (HADal Environments and Education Program) has reached its fifth and final year. Supported primarily by the Nippon Foundation (Japan) with additional funds from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; UK) and the University of Aberdeen (UK), the project has completed seven scientific expeditions to six hadal trenches of the Pacific Ocean, with another scheduled for March 2011. Using two 10,000 metre rated baited camera systems and traps the project has obtained thousands of photographs, hours of video footage and thousand of samples of the some of the rarest and some new species inhabiting the deepest ecosystems on Earth from 4000m to 10,000m. The presentation will provide an overview of the HADEEP project (2006-2010). The project aimed to examine bathymetric trends in species composition, behavioural traits and physiology at high pressure, monitor environmental parameters, collate an archive of specimens for taxonomic and genetic studies and formulate ecological hypotheses at inter- and intra-trench levels. The highlights discussed include the first discoveries of decapods at hadal depths (benthesicymid and oplophorid prawns; 4000-7703m), large aggregations of endemic snailfish in the upper trenches (liparidae; 6945-7703m), the composition of scavenging amphipods from the abyssal-hadal boundary to 10,000m and some behavioural and physiological aspects of the above and including the giant isopod Storthyngura sp. and the amphipod Princaxelia sp. The results from the latest HADEEP cruise to the Peru-Chile Trench (September 2010) will also be presented as are future expeditions, follow on projects and further opportunities for hadal science. Trench Connection Symposium (10-13 November 2010) O-04 Connectivity at hydrothermal vents: Studying larval dispersal at discrete and ephemeral habitats in the deep sea Stace E. Beaulieu1, Lauren Mullineaux1, Susan Mills1, Hiromi Watanabe2, Florence Pradillon2,3, and Shigeaki Kojima4 1Biology Dept., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA ([email protected]). 2JAMSTEC, Japan. 3IFREMER, France Hydrothermal vents form discrete habitats on the sea floor at which chemosynthesis often fuels dense faunal communities. About 230 active vent fields have been observed, distributed mainly along the Earth’s plate boundaries at mid-ocean ridges, volcanic arcs, and back-arc spreading centers (see figure on next page; to access the vents database, please visit: http://www.interridge.org/IRvents). Because the vents are so discrete and may be ephemeral on both short (ecological) and long (evolutionary) time scales, biologists often ask the question: “How are these vent sites colonized?” and, more specifically, “How are the faunal populations established and maintained at these habitats?” Several biogeographic provinces have been drawn for vent-endemic fauna. How did these provinces develop, and why do they persist? To address these questions on short time scales, we can look at larval dispersal, the advection of larvae by ocean currents in combination with larval behavior, settlement, and recruitment. For intermediate time scales, we can look at connectivity of local populations within a metapopulation and gene flow. For longer time scales we study phylogeography of vent-endemic fauna in the context of plate dynamics. This talk will focus on how we can study larval dispersal between discrete habitats in the deep sea. We will draw from experience in two biogeographic provinces of hydrothermal vent fauna – the northern East Pacific Rise and northwestern Pacific. We will discuss technology involved in a regional-scale study of larval dispersal at the East Pacific Rise at the U.S. Ridge 2000 Program’s Integrated Studies Site. This multi-disciplinary project (led by LM) involved both observations and modeling of larval dispersal at vents along the spreading axis at ~2500-m depth. We will discuss technology used on our most recent cruise (led by SK) in a more local-scale study of larvae at vents in the southern Mariana Trough. For this project, we collected larvae at vents situated at- and off- the back-arc spreading axis at ~3000-m depth, and we observed larval behavior on board ship. Understanding the connectivity, or lack thereof, of communities at the local scale and populations at the regional scale is important when considering the basic science of population maintenance,