Long-term benthic incubation and measuring system and method
AssigneeFlorida Atlantic University Board of Trustees
InventorsJordon Beckler, Csaba Vaczo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The exemplary system and method configured to perform benthic flux incubation and measurement in an on-going continuous manner via motorized or non-motorized actuators that moves one or more sampling chambers (i) between different sampling regions or (ii) maintains the sampling chamber over a single region, for long term repeated measurements. The exemplary system and method can incubate and sample over multiple benthic sampling regions to acquire repeated measurements of both (i) fluxes and (ii) background processes and conditions (e.g., via ambient water incubations or ambient water concentration measurements), the results of which can be combined and processed by the exemplary system to generate data requiring minimal post-processing.
Claims21
A system for measuring benthic fluxes of dissolved analytes, the system comprising:
- an isolation structure having a plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions, including a first sampling region and a second sampling region, wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions is defined by a set of isolation walls;
- a sampling chamber movably coupled to the isolation structure to move among the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions, including the first sampling region and the second sampling region, wherein the sampling chamber and a benthic flux sampling region define a sampling volume for a benthic flux measurement;
- an actuator coupled to the isolation structure to move the sampling chamber among the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions;
- and
- a sample collection mechanism or a set of one or more sensors for collecting or measuring the benthic flux, wherein the set of one or more sensors includes a first sensor and is operatively coupled to the sampling chamber.
A method for measuring seafloor benthic flux, the method comprising:
- placing a benthic flux sampling system at a seafloor, the benthic flux sampling system comprising:
- an isolation structure having a plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions, including a first sampling region and a second sampling region, wherein each of the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions is defined by a set of isolation walls;
- a sampling chamber movably coupled to the isolation structure to relocate among the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions, including the first sampling region and the second sampling region, wherein the sampling chamber and a benthic flux sampling region define a constant volume for a seafloor benthic flux measurement;
- an actuator coupled to the isolation structure to move the sampling chamber among the plurality of pre-defined benthic flux sampling regions;
- and
- a set of one or more sensors for measuring the seafloor benthic flux, wherein the set of one or more sensors is operatively coupled to the sampling chamber;
- positioning the sampling chamber at the first sampling region;
- measuring the benthic flux at the first sampling region according to a first pre-defined measurement protocol during a pre-defined period and;
- positioning the sampling chamber at the second sampling region;
- measuring the benthic flux at the second sampling region according to a second pre-defined measurement protocol after the pre-defined period;
- and
- storing the measured benthic flux of the first sampling region and the second sampling region for analysis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.