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Equipment

 

Below are listed the major pieces of equipment or techniques that will be used to sample Antarctic and Argentine waters during the cruise

 

ADCP: Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler; attaches to the bottom of the boat to determine current speeds in the different water layers; can also determine the amount of plankton in the different water layers

ADCP
A-Frame: part of the ship that is roughly shaped like an "A"; guides a winch wire to aid in deploying and retrieving equipment
A-Frame
Box core: used to collect bottom samples from the sea floor; removes a portion of the sea floor and brings it to the surface
Box Core

Epibenthic sled: a bottom sampling sled that trawls the surface of the sea floor occasionally digging into the bottom sediment; equipped with a mesh net into which benthic organisms are caught and a front door that closes when organisms are being brought up to the surface

Epibenthic Sled

HyBall ROV: a remotely operated robotic camera that will be used to survey the bottom of the sea floor before sampling is done in a particular area; can go as deep as 300 feet

HyBall ROV

Plankton net: fine mesh net used to collect small to microscopic plankton

Plankton Net
Otter trawl: a large fishing net used for collecting organisms primarily on the bottom or near the bottom of the sea floor
Otter trawl
Rock dredge: used to sample the bottom in rocky areas; a steel square with chain mesh that scrapes the bottom collecting benthic organisms
Rock Dredge

SCUBA: Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus; scuba diving will be used to hand collect larger types of plankton

SCUBA diver collecting

Smith-MacIntyer grab: a bottom sampling device that closes like a jaw on bottom sediment; used for polychaete collections in deeper sediment

Smith-MacIntyer Grab

Tucker trawl: a fishing net with fine mesh that has three different nets that can be opened and closed separately at different times while sampling; used to collect plankton

Tucker Trawl

XBT: Expendable Bathythermograph; a probe released into the water column to obtain information about water temperatures at various depths

XBT Launcher