Research & Projects

This work is currently a in-prep manuscript soon to be submitted at JGR: Oceans titled: Episodic winter deep chlorophyll events in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight revealed by autonomous glider deployments, co-authored by Dr. Robert Todd and Dr. Sophie Clayton. Stay tune for updates. 

Plain Language Summary

Much of the coastal-open ocean transport as they relate to carbon and primary production budgets remains poorly resolved. We utilize autonomous gliders equipped with chlorophyll fluorometers to fill the gaps in our understanding. A key component, prior to the oceanography, is handling sensor drift and calibration uncertainty and often autonomous observations are not paired with recurring in situ calibration measurements. In our work, we using employ exponential offsets and remote sensing ocean color as a tool for standardization. 

In the study domain of the most recent manuscript, we utilized corrected autonomous underwater glider fluorescence to spatially resolve chlorophyll and associated physical dynamics. We calculate the mean and annual cycle of chlorophyll are associated with summer onset of stratification of chlorophyll on the shelf and slope of the southern MAB. Furthermore, we reveal observations of “deep chlorophyll events” in winter-spring are associated with seasonal atmospheric and frontal exchange mechanisms like: temperature driven cascade and cold pool export are likely indicators of carbon export events off the coastal-open ocean boundary. Spray Glider Photo Cred: Robert Todd. 

Using the rich complex region of the Galapagos Archipelago where several nutrient rich regimes are converging on the island system. The physical mode of nutrient delivery to the surface euphotic zone (where there is light availability for primary productivity) has the capacity to effect functionality of biology. We employ a autonomous profiler, a WireWalker, to observe the depth resolve observations of hydrographic and biogeochemical parameters and use these observations to make connections between physical modes and downstream biological pathways. I took the below photo of the WireWalker on our test deployment off the coast of North Carolina. Acknowledgement to Dr. Mike Muglia's group for helping us with the test deployment.