CICEET Progress Report for the period 3/16/06 Through 9/15/06

Project Title: Development of a Sediment Profile Imaging and Micro-sampling System (SPIMS) for Evaluating the Quality of Bedded Sediments
Principal Investigator(s): Marion Nipper
Additional Investigator(s): Scott Carr
Project Start Date: 9/16/05

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 2

Tasks to meet objectives
Continue communications with DOER and other collaborators to develop the final design. Hold design review meeting at DOER.

Progress on Tasks
Numerous emails communications and phone conversations have taken place to discuss specific details of the design. Design review meeting at DOER was held in late June. Based on concerns with the initial design, several significant modifications were agreed upon. Leading scientists in planar optode technology were visited and they have provided invaluable information to aid in the inclusion of this capability for DO and pH in the SPIMS. The scientists whose labs were visited include Dr. Robert Aller, SUNY Stony Brook, NY, Dr. Frank Wenzhöfer, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, and Dr. Ronnie Glud, University of Copenhagen, Helsingør, Denmark. Materials for sampling devices have been tested and depth compensated microsensors for DO and pH have been purchased.

Dissemination activities during this reporting period
Publications: None at this time.

Workshops: Scott Carr made a presentation about the SPIMS at the Northern Gulf of Mexico Workshop held in at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA during the last week of August 2006 which was attended by ~50 state and federal scientists involved with research in the Gulf of Mexico.

Conferences: SETAC-Europe, May 2006, The Hague, Netherlands, presentation entitled “Sediment Profile Imaging and Micro-sampling System (SPIMS) for Evaluating the Quality of Bedded Sediments” was well received. Approximately 1500 scientists attend this conference. IX Congresso Brasileiro de Ecotoxicologia (9th Brazilian Ecotoxicology Conference), July 2006, São Pedro, S.P., Brazil. The plenary talk entitled “Recent Advances in Marine Ecosystem Health Surveys” presented the SPIMS design and potential uses, and was very well received, generating interest in future use of the instrument by several Brazilian agencies. Presentations are also planned for the Aquatic Toxicity Workshop in Jasper, Ontario, Canada and at the annual SETAC conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Manuals, Protocols: None to date.

Outreach Activities: Have been in contact with numerous potential users of the SPIMS including the Navy, NOAA, EPA, USGS, DoD, USACE, and several state environmental agencies as well as federal and state agencies in Brazil, such as PETROBRÁS and CETESB.

Contact with End Users: End users have been contacted and updated on our progress (see End User feedback forms below).

Patent, Copyright, Invention Disclosure Activity: None planned

Difficulties
No unexpected difficulties have been encountered thus far although the original final design deadline has been moved back due to the significant modifications which were agreed upon at the June meeting.

Data Generated to date
The major modification which was decided on at the June design review meeting was to eliminate the multiple carousel design for a single carousel which would greatly simply the robotic mechanisms and greatly reduce the size and weight of the instrument (Figure 1 and Figure 2). In light of this change, it was also now possible to include hydraulic pistons with feedback control which would allow for precise positioning of the microsensors and samplers which was not feasible with the multiple carousel design because of cost considerations. These modifications will greatly enhance the usability of the SPIMS at shallow depths (<100m) where the deployment time between stations is not a limiting factor and allow the instrument to be deployed from smaller sampling vessels. We are still planning to include planar optodes for pH and DO. Due to the unanticipated high cost for the depth compensated microsensors only pH and DO sensors will be included in the prototype although the SPIMS is being designed so that multiple additional sensors can be added for specific projects when they are required in the future. The latest design also includes a real-time plan view camera to view the sediment surface and an additional camera which will allow the porewater syringes to be viewed while they are filling.

Project Objectives for Next Reporting Period

Objectives
Finalize the design and build the SPIMS.

Tasks to Meet Objectives
DOER will finalize the design with continuous reporting and feedback and then construct the instrument.

Work plan to Meet Objectives
By the end of the next reporting period, the instrument construction will be completed and the initial field testing will be underway.

Overall Project Timeline Update
The project is currently behind the original schedule because of the recent design modifications. Extra time had been scheduled for the construction phase of the project so that a quicker build time should get the project back on schedule.

Expenditures
Expenditures are in the range anticipated for the work accomplished to date.

End User Advisor Feedback
Name: Paul Montagna
Organization: Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve
Location: Port Aransas, TX
Phone number: 361-749-6779
E-mail: paul@utmsi.utexas.edu

1) At this stage, what are the potential applications for this research? Please discuss how you and others could potentially use the technology.
Would allow us to identify sediment profiles and disturbances over large spatial scales.

2) What, if anything, has changed about this project's potential applicability since the last reporting period (not applicable to the first Progress Report)?
Nothing.

3) Do you see any key challenges that the researchers may want to address or keep in mind?
Not yet.

4) Does this report offer you enough information to adequately address the above questions?
Yes.

5) Other feedback?
Good progress.

Name: Margaret Dutch
Organization: Washington State Department of Ecology
Location: Olympia, WA
Phone number: 360-407-6021
E-mail: mdut461@ecy.wa.gov

6) At this stage, what are the potential applications for this research? Please discuss how you and others could potentially use the technology.
Potential applications for this research includes addition of in-situ sediment quality parameters to the suite of variables measured for programs such as the WA State Dept. of Ecology’s on-going Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program. The SPIMS would facilitate rapid measurement of in-situ variables at numerous locations, giving a more rapid and detailed picture of sediment quality conditions in a target area. This could be especially useful in Hood Canal, a body of water in Puget Sound that experiences chronic low dissolved oxygen events on an annual basis. The big advantage of this instrument to us would be having the capability to measure DO (and other measures) right at the sediment-water interface, instead of two meters or so above it. Such measurements would tell us more accurately what conditions the benthic infauna are exposed to.

7) What, if anything, has changed about this project's potential applicability since the last reporting period (not applicable to the first Progress Report)?
Nothing has changed.

8) Do you see any key challenges that the researchers may want to address or keep in mind?
The researchers should make sure that the system will be affordable for agencies that operate their sediment monitoring programs on a limited budget. It is also important to build as much capability as possible into the unit, so that multiple related parameters can be measured at the same time, maximizing the cost effectiveness of each sampling event conducted with the SPIMS.

9) Does this report offer you enough information to adequately address the above questions?
Yes.

10) Other feedback?
None.

Name: Jeff Hyland
Organization: NOAA/NOS Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Health
Location: Charleston, SC
Phone No: 843/762-8652
E-mail: jeff.hyland@noaa.gov

1. At this stage, what are the potential applications for this research? Please discuss how you and others could potentially use the technology.
As expressed in previous feedback, our Marine Ecology program at the NOAA Center for Coastal Ecosystem Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR) in Charleston, South Carolina, includes among other activities a focus on development of benthic-based sediment quality targets for assessing and predicting effects of chemical contaminants and other sediment-associated stressors on the integrity of sediment-dwelling organisms. The capabilities that SPIMS offers — including a combination of visual imaging of sediment-profile features, in-situ measurement of sediment stressors (e.g., low oxygen levels, toxic levels of ammonia, sulfides, and chemical contaminants), and remote sampling of sediment at varying profile depths — would be highly useful in the interpretation and validation of results of our studies. One potential application that I am particularly interested in is comparing results of SPIMS sampling at degraded versus non-degraded sites to estimates of sediment contamination (based on mean ERM quotients) and condition of ambient benthic fauna (based on the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity) expressed in relation to the sediment quality targets (i.e. bioeffect cutpoints) developed for such parameters. Such comparisons also would help to elucidate relative contributions of chemical contamination vs. consequences of organic loading (high ammonia and sulfide) to impaired benthic condition (as expressed by low benthic index scores).

2. What, if anything, has changed about this project's potential applicability since the last reporting period (not applicable to the first Progress Report)?
The prototype SPIMS apparently will now only have DO and pH sensors, which would limit the ability to include some of these other measurements mentioned above, at least immediately. However, as stated, in the long run this should not be a problem since the SPIMS is being designed to accommodate the inclusion of additional multiple sensors in the future to meet individual project demands. A delay in the schedule was reported, but that has no effect on me or my program, and they are making an effort to get the production on track.

3. Do you see any key challenges that the researchers may want to address or keep in mind?
None. They seem to be on the top of things.

4. Does this report offer you enough information to adequately address the above questions?
Yes.

5. Other feedback?
None.