Deep water instrument for microbial identification, quantification, and archiving

Abstract

A deep ocean robotic platform capable of in situ microbial identification and quantification at depths to 4000 m has been developed. The platform is a free benthic lander, containing a low pressure microbial instrument and deep ocean sampling systems that can monitor and collect raw seawater from multiple sources, then decompress the raw seawater for processing by the detection instrument. This has enabled the autonomous collection, processing, and archiving of microbes from multiple sites. This allows for direct, time correlated comparison of different microbial populations along with the seawater physical and chemical composition.