Development Of Low-Cost Instrumentation For Advanced Underwater Ecology

Abstract

The marine ecosystem dynamics in climate change is a growing scientific, political and social concern requiring regular monitoring through appropriate observation technologies and studies. Thus, a wide range of tools with chemical, biogeochemical, physical, biological sensors, and other platforms (AUV, ROV, Sonar, etc...) have been developed for marine monitoring. But their high acquisition and upkeep costs are often an obstacle. This study aims to design a low-cost synoptic marine ecosystem advanced observation system at relatively high temporal frequencies. The low-cost PlasPi TDM is an improved version of the camera system (PlasPI marine cameras) developed by Dr. Autun Purser from the Alfred Wegener Institute (Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany) in collaboration with other researchers in 2020. The camera system developed in this thesis incorporates several innovative developments such as multispectral, temperature, and pressure sensors. Creative in that it can record the spectrum of an object and simultaneously take photographs and record the changes in various environmental parameters. The PlasPi TDM operates to a depth of 200 meters. The various field deployments demonstrate the operational capability of the PlasPi TDM for different applications and illustrate its considerable support to marine surveillance through in-situ observations. Intended to be an open-source project, the continued development of PlasPi TDM is encouraged for a more integrated, sustainable, and low-cost ocean observing system.