Assessing the potential of autonomous

submarine gliders for ecosystem monitoring

Damien Guihen (BAS)

Lavinia Suberg; Russell B Wynn; Jeroen van der Kooij; Liam Fernand; Sophie Fielding;
Damien Guihen; Douglas Gillespie; Mark Johnson; Kalliopi C Gkikopoulo; Ian J Allan; Vrana
Branislav; Peter I Miller; David Smeed; Alice R Jones

Shallow-water Slocum glider

Autonomous

Buoyancy-driven
Optimized for shallow-water
operations (~200m)
GPS/dead-reckoning
Iridium communication
horizontal speed: 20-40cm/sec
vertical speed: 10-20cm/sec

Shallow-water Slocum glider

Autonomous

Buoyancy-driven
Optimized for shallow-water
operations (~200m)
GPS/dead-reckoning
Iridium communication
horizontal speed: 20-40cm/sec
dailywireless.org

Cost-efficient
Samples entire water column
Simultaneous measurements of multiple parameters
High frequency data
few weather constraints

vertical speed: 10-20cm/sec

Slow moving
Limited sensor load/ quality
Data validation

Satellite

Large spatio-temporal
datasets
Low resolution
Surface only
Cloud cover
Cost-efficient
Samples entire water
column
Simultaneous
measurements of multiple
parameters
High frequency data
few weather constraints

Vessel

Mooring

High resolution and

quality
Multitude of sensors
QAed
Low spatio-temporal
extend
Expensive
Slow moving
Limited sensor load/ quality
Data validation

High resolution
Time series
Spatial extend

Need for high resolution data across multiple parameters

Implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework
Directive (MSFD)

Establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Understanding ecosystem functioning, predator-prey
interactions

JNCC
oceanlink

Assessing the potential of submarine gliders for cost-efficient

ecosystem monitoring
Simultaneous deployment of two gliders equipped with sensors measuring:
Water-column properties
chlorophyll
Zooplankton and fish
cetacean
Survey area: Isles of Scilly tidal mixing front
Productive
Cetacean and seabird abundance
Marine Conservation Area
Physically heterogeneous environment

Zephyr

Zephyr
CTD + fluorometer: temperature,
salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence
Hydrophone (dtag): passive acoustic
monitoring (cetacean)
Passive sampling sheets: contaminants

U194
CTD + fluorometer: temperature,
salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence
ES853 Echosounder: Fish and
zooplankton

Deployment Autumn 2013

U194

Glider tracks

Mission summary
Deployment week

DEPLOYMENT
Zephyr
U194

Repairs

SENSORS
Zephyr CTD + fluorometer
U194 CTD + fluorometer
Zephyr DTAG

U194 echo-sounder

Repairs

Memory full

No recordings, broken cable

Repairs

No recordings, software problem

Deployment: 12th September 2013

Retrieval Zephyr : 21st October (38 days)
Retrieval U194: 13th November (60 days)

Deployment week

DEPLOYMENT
Zephyr
Repairs

U194
SENSORS
Zephyr CTD + fluorometer
U194 CTD + fluorometer

Repairs

Zephyr DTAG
U194 echo-sounder

Memory full

No recordings, broken cable

Repairs

No recordings, software problem

Statistic

Zephyr

U194

No. of dives

2654

2821

Total distance (km)

1080

1309

Mean dist b/w GPS fixes (km)

0.9

0.85

Max dist b/w GPS fixes (km)

13.7

10.3

Mean dive depth (m)

44.55

40

Max dive depth (m)

101.49

103.89

Deployment: 12th September 2013

Retrieval Zephyr : 21st October (38 days)
Retrieval U194: 13th November (60/39
days)

Oceanographic Sensors

Frontal crossings
Subsurface chlorophyll maximum
Spatial difference in surface and bottom Change from stratified to mixed
front
Storm event

Glider
echosounder

Glider
echosounder

Ship-based
echosounder

Hydrophone

291 dives
49 Dolphin whistles
Total of 2413 recordings over 194 dives 145 Dolphin clicks
2 Harbour porpoise clicks
42 Clicks and whistles

Glider operations

Sensors/technology

Flight control
Currents, tides, sensor effect

Positives
Sensors provided useful data
Entire water-column sampled
High resolution data
Few weather constraints
Long term

Possible solutions:
Changing flight settings
Extended trials prior to survey
Less challenging environments
Alignment of glider trajectories

Limitations
Sensor technology
Level of information: distribution
or relative abundance, not
biomass or species composition
Calibration and validation of data
Monitoring networks

Ohman et al. (2013)

Conclusions

Early stages
Great potential
Will not be able to substitute vessel surveys
Can significantly contribute to ecosystem monitoring
in conjunction with other platforms monitoring
networks

Acknowledgements
MARS staff: David White, Sam Ward, James Burris
CEFAS Endeavour crew and scientists
IFCA Isles of Scilly
James Bowcott (PML)
DEFRA
JERICO