An Oceanographic Buoy for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in a Coastal Embayment Prone to Harmful Algal Blooms

In the spring of 2006 a consortium of Bowdoin College, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and Saint Joseph's College of Maine will begin the operation of an oceanographic buoy in Harpswell Sound, part of the Casco Bay region of coastal Maine. Funding for acquisition of the buoy has been provided by NSF's MRI program. The sensing buoy will measure physical climatic and oceanographic variables, as well as a suite of biogeochemical indicators (nutrients, chlorophyll, light absorption, etc.). The data collected will be publicly available in real time and will contribute to the overall Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) monitoring program, a premier and ground-breaking effort in assessing the physical and biogeochemical characteristics of the Gulf of Maine. Harpswell Sound is known as an indicator region for harmful algal blooms (HABs) of toxic Alexandrium spp. microalgae, and is an ideal location to employ long-term, comprehensive, remote and real-time monitoring to characterize model systems that promote HABs, as well as system response to changing watershed use patterns and evolving cultural eutrophication. Data acquired with the buoy's sensors, both streaming in real-time and archived in larger sets, will be used in course work at Bowdoin College and Saint Joseph's College, and will be available for use by other post-secondary institutions. Immediate applications include use of data in course work to understand the influence of physical oceanographic processes on biological processes in three dimensions and through time from an Eulerian perspective. The influence of climatic events and the geological characteristics of the surrounding watershed will also be recorded and analyzed through earth science course work. Bowdoin College has a marine research station immediately adjacent on the shore of Harpswell Sound, facilitating complementary traditional monitoring opportunities, e.g. targeted and detailed sampling of interesting features indicated by the sensing buoy, as well as ancillary hypothesis-driven research made possible with complementary use of the monitoring buoy. This will provide for numerous undergraduate research internships and senior thesis research activities. The three institutions seek to form educational and research partnerships with other institutions and to create model curriculum based on the synergy between an ocean buoy and an adjacent research facility.