Undergraduates at Sea and in the Laboratory Conducting Habitat Mapping Using Multibeam and Sidescan Sonar
Abstract
During the last five years, undergraduate students at the College of Charleston have had numerous opportunities to take part in the college's Transect Program and sail aboard research vessels on 2-5 day cruises to study the continental shelf. The program's purpose is to train students in oceanographic research while developing a long-term information geodatabase to characterize and monitor essential fish habitats, and to map seafloor geomorphology. During these cruises students take the lead to conduct a variety of research investigations which include hydrographic surveys of the seafloor using sidescan sonar, multibeam bathymetry, and video collected using a remotely operated vehicle and during SCUBA dives. Following the data collection cruises, students have enrolled in semester-long research courses to analyze data and document results through poster and oral presentations. More than 60 students have taken part in at least one of 6 programs. In the past two years, the NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER has provided invaluable sea time to conduct multibeam surveys of the mid- and outer continental shelf off Charleston, so that the 22 participating Transect students have focused their work on seafloor mapping, and have become trained in state-of-the art CARIS multibeam and sidescan sonar processing software. Most of these students have presented their results at professional meetings, and manuscripts are currently in preparation. Students have had numerous post-program opportunities to conduct further research at sea and in the lab. They have collaborated with NOAA scientists and other investigators, conducting bathymetry data processing and analysis from other regions. Most recently, two program graduates worked with University of Washington investigators to map sites for the Ocean Observatory Initiative Regional Scale Nodes. Several students have been contracted or hired as hydrographic survey technicians, while others have gone to graduate school to continue their work using these invaluable skills learned as undergraduates.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMED13A0598S
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- 0825 Teaching methods;
- 1856 River channels (0483;
- 0744);
- 3045 Seafloor morphology;
- geology;
- and geophysics;
- 4219 Continental shelf and slope processes (3002)