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2000:
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| Four weeks of ship time (September 11 to October 5) were scheduled for research pertaining to blooms of the red tide organism Karenia brevis during 2000. The 2000 cruise marked the first year of the bio-optical component of the ECOHAB-Florida project. Unfortunately blooms of K. brevis had not been identified in the western Gulf of Mexico before the beginning of the cruise and the first 3 weeks of ship time were used to survey these waters in hopes of finding adequate cell abundance. |
| Process A: |
| Process A, 2000 was essentially a search mission for K. brevis blooms on the R/V Suncoaster. Although hydrographic data, particle distributions, and filters for HPLC and spectral absorption were collected during the cruise the primary goal was to identify patches of K. brevis in order to conduct the bio-optical research components of the project. |
| Process B: |
| Since K. brevis was found in very low abundance between Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor during the A leg of 2000, the B leg aboard the R/V Pelican (September 18-23) conducted a survey of the same area in hopes of catching the initiation of a bloom. Underwater springs were also investigated as potential seed beds for K. brevis blooms during this leg. It is interesting to note that even at low cell abundance K. brevis appeared to be associated with density fronts and an apparent optimal density range between sigma-t values of 22.0 to 23.0 kg m-3. Flow through CTD measurements and discrete sampling for cell counts were used to contour data. |
| Process C: |
| Reports of high K. brevis abundance in the Panhandle of Florida warranted a move for Leg C of the 2000 process cruise. The coastal waters between Pensecola and Panama City, FL were surveyed aboard the R/V Pelican between September 22 and 29, 2000. Once a bloom patch was identified an autonomous drifter was deployed to track a parcel of water in hopes of sampling the same community of cells over time. Notice again how the most dense patches of K. brevis appear to be associated with frontal density features and the range of sigma-t values between 22.0 and 23.0 kg m-3. |
| Process D: |
| The final leg of the cruise (September 29 - October 5, 2000) was primarily focused on the photophysiology and bio-optical components of the ECOHAB project. Most of the cruise time during this leg was spent following the autonomous drifter deployed to track the same patch of cells over time. Even with a more limited set of data, contours of flow through data and cell counts once again illustrate how K. brevis appears to follow frontal features. |
| Process A | Process B | Process C | Process D |
| Salinity | |||
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Temperature | ||
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Density | ||
| K. brevis & density |
