Monitoring Ocean Biology and Natural Resources Autonomously and Efficiently Using Underwater Gliders

The University of South Florida (USF) College of Marine Science operates a fleet of six Teledyne Webb Research Slocum gliders as cost-effective research platforms for sampling the water column. Underwater gliders are autonomous robots that traverse the water to collect a suite of physical (e.g., temperature and salinity) and chemical (e.g., nutrients and dissolved oxygen) data to better understand the environment of coastal and open oceans. Over the past decade, the USF glider group has added sensors to obtain biological data (e.g., fluorometers, acoustic telemetry receivers, echosounders, and passive acoustic monitors) to help survey and monitor marine organisms. The data collected on these glider missions has been used in the forecasting of red tide blooms, detection of tagged aquatic animals, collection of biomass data, and recording of fish and marine mammal sounds in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and the Atlantic Ocean. Here we describe how our glider fleet has obtained critical biological data and is continuously evolving to better assist in addressing ecosystem-level challenges associated with global environmental changes.