Long term study of sedimentation and biofouling at cascadia basin, the site of the pacific ocean neutrino experiment
Abstract STRings for Absorption Length in Water (STRAW)-a and b were pathfinder instruments deployed to characterize the anticipated site of the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), which is a future neutrino telescope that will be located in the North Pacific Ocean. Measurements of the evolution of the optical transmission efficiency from STRAW-a showed a decline over the detector’s lifetime for the upward-facing modules. Video footage of the pathfinders strongly suggested this decline was caused by biofouling and sedimentation. We measure the effect of biofouling and sedimentation to be a decrease in the transparency of upward-facing optical surfaces over 5 years of operations. A majority of downward-facing optical surfaces, which will dominate P-ONE’s sensitivity to astrophysical sources, showed no visible biofouling. Extrapolations motivated by biological growth models estimated that these losses started around 2.5 years after deployment, and suggest a reduction in transparency ranging from 35 $$\%$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mo>%</mml:mo> </mml:math> of the original to complete obscuration for the upward-facing modules. Samples of biofouling were taken in order to identify the microbial diversity of these organisms and inform potential intervention strategies. Results of the microbial samples and a candidate anti-biofouling strategy that will be tested on upcoming P-ONE instruments are discussed.
Authors
- B. Biffard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7972-9499)
- V. Gousy-Leblanc
- W. Noga (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9113-9558)
- Matt Tradewell
- M. Boehmer
- B. Pirenne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9208-7622)
- Felix Henningsen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0680-6588)
- Douglas Grant
- R. Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2782-2333)
- Matthew Charlton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2045-4184)
- Jeffrey Hutchinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2122-7485)
- Shiv K. Sharma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5676-7572)
- Tim Lavallee
- B. Veenstra
- Dirk Brussow
- Reyna Jenkyns (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6975-6816)
- Christian Haack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3932-2448)
- I. Kulin
- Tobias Kerscher
- P. Pfahler
- Andreas Gärtner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1670-7305)
- Shraddha Karanth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6970-8539)
- M. Brandenburg
- Rasmus Ørsøe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8890-4124)
- A. Scholz
- P. Krause (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9603-7865)
- K. Leismüller
- Jakub Stacho
- Eric W. Price (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8619-1199)
- O. Aghaei
- R. Halliday
- Steve Mihály
- D. Ghuman
- B. Crudele
- Igancio Taboada
- T. Schmidt
- Seann Wagner
- Victoria Alexis Parrish
- Nathan Whitehorn
- S. Robertson
- A. Grimes
- M. Paulson
- Leopold J. Winter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9218-6435)
- R. Moore
- A. Magaña Ponce
- C. Ridsdale
- M. Danninger
- A. Zaalishvili
- P. S. Barbeau
- A. Lam
- A. Round
- M. Un Nisa
- A. Rahlin
- R. Wroński
- A. Alexander Wight
- C. B. Krauss
- C. Lagunas Gualda
- J. H. Wynne
- C. Miller
- D. Hembroff
- F. Fuchs
- S. Loipolder
- B. Nichol
- S. Kershtein
- P. Malecki
- K. Kopański
- M. Wolf
- S. Agreda
- C. Kopper
- G. G. Marshall
- C. Bellenghi
- N. Molberg
- C. Weaver
- B. Nührenbörger
- D. Salazar-Gallegos
- J. P. Twagirayezu
- L. Ginzkey
- N. Cedarblade-Jones
- J. Garriz
- N. Kurahashi
- C. Spannfellner
- L. Papp
- E. Resconi
- J. P. Yañez
- M. Rangen
- S. Magel
- T. Martin
- M. Agostini
- A. J. Baron
- F. C. De Leo
- T. DeYoung
- A. R. Thurber
- S. Bash
Institutions
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Alberta (CA)
- Duke University (US)
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- University of California System (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (US)
- Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (PL)
- University College London (GB)
- Elmhurst University (US)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- Drexel University (US)
- Michigan State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The European Physical Journal C
- Published
- 2026-02-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-15319-6
- Primary Topic
- Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- UK Research and Innovation
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund
- Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Science and Technology Facilities Council