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The “Little MonSta” Deep-Sea Benthic, Precision Deployable, Multi-Sensor and Sampling Lander Array
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This paper describes a new modular instrument array ('Little MonSta') for monitoring ocean conditions and collecting particle samples near deep-sea cold-water coral habitats in submarine canyons. Such instruments can help track how microplastics and other pollutants reach and affect deep-sea ecosystems.
The "Little MonSta" benthic lander array consists of 8 ROV-deployable (remotely operated vehicle) instrumented lander platforms for monitoring physical and chemical oceanographic properties and particle sampling developed as part of the MMMonKey_Pro program (mapping, modeling, and monitoring key processes and controls in cold-water coral habitats in submarine canyons). The Little MonStas offer flexible solutions to meet the need to monitor marine benthic environments during a historically unprecedented time of climate-driven oceanic change, develop an understanding of meso-scale benthic processes (natural and man-made), and to calibrate geological environmental archives. Equipped with acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs), sediment traps, nylon settlement plates and homing beacons, the compact and upgradable lander platforms can be deployed by ROVs to precise locations in extreme terrains to a water depth of 3000 m. The array allows cluster-monitoring in heterogeneous environments or simultaneous monitoring over wider areas. A proof-of-concept case study was presented from the cold-water coral habitable zone in the upper Porcupine Bank Canyon, where the Little MonStas collected 868.8 h of current speed, direction, temperature, and benthic particulate flux records, as well as 192 particle samples subsequently analyzed for particular organic carbon (POC), lithic sediment, live foraminifera, and microplastics. The potential to upgrade the Little MonStas with additional sensors and acoustic releases offers greater and more flexible operational capabilities.
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