Seafloor observatories

National Research Council (NRC). 2000. Illuminating the Hidden Planet The Future of Seafloor Observatory Science. Washington, D.C. National Academy Press. 

Future prospects for research on deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are very promising. New technical approaches and exploration methods (e.g. autonomous vehicles like ABE Embley etal., 2002) will likely benefit this research. Molecular methods will help us to better understand the diversity and possibly the metabolisms of un-culturable environmental microorganisms. Long-term seafloor observatories like NeMO (Embley Baker, 1999) and NEPTUNE (Delaney etal., 2000) will allow us to more easily study episodic events like volcanic eruptions at ridges and massive methane releases from seeps. As well, these observatories will provide data in the form of long-term time... 

In-situ monitoring using cabled seafloor observatories... 

Figure 10.9 A chambered MFC in place on the seafloor near the MARS Observatory. Each MFC also carried an osmotic-pump sampler (mounted on the left side of the picture) designed to draw small water samples from the chambers throughout the deployment. The sensor and modem (outside the photo) were suspended above the carbon brush cathode that is pictured above the chamber. Lead weights are visible, fixed to the underside of the chamber hd. Image captured from high resolution underwater video recorded from the ROV Ventana operated by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. (See insert for color representation of this figure.)...

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