Monitoring the Spring Bloom in an Ice Covered Fjord with the Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory (LOBO)

The Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory (LOBO) system was initially developed by MBARI under the NSF Biocomplexity program to monitor the land/ocean interface for coastal zone management. The system utilizes highly robust and accurate sensors to provide sustained monitoring of critical watershed habitats in challenging environmental conditions in real time. With the incorporation of novel anti-fouling technology developed by WET Labs, the system has an unprecedented six week maintenance cycle, greatly reducing operational costs while providing high quality data sets. LOBO measurements include nitrate, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, chlorophyll fluorescence, turbidity and CDOM. A LOBO was deployed in the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour in January of 2007 and has been monitoring the biogeochemical parameters continuously since (see http://lobo.satlantic.com). Despite heavy icing at -20 degrees C, heavy winds, and sea ice the system reported data every hour where the detailed nature of the annual spring phytoplankton bloom was recorded at high resolution. The coincident and continuous record of nutrients, phytoplankton and other physical and chemical parameters is unique, and provides a robust means to base predictive coastal ecosystem models in sensitive marine areas.