NEPTUNE Canada

Overview map of study locations and instruments in Barkley Canyon. (Device IDs in parentheses. Click to enlarge.) See below for a zoomed map of hydrate outcrop, mid-canyon and canyon axis instruments.

Zoomed map instruments and study sites within Barkley Canyon as of October 2011. (Device IDs in parentheses. Click to enlarge.)

Barkley Canyon is ideally situated for study of nutrient and sediment transport from the shelf/slope break through a submarine canyon to the deep sea. In addition, a prominent mid-canyon outcrop of gas hydrates is being studed by marine biologists, geologists, geophysicists, and climatologists.

Vertical Profiler System

At the canyon head, a custom-designed multi-sensor vertical profiler system is planned. This system consists of a seafloor platform (400m) and a tethered float. A winch on the platform raises and lowers the float through the water column, which bristles with instrumentation for monitoring salinity, temperature, dissolved gases and nutrients, currents, plankton and fish concentrations and marine mammal movements. This system will help scientists examine the influences of complex currents on plankton life cycles.

Benthic pods

Scientists are studying benthic (seafloor) ecology using instrument suites at four study sites along the shelf break, mid-canyon, and canyon axis. Long-term monitoring will allow scientists to observe changes in seafloor communities related to seasonal patterns of sediment transport and nutrient upwelling.

Hydrate outcrops

A variety of instruments, both on a fixed platform and carried by a remotely operated crawler, allow detailed study of gas hydrate outcrop accretion and dissolution.