'A' is for Adaptive

A team of CMOP scientists, led by Dr. Holly Simon, have collected autonomous adaptive samples from microbial communities in the Columbia River estuary. This was accomplished by deploying an Environmental Sampling Processor (ESP) at a SATURN observation network station near Cathlamet Bay.

During experiments in May, the ESP was setup to receive instructions from SATURN-04. The station's computer would read data sent from various sensors and a pump controller. Then at pre-programed times or when a sensor met specific criteria the computer sent instructions to the ESP to take a sample.

The black dots in the figure represent the pre-programmed times when the ESP collected samples. The red dots indicate when autonomous adaptive sampling occurred. The first adaptive sample was triggered by specific turbidity criteria, indicated as the red dot marked “A” in the figure. The second adaptive sample was triggered by specific salinity criteria, indicated as the red dot marked “B” in the figure.