The development and applications of a controllable lander for in-situ, long-term observation of deep sea chemosynthetic communities

Abstract

Understanding the evolution of chemosynthetic communities and environmental changes near fluid seepages in the deep sea requires in-situ long-term observation data. However, in-situ detection or sampling for the investigation of cold seeps, hydrothermal vents, and nearby chemosynthetic ecosystems, by manned submersibles and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), has great restrictions in terms of time. The observation parameters of a free-fall mode Lander cannot be adjusted in real time because there is no communication channel once the Lander is separated from the vessel. A long-term ocean observation platform (LOOP), that uses a new controllable mode for launching and recovery with the aid of a research vessel and submarine vehicles, has been developed and used in the cold seep area of the South China Sea. The LOOP can be operated in an online real-time control mode allowing landing site selection and adjustment of observation parameters during the launching process, with subsequent switched to an offline stand-alone operation mode for long-term, continuous observation. The effective observation times were 375 days and 414 days, respectively, during the 2016 and 2018 deployments in the cold seep area in the South China Sea. Results of these deployments show that salinity and dissolved oxygen parameters have strong spatial heterogeneity in both the horizontal and vertical directions within the cold seep vent. The spatial heterogeneity of environmental parameters may be one of the main driving factors for the uneven spatial distribution of chemosynthetic communities in cold seep areas. Overall, the LOOP provides an innovative and controllable launching and recovery mode and is expected to become a universal underwater observation platform for in-situ, long-term, and continuous data acquisition.