![]() Additionally, monitoring efforts are limited only to a select few individuals with sufficient funding, often inhibiting educational groups and general citizens, as well as scientists with constrained resources, from these efforts/projects. While these devices are generally reliable, their cost often prevents monitoring at optimal spatial resolutions, with each instrument requiring a substantial financial investment. The typical solution is to use expensive, highly specialized instrumentation and proprietary software developed by companies such as SeaBird Electronics Inc. The dynamic and corrosive nature of the marine environment can present a substantial challenge to resource managers and scientists attempting any type of environmental monitoring. Coastal systems often have large temporal and spatial gradients in abiotic properties, which can require site specific observations. From a scientific perspective, temperature and salinity are key parameters that impact coastal processes from metabolic rates to circulation patterns. In addition, extreme temperatures around oyster reefs can increase the likelihood of Vibrio outbreaks, a pathogen that causes human illness, and in some cases, death. For example, low salinity and high temperatures have been shown to impact the metabolism and overall health of oysters ( Crassostrea virginica), both synergistically and independently. Basic measurements of temperature and salinity are important to resource managers due to the sensitivity of certain commercially important species as well as determining weather conditions are favorable for the presence and/or rapid growth of pathogenic organisms. Observations of water conditions in the coastal marine environment are critical for a range of management applications as well as improving the understanding many estuarine and near-shore processes. ![]() The sonde designs presented serve as templates that will expand the hydrographic measurement capabilities of ocean scientists, students, and teachers. Design alterations reflected an emphasis on minimizing power consumption, which included the elimination of the GPS capabilities, increased battery capacity, and power-saving software modifications. A second application using the sonde platform was designed for longer duration (~3–4 weeks) subsurface (1.5–4.0 m depths) deployment, moored to permanent structures. The temperature and salinity data were highly correlated and had acceptable RMS errors of 0.154 ☌ and 1.35 psu for the environmental conditions. Functional testing of the sensor consisted of a 55 h comparison with a regularly maintained water quality sensor ( i.e., YSI 6600 sonde) in Mobile Bay, AL. The initial sonde design was intended for use on a Lagrangian style surface drifter that recorded measurements of temperature salinity and position for a deployment duration of less than 24 h. Two design configurations for different coastal hydrographic applications are highlighted to show the robust and versatile nature of this sensor platform. The platform allows for internal logging of multiple parameters of which conductivity, temperature, and GPS position are demonstrated. The sonde can be made without specialized tools or training and can be easily modified to meet individual application requirements. This project addresses the need for an expansion in the monitoring of marine environments by providing a detailed description of a low cost, robust, user friendly sonde, built on Arduino Mega 2560 (Mega) and Arduino Uno (Uno) platforms.
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