Barone Benedetto

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Last Name
Barone
First Name
Benedetto
ORCID
0000-0002-1102-7837

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Article
    Autonomous tracking and sampling of the deep chlorophyll maximum layer in an open-ocean eddy by a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle
    (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2020-10-13) Zhang, Yanwu ; Kieft, Brian ; Hobson, Brett W. ; Ryan, John P. ; Barone, Benedetto ; Preston, Christina M. ; Roman, Brent ; Raanan, Ben-Yair ; Marin, Roman ; O’Reilly, Thomas C. ; Rueda, Carlos A. ; Pargett, Douglas ; Yamahara, Kevan M. ; Poulos, Steve ; Romano, Anna ; Foreman, Gabe ; Ramm, Hans ; Wilson, Samuel T. ; DeLong, Edward F. ; Karl, David M. ; Birch, James M. ; Bellingham, James G. ; Scholin, Christopher A.
    Phytoplankton communities residing in the open ocean, the largest habitat on Earth, play a key role in global primary production. Through their influence on nutrient supply to the euphotic zone, open-ocean eddies impact the magnitude of primary production and its spatial and temporal distributions. It is important to gain a deeper understanding of the microbial ecology of marine ecosystems under the influence of eddy physics with the aid of advanced technologies. In March and April 2018, we deployed autonomous underwater and surface vehicles in a cyclonic eddy in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre to investigate the variability of the microbial community in the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) layer. One long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV) carrying a third-generation Environmental Sample Processor (3G-ESP) autonomously tracked and sampled the DCM layer for four days without surfacing. The sampling LRAUV's vertical position in the DCM layer was maintained by locking onto the isotherm corresponding to the chlorophyll peak. The vehicle ran on tight circles while drifting with the eddy current. This mode of operation enabled a quasi-Lagrangian time series focused on sampling the temporal variation of the DCM population. A companion LRAUV surveyed a cylindrical volume around the sampling LRAUV to monitor spatial and temporal variation in contextual water column properties. The simultaneous sampling and mapping enabled observation of DCM microbial community in its natural frame of reference.
  • Article
    The estimation of gross oxygen production and community respiration from autonomous time-series measurements in the oligotrophic ocean
    (Wiley, 2019-11-20) Barone, Benedetto ; Nicholson, David P. ; Ferrón, Sara ; Firing, Eric ; Karl, David M.
    Diel variations in oxygen concentration have been extensively used to estimate rates of photosynthesis and respiration in productive freshwater and marine ecosystems. Recent improvements in optical oxygen sensors now enable us to use the same approach to estimate metabolic rates in the oligotrophic waters that cover most of the global ocean and for measurements collected by autonomous underwater vehicles. By building on previous methods, we propose a procedure to estimate photosynthesis and respiration from vertically resolved diel measurements of oxygen concentration. This procedure involves isolating the oxygen variation due to biological processes from the variation due to physical processes, and calculating metabolic rates from biogenic oxygen changes using linear least squares analysis. We tested our method on underwater glider observations from the surface layer of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre where we estimated rates of gross oxygen production and community respiration both averaging 1.0 mmol O2 m−3 d−1, consistent with previous estimates from the same environment. Method uncertainty was computed as the standard deviation of the fitted parameters and averaged 0.6 and 0.5 mmol O2 m−3 d−1 for oxygen production and respiration, respectively. The variability of metabolic rates was larger than this uncertainty and we were able to discern covariation in the biological production and consumption of oxygen. The proposed method resolved variability on time scales of approximately 1 week. This resolution can be improved in several ways including by measuring turbulent mixing, increasing the number of measurements in the surface ocean, and adopting a Lagrangian approach during data collection.
  • Article
    Targeted sampling by autonomous underwater vehicles
    (Frontiers Media, 2019-08-14) Zhang, Yanwu ; Ryan, John P. ; Kieft, Brian ; Hobson, Brett W. ; McEwen, Robert S. ; Godin, Michael A. ; Harvey, Julio B. ; Barone, Benedetto ; Bellingham, James G. ; Birch, James M. ; Scholin, Christopher A. ; Chavez, Francisco P.
    In the vast ocean, many ecologically important phenomena are temporally episodic, localized in space, and move according to local currents. To effectively study these complex and evolving phenomena, methods that enable autonomous platforms to detect and respond to targeted phenomena are required. Such capabilities allow for directed sensing and water sample acquisition in the most relevant and informative locations, as compared against static grid surveys. To meet this need, we have designed algorithms for autonomous underwater vehicles that detect oceanic features in real time and direct vehicle and sampling behaviors as dictated by research objectives. These methods have successfully been applied in a series of field programs to study a range of phenomena such as harmful algal blooms, coastal upwelling fronts, and microbial processes in open-ocean eddies. In this review we highlight these applications and discuss future directions.
  • Article
    Iron depletion in the deep chlorophyll maximum: mesoscale eddies as natural iron fertilization experiments
    (American Geophysical Union, 2021-11-17) Hawco, Nicholas J. ; Barone, Benedetto ; Church, Matthew J. ; Babcock-Adams, Lydia ; Repeta, Daniel J. ; Wear, Emma K. ; Foreman, Rhea K. ; Björkman, Karin M. ; Bent, Shavonna M. ; Van Mooy, Benjamin A. S. ; Sheyn, Uri ; DeLong, Edward F. ; Acker, Marianne ; Kelly, Rachel L. ; Nelson, Alexa ; Ranieri, John ; Clemente, Tara M. ; Karl, David M. ; John, Seth G.
    In stratified oligotrophic waters, phytoplankton communities forming the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) are isolated from atmospheric iron sources above and remineralized iron sources below. Reduced supply leads to a minimum in dissolved iron (dFe) near 100 m, but it is unclear if iron limits growth at the DCM. Here, we propose that natural iron addition events occur regularly with the passage of mesoscale eddies, which alter the supply of dFe and other nutrients relative to the availability of light, and can be used to test for iron limitation at the DCM. This framework is applied to two eddies sampled in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Observations in an anticyclonic eddy center indicated downwelling of iron-rich surface waters, leading to increased dFe at the DCM but no increase in productivity. In contrast, uplift of isopycnals within a cyclonic eddy center increased supply of both nitrate and dFe to the DCM, and led to dominance of picoeukaryotic phytoplankton. Iron addition experiments did not increase productivity in either eddy, but significant enhancement of leucine incorporation in the light was observed in the cyclonic eddy, a potential indicator of iron stress among Prochlorococcus. Rapid cycling of siderophores and low dFe:nitrate uptake ratios also indicate that a portion of the microbial community was stressed by low iron. However, near-complete nitrate drawdown in this eddy, which represents an extreme case in nutrient supply compared to nearby Hawaii Ocean Time-series observations, suggests that recycling of dFe in oligotrophic ecosystems is sufficient to avoid iron limitation in the DCM under typical conditions.
  • Article
    Short-term variability in euphotic zone biogeochemistry and primary productivity at Station ALOHA : a case study of summer 2012
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2015-08-13) Wilson, Samuel T. ; Barone, Benedetto ; Ascani, Francois ; Bidigare, Robert R. ; Church, Matthew J. ; del Valle, Daniela A. ; Dyhrman, Sonya T. ; Ferroon, Sara ; Fitzsimmons, Jessica N. ; Juranek, Laurie W. ; Kolber, Zbigniew S. ; Letelier, Ricardo M. ; Martinez-Garcia, Sandra ; Nicholson, David P. ; Richards, Kelvin J. ; Rii, Yoshimi M. ; Rouco, Monica ; Viviani, Donn A. ; White, Angelicque E. ; Zehr, Jonathan P. ; Karl, David M.
    Time-series observations are critical to understand the structure, function, and dynamics of marine ecosystems. The Hawaii Ocean Time-series program has maintained near-monthly sampling at Station ALOHA (22°45′N, 158°00′W) in the oligotrophic North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) since 1988 and has identified ecosystem variability over seasonal to interannual timescales. To further extend the temporal resolution of these near-monthly time-series observations, an extensive field campaign was conducted during July–September 2012 at Station ALOHA with near-daily sampling of upper water-column biogeochemistry, phytoplankton abundance, and activity. The resulting data set provided biogeochemical measurements at high temporal resolution and documents two important events at Station ALOHA: (1) a prolonged period of low productivity when net community production in the mixed layer shifted to a net heterotrophic state and (2) detection of a distinct sea-surface salinity minimum feature which was prominent in the upper water column (0–50 m) for a period of approximately 30 days. The shipboard observations during July–September 2012 were supplemented with in situ measurements provided by Seagliders, profiling floats, and remote satellite observations that together revealed the extent of the low productivity and the sea-surface salinity minimum feature in the NPSG.