Lance-A-Lot

Lance-A-Lot is available in three different sizes. The picture shows the small one. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, S. Ahmerkamp)
Lance-A-Lot is available in three different sizes. The picture shows the small one. (© Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, S. Ahmerkamp)

What is Lance-A-Lot?

Lance-A-Lot was developed at our Institute and is not just a single device but rather several devices. It is essentially an observation station that is placed on the seafloor which operates autonomously from there. The system, which weighs around 600 kg and is roughly the size of a small car, was developed in order to help our scientists better understand the dynamic interaction of currents, sediment transport, and (microbial) exchange processes at the bottom of the oceans. For example, Lance-A-Lot can simultaneously measure the flow velocity, the shape of the floor, and the oxygen levels in the sand.

How does Lance-A-Lot work?

Lance-A-Lot comes in three different sizes. The larger versions are launched by research vessels such as the FS Heincke; the smaller ones can also be used by divers. However, the basic principle is the same for all versions. The devices consist of a metal frame that can be set down on the seafloor. On this frame are rails for a carriage, which serves as a support for various devices such as sensor lances for measuring oxygen, a laser for scanning the shape of the floor, an underwater camera, and probes for measuring salinity and current velocities.

Lance-A-Lot operates autonomously on the seafloor and does not need to be connected to the research vessel. The carriage with the sensor lance always moves forward a small distance between measurements. For the individual measurements, the sensor lance is slowly driven into the seafloor and out again.

Meanwhile, the laser scans the seafloor as can be seen in the video under “Lance-A-Lot in action”. The laser emits a red line that adapts to the respective floor structure. This data can then be used to create a 3D map of the subsurface. The images from the camera on the device are used to analyse sources of error in the evaluation and observe the various aquatic creates such as starfish, flatfish, sea urchins, and hermit crabs.

Lance-A-Lot is not a static system and is constantly being further developed and adapted in order to meet the various requirements of the scientists.

Lance-A-Lot in action

What drives bac­teria in the North Sea

When sea­wa­ter is flushed through the sand it also trans­ports oxy­gen into the sea­floor, thereby stim­u­lat­ing the res­id­ent mi­croor­gan­isms. The more oxy­gen ar­rives, the more act­ive the mi­croor­gan­isms are. That al­lows them to turn over large amounts of car­bon and ni­tro­gen, for ex­ample. This is par­tic­u­larly im­port­ant con­sid­er­ing that rivers trans­port large amounts of ni­tro­gen and other nu­tri­ents to the North Sea. Un­til now, the in­ter­ac­tion of sands and sea­wa­ter was mainly in­vest­ig­ated un­der labor­at­ory con­di­tions. But, it is es­sen­tial to in­vest­ig­ate these pro­cesses un­der nat­ural con­di­tions to val­id­ate the labor­at­ory find­ings and es­tim­ate their im­port­ance.

 

You get more information about these studies in the press release "Fresh air in the sand: What drives bacteria in the North Sea"

Original publication:

Ahmerkamp, C. Winter, K. Krämer, D. de Beer, F. Janssen, J. Friedrichs, M. Kuypers und M. Holtap­pels (2017): Reg­u­la­tion of benthic oxy­gen fluxes in per­meable sed­i­ments of the coastal ocean. Lim­no­logy and Ocean­o­graphy.

DOI: 10.1002/lno.10544 

This pa­per was pro­duced in the frame­work of the MPI-marum cross-cut­ting-pro­ject 5 (CCP5) "Or­ganic-mat­ter re­min­er­al­iz­a­tion and nu­tri­ent turnover in per­meable sandy sed­i­ments”.

More publications:

D. Probandt,. K. Knit­tel, H. E. Te­get­meyer, S. Ah­merkamp, M. Holtap­pels und R. Amann (2017): Per­meab­il­ity shapes bac­terial com­munit­ies in sub­lit­toral sur­face sed­i­ments. En­vir­on­mental Mi­cro­bi­o­logy 19(4): 1584-1599.

DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.13676 

 

Lance-A-Lot in video

The time-lapse video on the left shows Lance-A-Lot in operation. From preparation on the research vessel to deployment at sea.

Who uses Lance-A-Lot?

It is mainly used by scientists of the Department of Biogeochemistry. However, it is also open to all other scientists of the institute as well as to external researchers in the context of collaborative projects.

Contact

Scientist

Department of Biogeochemistry

Dr. Soeren Ahmerkamp

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen

Room: 

3130

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-6380

Dr. Soeren Ahmerkamp

Scientist

 

Biogeochemistry Group

Farooq Moin Jalaluddin

MPI for Marine Microbiology
Celsiusstr. 1
D-28359 Bremen
Germany

Room: 

3133

Phone: 

+49 421 2028-6441

Farooq Moin Jalaluddin
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