ZOOPS- O2: A broadband echosounder with coordinated stereo optical imaging for observing plankton in situ

Here we describe the configuration, calibration, and initial results from the combination of two recently developed underwater instruments that measure acoustic reflectivity and, simultaneously, the location, pose and size of millimeter-sized plankton relative to the sonar beam. The acoustic system, ZOOPS (ZOOPlankton Sonar), uses a broadband chirp signal that operates with a single monostatically configured transducer in the 1.5-2.5 MHz frequency range. We demonstrate that the system can record, with adequate signal-to-noise levels, identifiable reflections from single copepods with lengths as small as 360 μm. To simultaneously identify taxa and measure orientation, a pair of "O-Cam" microscopes were stereoscopically calibrated and geometrically co-registered with the orientation and range-resolved acoustic transmissions of the sonar beam. The system's capability is demonstrated via the in situ measurement of acoustic reflectivity as a function of orientation for 224 individual pelagic copepods comprising three orders of free-living taxa. Comparison with a well-known model, the Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA), using a spheroidal formulation, yields both differences and similarities between the in situ field data and the model's predictions

A diverse group of echogenic particles observed with a broadband, high frequency echosounder

In 1980, Holliday and Pieper stated: "Most sound scattering in the ocean volume can be traced to a biotic origin." However, most of the bioacoustics research in the past three decades has focused on only a few groups of organisms. Targets such as small gelatinous organisms, marine snow, and phytoplankton, e.g. have been generally to be considered relatively transparent to acoustic waves due to their sizes and relatively low sound speed and density contrasts relative to seawater. However, using a broadband system (ZOOPS-O 2) we found that these targets contributed significantly to acoustic returns in the 1.5-2.5 MHz frequency range. Given that phytoplankton and marine snow layers are ubiquitous features of coastal regions; this works suggests that they should be considered as potential sources of backscatter in biological acoustic surveys

ZOOPS- O2: A broadband echosounder with coordinated stereo optical imaging for observing plankton in situ

Here we describe the configuration, calibration, and initial results from the combination of two recently developed underwater instruments that measure acoustic reflectivity and, simultaneously, the location, pose and size of millimeter-sized plankton relative to the sonar beam. The acoustic system, ZOOPS (ZOOPlankton Sonar), uses a broadband chirp signal that operates with a single monostatically configured transducer in the 1.5-2.5 MHz frequency range. We demonstrate that the system can record, with adequate signal-to-noise levels, identifiable reflections from single copepods with lengths as small as 360 μm. To simultaneously identify taxa and measure orientation, a pair of "O-Cam" microscopes were stereoscopically calibrated and geometrically co-registered with the orientation and range-resolved acoustic transmissions of the sonar beam. The system's capability is demonstrated via the in situ measurement of acoustic reflectivity as a function of orientation for 224 individual pelagic copepods comprising three orders of free-living taxa. Comparison with a well-known model, the Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA), using a spheroidal formulation, yields both differences and similarities between the in situ field data and the model's predictions