Project Components
Estuarine Science
The COMBB Project will deploy and test continuous oxygen sensors in different coastal ponds and embayments around Buzzards Bay. It will compare data obtained from the sensors with data collected from traditional measurements made by hand by volunteers.
Marine Robotics
The project will test a new automated glider called the TideRider constructed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. TideRider moves up and down in the water and uses tides move continuous oxygen sensors around within coastal bays.
Social Science
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will use surveys and focus groups to examine how use of sensor technology is likely to influence the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s current water quality volunteers. It will also test how different groups of people such as municipal officials, various town committee members, and state regulators perceive new continuous data compared with data from current regular but occasional grab sampling.
photo by Rachel Jakuba