Oceanography as well as planetary science demands a wide range of sensor applications for in situ biogeochemical measurements. While increasingly more parameter can be measured using sensors, for many chemical parameters of interest still wet chemical processes are the method of choice achieving the necessary accuracy and precision. During recent years LOC technology emerged that miniaturizes standard laboratory procedures. First LOC devices became available in environmental sciences (e.g. Beaton et al. 2012) as well as in space sciences for the detection of biomarkers (e.g. Skelly et al. 2005, Aubrey et al. 2008). Aim of this design team is to integrate LOC technology on the different under water vehicles such as glider, AUV, lander or crawler and to demonstrate its suitability for long-term time series biogeochemical measurements during ROBEX demo-missions.
Future activities adress the etablishment of an LOC lab at Geomar for the development of e.g. ammonium chip prototype.
In the future it is also planned to integrade the LOC technology during an scientific experimental approach on the International Spacestation (ISS).
Contact: ssommer@geomar.de; myuecel@geomar.de
References
Aubrey AD, and 25 others (2008) The Urey instrument: Am advanced in situ organic and oxidant detector for Mars exploration. Astrobiology, 8, 1-13.
Beaton AD, Cardwell CL, Thomas RS, Sieben VJ, Legiret F-E, Waugh EM, Statham PJ, Mowlem MC, Morgan H (2012). Lab-on-Chip measurement of nitrate and nitrite for in situ analysis of natural waters. Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 9548-9556.
Skelley AM, Scherer JR, Aubrey AD, Grover WH, Ivester RHC, Ehrenfreund, P, Grunthaner FJ, Bada JL, Mathies RA (2005) Development and evaluation of a microdevice for amino acid biomarker detection and analysis on Mars. PNAS, 102, 1041-1046
