Biomechanics cruise

The primary educational goal of the cruise is to recover and observe deep-sea animals from midwater and continental margin environments. This cruise provides a unique opportunity for students to observe and handle animals common in these extreme environments and explore how animal form (materials and structure) is adapted to variable water conditions (i.e., pressure, temperature, pH, oxygen) and ecologies (e.g., pelagic, benthic, mobile, sessile). Additionally, animals will be brought back to SIO so that students can study these materials under a microscope and conduct mechanical testing on the biomaterials as part of the course. Specifically, groups of students will use an Instron mechanical testing device to examine the mechanical properties of different animal tissues to illustrate how materials are characterized and how they support multiple animal functions by resisting various types of loading. The study of deep-sea animal materials will complement the study of intertidal animal materials to help students understand the link between animal form, function, and environment. This cruise will have the additional goals of introducing students to oceanographic research, demonstrating the different types of instrumentation used to study deep-sea organisms, including the Isaacs kid mid-water trawl, otter trawl, CTD, and providing at-sea experience for the diverse students who take this course. In addition to supporting undergraduate and graduate education, this cruise will also support collaborative research of faculty. In collaboration with other SIO and Engineering faculty, we are establishing a deep-sea biomaterials research program to better understand how organisms are adapted to this extreme environment, where variations in pressure, pH, temperature, oxygen, light, and metals may significantly influence the biomaterials that animals use for construction. Towards this effort, I will be collecting and bringing back to SIO various deep sea invertebrates for materials characterization.