AUTHOR=Sparaventi Erica , Rodríguez-Romero Araceli , Navarro Gabriel , Tovar-Sánchez Antonio 

TITLE=A Novel Automatic Water Autosampler Operated From UAVs for Determining Dissolved Trace Elements

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.879953

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.879953

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Monitoring water systems under extreme conditions or in remote areas poses a risk to scientists and staff involved, and can also result in disturbances to the local flora and fauna. In order to overcome these limitations, new techniques are being developed with the aim to gain more insight into how geochemical pathways of trace elements regulate the functioning of the ocean. Here, we present an Automatic Water Autosampler (AWA) system onboard a UAV for sampling surface seawater. The system has been validated for the analysis of dissolved (<0.22 µm) trace chemicals (i.e. metals and inorganic nutrients). The AWA system has been used to characterize the chemical composition of the water masses (lake and coastal water) of Deception Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica), with, for example, Pb values ranging from 0.01 to 0.25 nM in seawater and 1.20 to 2.11 nM in lake water. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the AWA system in environmental studies that require the sampling of metals and nutrients without sample contamination.