Deep Tank - A Research Facility for Simulation of the Marine Environment

The Deep Tank facility at S. I. O. is one of the two large-scale deep tower-tank systems in North America built for research in biological oceanography (Balch et. al. 1978). It has been in continuous use since 1965 and has also proved to be extremely useful for experimental studies in physical oceanography. A useful simulation of the marine environment is achieved by enclosing a relatively large volume of water (73 cubic meters) and closely controlling physical parameters (temperature and salinity values and gradients, light distribution and intensity, upwelling, etc.) Described in this paper are the facility, its recent improvements, and typical usage.