Ocean-observing systems are changing the way ocean science is accomplished. No longer is ocean science limited to observations made by ships, whose scheduling and expense often constrain research to short forays that result in data streams limited in space and time. Such observations have been described as being “frozen in the invisible present,” offering thin slices of the ocean record that often miss processes that function on multiple spatial (e.g., boundary current, eddy, gyre, ocean basin) and temporal (e.g., monthly, seasonal, annual, decadal) scales. The key to autonomous observations of microbes in the ocean is continuing development of sensing technologies in the laboratory, transitioning sensors from the bench to the field, and integrating sensor suites into observing platforms appropriate to the spatial and temporal dimensions of specific processes and phenomena.

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