Testing of a benthic incubation chamber design in a Virginia coastal bay, 2023, 2024, and 2025

Benthic incubation chambers enclose a known volume of water overlying a known area to measure water chemistry changes and are typically used to quantify the metabolic activity of benthic organisms or communities. Here, we report data from a series of tests validating a new benthic incubation chamber design. This data includes dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations and temperatures recorded during three test deployments in South Bay, Virginia during August 2023 (T1_chamber_do_test_data), as well as data from light transmission tests. Light transmission tests included per wavelength transmission of PAR and ultraviolet radiation through the chamber wall (T2_wall_transmission_test) and lid (T3_lid_transmission_test), an in-situ PAR transmission comparison for two different sensor arrangements (side-mounted versus top-mounted) during July 2025 (T4_sensor_shading_test), and an in-situ comparison of natural ambient PAR versus PAR translated through a deployed chamber during March 2024 (T5_in_situ_light_test).