USCGC Healy Cruise Plan
HLY1104
November 7 – December 20, 2011
Carin Ashjian, Chief Scientist
Steve Okkonen, Co-Chief Scientist
PROJECTS (in Random Order)
1) A winter expedition to explore the biological and physical conditions of the
Bering, Chukchi, and Southern Beaufort Seas
PIs: Carin J. Ashjian (WHOI), Robert G. Campbell (URI), Stephen R. Okkonen (UAF)
Cruise Participants: Carin Ashjian, Robert Campbell, Steve Okkonen, Philip Alatalo,
Celia Gelfman, Donna Van Keuren, Joel Llopiz, David Leech, Chantelle Rose
CTDs, Net (Bongo, Ring, Multinet) Tows, VPR casts. On-board experiments
(zooplankton grazing, respiration, bacterial carbon utilization) using environmental
chambers. Sampling from Niskens. Rinsing equipment in the aft hanger with salt water.
2) Composition of dissolved organic matter in Arctic sea ice and the underlying
water column.
PI: Krista Longnecker (WHOI)
Cruise Participant: Krista Longnecker
Sampling from Niskins, dip-netting broken up sea ice when possible.
3) Bacterial utilization of organic carbon produced by Arctic copepods
PIs: Krista Longnecker and Carin Ashjian (WHOI)
Cruise Participants: Krista Longnecker, Carin Ashjian (see 1 and 2 above)
Sampling from Niskins and with ring nets; incubations in environmental chambers
4) Arctic Phytoplankton: Surviving the Winter & Preparing for Spring
PI: Samuel Laney, WHOI
Cruise Participants: Samuel Laney, Taylor Crockford
Sampling from Niskins, underway sampling of water from biochem lab, incubations in
environmental chambers
5) Arctic N cycling
PIs: Julie Granger, (Princeton University)
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Cruise Participant: Bonnie Chang
Sampling from Niskins, underway measurements using optode
6) Distributions of Marine Birds
PI: Kathy Kuletz (US
ABSTRACTS OF PROJECTS
A winter expedition to explore the biological and physical conditions of the Bering,
Chukchi, and Southern Beaufort Seas
PIs: Carin J. Ashjian (WHOI), Robert G. Campbell (URI), Stephen R. Okkonen (UAF)
The overall objectives of this project are to collect some of the first winter information on
the overwintering physical and biological characteristics of three important Arctic Seas:
The Bering Sea, the Chukchi Sea, and the Beaufort Sea. Our understanding of
seasonality, and particularly winter conditions, in the Arctic is severely limited because
of difficulties in accessing these regions during winter and because of limitations to
sensor technology that can be deployed on overwintering moorings and ice-tethered
profilers/buoys. In particular, understanding of the overwintering strategies of one of the
dominant copepod genera, Calanus spp., is not well understood but is critical to
ecosystem modeling efforts. This lack of knowledge has compromised our ability to
model and to predict Arctic ecosystems, knowledge that is critical to our efforts to
understand the potential impacts of ongoing climate change.
We propose a 6-week cruise to the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas during JanuaryFebruary 2010. We have identified a set of key transects in the various cross-shelf-slope
regimes along which we will conduct physical (hydrography, circulation), chemical
(nutrients), and biological (zooplankton, microzooplankton, chlorophyll) sampling. Our
objectives include describing the hydrography, circulation and aspects of the planktonic
and nutrient environments, identifying the overwintering habitat of Calanus spp.,
determining the condition and activity of Calanus spp. and euphausiids, describing the
interconnectedness between species/populations of Calanus and euphausiids in these
regions, identifying the transformations of Pacific Water on the Chukchi Shelf,
describing off-shelf flow of Pacific Water into the Artic Ocean and the circulation and
hydrography of Barrow Canyon, and quantifying the course- and fine-scale vertical
distributions of plankton and particles in relation to the vertical structure of the water
column. Our proposed research is of critical importance to researchers seeking to
understand, model, and predict the Arctic physical, chemical, and biological marine
system, including all trophic levels from plankton to marine mammals and humans. We
welcome collaboration with other researchers wishing to participate in this exciting
opportunity. The research will transform our understanding of winter conditions in these
Arctic shelf seas.
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Broader Impacts: We have proposed a suite of educational activities that will promote
understanding and interest in science to a range of educational levels. Participation of a
teacher will indirectly target K-12 students. The involvement of undergraduate and
graduate students in the cruise will contribute to the education of the next generation of
scientists. Our interactions with the local Alaskan communities will be a two-way
dialogue discussing science and the impact of climate change on these communities.
Composition of dissolved organic matter in Arctic sea ice and the underlying water
column.
PI: Krista Longnecker (WHOI)
Recent climate change has produced dramatic decreases in the extent and thickness of sea
ice inthe Arctic. The resulting changes in primary production have altered the
concentration of dissolved organic matter in the upper water column and have an
unknown impact on the dissolved organic matter in the remaining sea ice. The proposed
project takes advantage of an opportunity to participate in an NSF-funded cruise to the
Bering, Chukchi, and southern Beaufort seas in the winter of 2011. Sea ice and seawater
from the underlying water column will be collected during the cruise, and the
composition of dissolved organic matter will be assessed using ultrahigh resolution mass
spectrometry. The resulting data will identify sources of organic matter, and allow
predictions regarding biological and chemical sinks of organic matter in the Arctic. This
project thereby provides the baseline information needed in order to understand the role
of dissolved organic matter in the Arctic carbon cycle.
Bacterial utilization of organic carbon produced by Arctic copepods
PIs: Krista Longnecker and Carin Ashjian (WHOI)
Recent changes in the spatial extent of Arctic sea ice are dramatic. Yet, the consequences
of these changes on biological and chemical processes in the Arctic are not clear. Model
results project increases in primary production that result in an increase in zooplankton
biomass. Zooplankton are one source of organic matter that can be converted by bacteria
to carbon dioxide and/or bacterial biomass. However, very little is known about the
bacterial response to these ecosystem changes. Even the question of whether bacteria will
convert more or less organic carbon into carbon dioxide is unknown. This project seeks
to quantify if organic matter produced by zooplankton, specifically by copepods, will be
converted to carbon dioxide by the in situ bacterial community. Any increase in carbon
dioxide production by bacteria will decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that can be
absorbed by the Arctic Ocean. Since the Arctic is a global sink for carbon dioxide, future
changes in the ability of the Arctic to absorb carbon dioxide has important ramifications
for the global carbon cycle. This project is a new and interdisciplinary collaboration
between Longnecker and Ashjian. Results from the project will be used as preliminary
data for a proposal to be submitted to NSF in 2012.
Arctic Phytoplankton: Surviving the Winter & Preparing for Spring
PI: Samuel Laney, WHOI
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Phytoplankton are the photosynthetic microbes living in the surface ocean that perform
the critical ecological role of converting sunlight into biologically useful energy. Polar
phytoplankton living at high latitudes face a basic challenge that their lower latitude
counterparts do not, in that phytoplankton at high latitudes experience extended periods
of no sunlight each year during winter. Although polar phytoplankton do not hibernate
per se they do adopt special strategies that allow them to survive the dark winter months
and yet still be poised to jumpstart photosynthesis and growth with the onset of light in
the spring. Our ecological understanding of how different phytoplankton cope with
winter darkness in the Arctic and Antarctic remains very poor. We know little about
which species stay suspended in the water column in wintertime, or how the abundances
of these survivors vary spatially within polar seas. We also have almost no direct
observations of the metabolic state of these overwintering species, and so we have no
basis for predicting which species, if any, will respond first or fastest to the restoration of
daylight in spring. If current trends in Arctic climate continue, the reduction and thinning
of seasonal sea ice will dramatically advance the timing when light levels under-ice begin
to increase in the spring. How this will affect the seasonal start of photosynthesis and
production in phytoplankton assemblages in spring, before ice-out, remains unclear.
The experiments needed to assess overwintering strategies in polar phytoplankton require
ships, yet the few icebreakers capable of conducting meaningful science in polar winter
are almost never deployed then. With WHOI leadership, an unprecedented winter
expedition on the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy has now been secured which, when
combined with ARI-supported advances in examining polar phytoplankton assemblages,
presents an unmatched opportunity to assess overwintering phytoplankton in the Arctic.
Proposed here is a plan to use this cruise opportunity to conduct the first-ever broad scale
mapping of overwintering phytoplankton distributions in the Bering and Chukchi Seas,
utilizing the seagoing Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) instrument developed in a federal
grant that leveraged prior ARI support. With this automated approach it is now possible
to measure directly the very low numbers of phytoplankton that remain in Arctic waters
during winter. A complementary cell staining technique will be used to discriminate the
degree of dormancy in these overwintering populations. With a platform like Healy it is
also possible to conduct the critical grow-out incubations on natural winter phytoplankton
assemblages, to determine which species will respond first or fastest to the onset of light
in spring. These three research threads will provided the much-needed observations for
determining which phytoplankton species are present, alive, and active in Arctic winter,
and which ones are best poised to conduct photosynthesis come spring. Given the
uniqueness and scientific originality of this winter Arctic cruise, this proposal also
includes outreach efforts to increase the visibility of WHOI Arctic leadership & research.
Arctic N cycling
PIs: Julie Granger, Daniel Sigman (Princeton University)
TBD
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