Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise:
Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 17, 2019
Science Log
For the love of jellies
Heidi and the objects of her affection
Team Jelly on the job!
Jellyfish (or jellies, since they’re not technically fish) are one of the “delights” of recovering instruments from the sea. Often, the CTD returned to the surface covered in brown slimy tentacles, as did the sediment traps on occasion, which needed careful removal. For most of us, the jellies were more of a nuisance, but for Heidi Mendoza Islas, the jellies are love.
Heidi was on the night shift, which I didn’t get to spend as much time with as I would have liked, and her research was based on nightly Methot net drops and subsequent jelly inventories. The Methot net is a 10-meter long net on a square metal frame (roughly 5 meters per side). The net is dragged off the side of the ship for 20 minutes and then recovered. Led by Dr. Ken Coyle, Heidi and the night shift team of Caitlin, Delaney and Adriana then counted the jellies, recorded their type and their volume by type. One night, Heidi’s jelly count reached nearly 900! In the brief time I did spend with the team, I saw Heidi’s passion for jellies in her eyes and heard it in her voice as she lovingly explained the different types they had caught, often exclaiming, “Isn’t it beautiful?” Indeed, watching them swim next to the ship on our calmest days, they were.
What do you want kids to learn from your research?
Heidi: I would like to let people know that there are a ton of jellies out there in the ocean. They are very resilient to changes in the environment such as warmer temperatures, higher salinities, and low levels of oxygen, so this can allow them to easily scale up on the food chain and they might take advantage over other species like larval fish. As part of my research, I would like to determine if any correlations exist among jellyfish biomass, the environmental variables, and the early life stages of pollock.
Methot net in the water
Methot net dipping under
Methot net up on deck
Catch full of jellies
Personal Log
This Was Not A Drill:
As on any ship, safety at sea is a top priority. Early on in the voyage, Artie Levine, the Third Mate, gave us a safety briefing that included learning how to handle a fire extinguisher as well as how to put on our immersion suits and find our muster stations (gathering places) in case of emergency. We were warned at that point that a drill would occur later in the trip. Kira (my roommate) and I studied the information card on the back of our stateroom door that listed the signals for various emergencies just so we’d be prepared. It’s a testament to how seriously everyone took the safety briefing that when the ship first started sounding fog signals a couple of nights later, many of us popped our heads out of our rooms, ready to muster!
Near the end of the second week, we were indeed drilled, although we were kindly given advance warning on the message board in the mess hall. In any type of emergency, each member of the science team is required to retrieve their immersion suits and PFDs from their rooms and report to their muster stations. In addition, you must have a hat (watch cap or trucker hat) and clothing with long sleeves. In order to reduce the stress of the event, the announcement of the drill is preceded by the statement, “This is a drill” repeated several times.
My exit from the ship was a little earlier than planned, but provided both the land and ship crew with essentially a live drill practice. I woke up the morning of July 12th and found that I was experiencing severe vertigo from rolling over too quickly in bed overnight. Needless to say, it’s pretty miserable when it happens on a moving ship! Artie Levine, the Third Mate, and Christoph Gabaldo, the Chief Mate, came to take care of me and moved me to the infirmary. After my symptoms had calmed down some, it was decided that, since we were about an hour out of Seward by small boat, and that the ship was scheduled to move on to the Kodiak Line, that it would be best to bring me ashore. Artie took me in the next morning on the ship’s rescue boat. Pete, having some work he needed to do ashore, plus being a genuinely nice guy, came with me as well. Ed DeCastro, the Port Captain, met us at the dock, took me to get checked out and then found a place for me to stay. In talking to Ed, the ship and land crews do go over procedures for evacuation in theory, and they were actually grateful to be able to practice the procedures in reality without having a serious situation on their hands. I am grateful that they are prepared for any emergency, because I was taken care of very well. Thank you, Artie, Christoph and Ed, for you compassion and your professionalism!
I got on the ship not really knowing what to expect. Everything was pretty new to me, from being in Alaska, to the research, to being on a big ship. Despite my early exit, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the chance to meet a great group of people who really are unsung heroes for the research they are doing. Whether they were adding data to years of previous research or developing new ways to track changes in the ecosystem, they are on the front lines of climate change research. It was a privilege to be aboard the R/V Sikuliaq with them. Speaking of…the R/V Sikuliaq is an amazing ship with capabilities I only began to learn about. Thank you to Eric, our captain, for answering my questions about dynamic positioning and Z-drives. My respect also goes out to the crew as well for being professional in all regards and unfailingly helpful, from launching and recovering all of our nets and traps, to fixing stuck closets and to cooking 5-star meals.
The ship is is back out now, with some of the same science team on board. To them, and to the TAS who are out or yet to go, I wish you fair winds and calm seas!
Some memorable
moments:
Clay conducting the music in his headphones while doing fluorescence testing
Heidi exclaiming, “Another beautiful girl!” whenever she found a female copepod
The food…it was 5-star at every meal! Doug’s midnight chocolate chip cookies were stellar
The night shift’s tales of how they stayed awake
Cribbage with Pete, Seth and Ana
Lunchtime talks with crew members Jim and Arnel
The “Grunden Girls” (Kate and Kira) on Calvet duty
Pete’s buoys disappearing…and then reappearing (not that we had any doubt)
Steffi and the “Loch Ness monster” (the sediment trap)
Questions of the day
Dan’s mealtime reports on the sea life he saw that day
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise:
Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 13, 2019
Science and Technology Log:
Through the Microscope
Gwenn using one of the microscopes to look at phytoplankton.
The Lady of a Thousand Labels, hard at work.
Dr. Gwenn Hennon will be starting as an Assistant Professor with the University of Alaska in the fall. Her interest is in the types of microbes, especially phytoplankton, that are in the water and what they are doing. She is studying what limits them, whether it is nutrients, light or other factors. She finds it interesting to try to find interactions between phytoplankton and other organisms, such as ciliates that are filled with chloroplasts that they steal, termed “kleptoplasts.” She investigates what microbes they stole them from, how the ciliate steals the plastid and how they maintain it. While a lot of algae have photosynthetic genes and controls in the nucleus, ciliates wouldn’t be expected to have those controls, but they must have some in order to keep plastids alive, and these need to have specific genes in order to control specific plastids. There is a trade-off between specificity of genes for certain plastids and being able to keep the plastids alive for a long time. Ciliates can also live by just eating other organisms, so another field of investigation would be to look at which genetics are used when organisms are switching between strategies. One goal of this research would be that, when looking at samples from various stations, someone would be able to say what the ciliates are doing without having to do experiments.
The NGA is a very complex ecosystem, and this cruise has shown me that any scientific investigation needs to have a very specific focus rather than a shotgun approach, in order to have productive results. There is so much to be studied that the potential amount of data that can be gathered is staggering.
Because the LTER has been funded for many years, there are great sets of time series to look at for some studies, but molecular data is fairly new and adds a lot to the picture. Gwenn’s work, and the work of others at the molecular level are just the beginning of an understanding of life at the microscopic end of the scale.
Dan and Gwenn on the observation deck. Dan’s always on the lookout!
Through the Binoculars:
Fin whales come fairly close to us out in the deeper Gulf waters.
Dan Cushing is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife seabird and mammal specialist and is here to investigate organisms at the large end of the size spectrum, compared to everyone else on board. His workstation is primarily the bridge of the ship, where he is on the lookout for birds and mammals. He records the species and number spotted, and the time and the GPS location of each sighting. He also logs environmental conditions such as fog and wave height that can affect visibility.
Dan comes from a small fishing town with a population of 3000. He wasn’t necessarily interested in birds specifically when he was young, but developed a gradual interest in them. He likes that working with seabirds combines aspects of being a wildlife biologist with aspects of being a marine biologist. Dan has done both land-based projects at seabird breeding sites and ocean-based surveys on small boats and large research ships. One project that he worked on included attaching sensors to diving birds to record water temperature, depth, and location. This provided information about water conditions as well as about the behaviors of the birds and their feeding patterns in those conditions.
The variation in distribution and feeding strategies of bird species make them a good indicator of what is happening to the environment at different levels in the ecosystem. For example, Dan used small-boat surveys to look at changes in marine bird populations in Prince William Sound. He found that, over a period of two decades, declines had occurred in almost half of the species he looked at. In general, species that occurred farther from shore and fed on zooplankton and fish had greater declines than those that fed on prey along the shoreline and the nearby seafloor.
Studying the changes in a bird population leads to investigations that connect down the food chain through fish species to plankton (which, of course, is the focus of this cruise) and finally to climate change. Dan sees changes in the availability of fish species having a direct effect on the economic health of Alaskan communities that depend on fishing to survive. Coming from a fishing community, this hits home for him. As smaller species respond to climate change, a ripple effect works its way up the food web and so human populations must also alter their survival strategies as well.
One of Dan’s feathered friends coming in for a landing off the working deck.
An albatross follows along behind us.
Gulls watch the working deck with interest in hopes of food (not going to happen).
Personal Log:
The longer I’m on board, the more the pieces of the puzzle seem to come together. On thing that really strikes me about the teams on board is the intensity of their research and the drive they have. Each person here is making the most of their opportunity for data gathering. Gwenn, for instance, I have nicknamed “the lady of a thousand labels” because her work ethic and preparedness are so impeccable. She is just one example of the discipline and passion I see on board.
There is enough potential data to be gathered here to provide for years of research. Each of these researchers is not only singularly focused on their specialty but also well aware of the underlying premise of their research, i.e. that what they’re studying will serve to document climate change. Already, this year has brought anomalous weather to the Gulf, which, in a sense, makes conclusions about how and why changes occur a bit difficult. Another thing that is noteworthy on this cruise is that, because there are PIs (Principal Investigators) on board, there is a lot of discussion of ideas and plans for collaboration. Already, Gwenn, Suzanne, Hana and Clay have been talking about a potential project where their ideas intersect. The amount of time we’re out allows for more interaction between people and more room for ideas to develop.
Finally, as I ask each person what they want kids or the public to know from their research, the answers I am getting all focus on the same thing: change is happening and every organism on the planet is affected by it.
An image of the shelf; the data station lines cross over this to get a complete range of samples from shallow to deep in order to understand the complexity of the ecosystem and the changes happening within it.
What do you want kids to know about your research?
Gwenn: All things are related to each
other. All species on earth developed
from the same ancestral single-celled organisms.
Dan: If you don’t pay attention to what’s
around you, you won’t see how it changes.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise:
Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 11, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 59° 00.823 N Longitude: 148° 40.079 W Wave Height: 1 ft, ground swell 3-4 ft Wind Speed: 5.4 knots Wind Direction: 241 degrees Visibility: 5 nm Air Temperature: 13.3 °C Barometric Pressure: 1014.6 mb Sky: Overcast
Science and Technology Log
At home, I regularly check information from
the buoys that literally surround our islands.
They give me real time, relevant data on ocean conditions and weather so
that I am informed about storm or surf events.
We also have buoys that track tsunami data, and the accuracy and
timeliness of their data can save lives.
Deploying and monitoring these buoys is a job that requires knowledge of
ocean conditions, electronics, rigging and computer programming.
Pete (foreground) and Seth set up the buoy system in preparation for deployment
The anchors for the buoys were made of train wheels
Pete Shipton is onboard as the mooring technician from UAF’s Seward Marine Center. This morning, he, Dr. Danielson and the crew deployed three moorings near oceanographic station GAK6i (about 60 miles offshore in the Northern Gulf of Alaska) at a depth of 230 meters. The search for the right depth required that R/V Sikuliaq do an acoustic survey of the area last night to find a kilometer-long area of the right depth and bottom slope. The three moorings will be situated close enough to each other that for all purposes they are collecting a co-located set of readings representative of this site, yet far enough apart, with small watch circles, that they don’t overlap and foul each other. The set of three is designed to have one surface buoy on either side with sensors at the surface and through the water column and a third buoy in the middle with sensors also distributed across all depths.
The first buoy, GEO-1, gives information on physics, optics, nutrient chemistry and has a profiling instrument that will “walk” up and down the mooring wire from about 25 m above the seafloor to 25 m below the surface, collecting profiles four times a day. The mooring has many of the sensors that the ship’s CTD has, including an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler), a weather station with a GPS that measures wind speed, relative humidity, sea level pressure, and air temperature. The buoy system was designed to withstand and operate in 8 m waves; in larger waves the surface buoy is expected to become submerged. At one meter of depth, GEO-1 measures the temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetically available radiation.
On GEO-2 (the center buoy), similar data is recorded at 22 m below the surface. There will also be a sediment trap, mammal acoustics recorder, particle camera, and an AZFP (acoustic zooplankton fish profiler), which has four frequencies that can detect sea life from the size of fish down to the size of zooplankton. It records sound reflections from all sizes of creatures and can see fish migrations during day or night within a range of 100m (from 100m depth to the surface).
Buoy GEO-3 is the primary “guard” buoy, or marker for the whole set. It also has a real-time transmitting weather station and near-surface measurements.
Linking the mooring lines and the anchors are acoustic releases, which are remotely controlled tethers whole sole function to listen for a “release” command that will tell them to let go of the anchor. Since the limiting factor on the instruments is the life of the batteries, they will be picked up in a year and the acoustic release will allow the instruments to be brought back aboard Sikuliaq. These buoys will be providing real time information for groups such as the Alaska Ocean Observing System (www.aoos.org) about weather and ocean conditions, while also collecting information about sea life in the area.
Pete (left) and Seth (right) test the stability of the buoy
Deploying the buoys was a lengthy process that required careful coordination of parts, lines, chains and personnel. Luckily everything went off perfectly! As the anchor weights for the two surface buoys deployed, they briefly pulled the buoys under, causing a bit of joking about whether the line length was calculated correctly. The brief “dunk test” was an excellent first trial for submergence during this coming winter’s storm conditions.
The second buoy briefly scares us by going under!
MarTechs:
There are opportunities for careers at sea in
a wide variety of positions on board a research vessel. One of the most interesting is the MarTech
(Marine Technician), because of their dual role during a scientific
cruise.
The Marine Technicians are technically assigned to the science team although they are a part of the ship’s crew. Bern and Ethan are the MarTechs on this cruise and both work specifically with R/V Sikuliaq. They are considered a part of whatever science team is on board at the time. The MarTechs are on 12-hour shifts, from 8:00 to 8:00. Ethan is on at night, and Bern is on during the day, although there is some overlap. The two men help to deploy and recover instruments for the science team and as well as helping the crew with any deck operations. They also are responsible for the computer lab and overseeing the data displays and production from the various sensors, as well as maintaining the instruments on the ship that provide information. Although they are always at hand to help when we need it, you will often find them also repairing and upgrading ship’s equipment and helping with engineering tasks.
Bern setting up one of his cameras.
Bern has been a MarTech on R/V Sikuliaq since 2013, and had previous experience on other research vessels, both American and international. Bern is also the ship’s unofficial documentation guy; he has a number of small cameras that he regularly uses to capture the action on board, whether from the vantage point of one of the cranes or on top of his own helmet. You can find examples of Bern’s camera work on R/V Sikuliaq’s Instagram site (@rvsikuliaq).
Ethan helps Ana with the iron fish.
Like Bern, Ethan has also worked on other research vessels but has been on R/V Sikuliaq since it was built. This is the only ship he’s been a MarTech on. His interest in oceanography, especially marine acoustics, led him to this career. Marine acoustics is more than just listening for large species such as whales. There are acoustic sensors that “listen” to the ship and help ensure that it is functioning normally. Other acoustic sensors, such as the ones based in the open keel of the ship use sound technology to map the ocean floor as we progress on our path. Ethan was kind enough to show me the keel and explain the instrumentation. In addition, there are instruments that constantly record salinity, temperature, current strength, solar radiation and other measurements along the path we travel to provide a more complete picture of the environmental conditions existing at every point.
The ship’s acoustic instruments are mounted in the open keel; it’s open to the sea!
The marine technicians manage the computer lab when they are not needed for operations. This lab is the nerve center of the ship and allows the science team to work closely with the bridge to coordinate the movement of instruments and the speed of the vessel through the water to achieve optimum results. You can find information on meteorology, navigation, engine performance, depth sounders, closed circuit monitors, ship acoustics and deck winch statistics by looking at specific screens. In addition, the staterooms have monitors that also allow viewing of certain screens.
The screens in the computer lab provide all the information needed to make decisions about how and when to deploy data-gathering instruments.
By far the two displays that are followed most closely are the CTD cast screens and the AIS screen. The AIS screen gives our course on a map, and shows our progress as well as future waypoints. It also shows our speed and bearing to our next point as well as ocean depth and wind speed and direction. The CTD screen shows real-time results in a number of categories such as salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, temperature, nitrates and light as the CTD descends and ascends through the water column. Based on the results of the down cast, the teams determine the depths from which they’d like water samples collected as the CTD rises.
The OLEX or AIS screen shows our path as well as navigational information.
The CTD screen looks like spaghetti until you understand the color code for each line.
The Bridge:
The equipment on the bridge represents the pinnacle of technology as far as ship operations go. The captain’s chair has been described by some members of the science team as the “Battlestar Galactica” or “Star Trek” chair, and it really does look like it fits in a science fiction movie. Displays on the bridge show performance of the engines, radar returns and our bearing and range from them, and any other pertinent information to vessel performance. Ship movement and waypoints are hand plotted by the second mate, who also oversees ship movement along with the captain, chief mate and third mate. The ship’s officers work the bridge on a rotating watch schedule. One of the cool features of this ship is that it operates two Z-drives, similar to what is used on tugboats. These are propellers that can move independently of each other and turn in any direction. They allow the ship to be maneuvered precisely, which is a great help when we need to stay on a station through multiple operations. Various views of the bridge and the navigational instruments used by the ship’s crew are shown in the gallery below.
View of the bridge
View of the bridge
View out the bridge
The Captain’s Chair
Captain Eric Piper shows off his new jacket
Personal Log
Happy Mooring Day! It’s our self-declared “national holiday”! Because the process of deploying the moorings and buoys took up all of the morning and a part of the afternoon, most of the rest of the science team took the morning off and slept in. So many of them ran on the treadmill that running might become a part of our “holiday” tradition. My roommate even took bacon back to her room to eat in bed. Gwenn brought out her Twizzlers…somewhat appropriate because they look like steel cable (even though the moorings did not use cable). It was a nice breather for the science team, who have been working very hard to collect samples and run experiments. Somewhere along the line, the idea of making Mooring Day a “holiday” caught on, and it’s become a bit of a joke amongst the team. We’re down to a week to go, and everyone is beginning to think about what happens when we get in and when we all go home. But… we’re not quite there yet, and there’s a lot of work left to do.
Animals Seen Today
Our stowaway came to inspect today’s deployment.
We apparently have a stowaway…a small finch-like bird that flits about the ship. It must have joined us when we were near land, and now we ARE the land.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern
Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 9, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 57° 47.549 N Longitude: 147° 30.222 Wave Height: 0-1 with swell of 4 ft Wind Speed: 1.7 knots Wind Direction: 170 degrees Visibility: 5 nm Air Temperature: 13.1 °C Barometric Pressure: 1014.4 mb Sky: Overcast
Science and Technology Log
Ana’s Work:
Dr. Aguilar-Islas oversees the iron fish deployment.
The “iron fish” on deck…
..and in its habitat.
Dr. Ana Aguilar-Islas and her team of Annie, Kelsey, and Carrie are studying how the different sources of iron in the Gulf of Alaska influence its chemical structure. Iron is considered a micronutrient, because it is a nutrient that is needed in lower quantities than silicate, phosphate and nitrate, which are macronutrients. Iron is essential for phytoplankton. Iron does not easily remain dissolved in ocean water, but has a tendency to precipitate and become a particle. It is essential for many functions within phytoplankton, including gene function and photosynthesis, so the presence or absence of iron in the water is an indicator of the viability of the ecosystem.
Testing phytoplankton in both an iron-limited environment and an iron-rich one allows scientists to pinpoint the effect that iron has. The water in the Gulf of Alaska is notable for having more iron, leading to larger zooplankton as compared to areas, such as Hawaii, where the lack of macronutrients in the water means that they’re much smaller. The Copper River plume was an example of a naturally occurring source of iron although its decrease is exponential the farther you move from the plume.
In order to test samples without any contamination from being in an iron ship, Ana’s team created a “bubble” room or a clean space to do testing. Her samples come directly from the “iron fish,” a collection instrument that is towed along the starboard side of the ship, and a pump on deck sends water through a tube that is carefully strung from the “fish” through the hallways and into the “bubble.” The team is testing water samples for dissolved iron, particulate iron, and ligands (naturally occurring structures that bind iron and allow it to stay dissolved in seawater). Both the filtered (any plankton filtered out) and unfiltered samples that Ana’s team collects are also used by other teams to provide context for their own experiments, especially testing the behavior of phytoplankton populations in iron-rich and iron-poor water.
The bubble from the outside.
Annie spends many hours patiently taking water samples in the bubble.
The Search for “Perfect” Water
After completing our comprehensive zig-zagging study through the Copper River plume, it was decided to continue on a path south to find HNLC (high nitrate low chlorophyll) water. We’re specifically looking for water with a salinity over 32.4 psu and nitrates over 3 micromoles. Water like this would be low in iron. Normally, the lack of iron is a factor that limits photosynthesis,. However, in areas with these numbers, phytoplankton communities have evolved to survive in an iron-deprived environment.
What Clay, Suzanne and Ana hope to do is to introduce both Copper River iron-rich water and commercially available iron into samples of these communities to see if a “bloom” or a sudden growth in population will occur. It’s been a long search so far, taking us through an offshore eddy, watching salinity numbers slowly creep up as we leave the plume’s fresh water influence behind us. To pass the time, my cribbage board came out and I’ve lost to Pete, Seth and Ana (although I beat Seth once). To help Suzanne and Ana find their water, Seth stitched together a composite satellite picture of the chlorophyll in the Gulf from images taken over the last few weeks. This showed an eddy south of the Copper River plume that provided a possible location for the right sampling of water.
Our initial target was 58 degrees N, 146 degrees W, however, we’re continuing on the journey south to see if we can find the right spot. For a long time, we were towing the Acrobat behind us, trying to get additional readings, however, our speed with the Acrobat is limited to a maximum of 7 kts. Early this morning, the Acrobat was pulled in and we’re now cruising at about 10 kts. We’re supposed to move over to the GAK (Seward) line of waypoints after this, but the joke is that we’ll reach GAK 125, i.e. Honolulu, before we find water that fits the parameters we need.
After careful monitoring of our position and the information screens in the computer lab, it seems that our target water is between 57 degrees 21 minutes N between 145 degrees 42.8 minutes W and 145 degrees 39.9 W. Finding the perfect water is complicated by the number of anomalies in the sea surface. We’re having the bridge go through specific maneuvers to take us back and forth through the target patch of water. As we move through what seems reasonable, Ana’s iron fish will be deployed to start bringing in “perfect” water samples.
These anomalies represent changes in sea surface temperature, and in turn in the chemical composition of the water. On the map, you can see the lines we’re surveying from left to right: Kodiak, Seward (GAK) and Middleton.
Our zigzag course: the bridge asked if we were making course lines with an Etch-a-Sketch!
Since last night, there has been at least one person stationed in the computer lab with eyes on the underway data display to monitor the salinity and nitrate levels. Today, with Dr. Strom, Clay and myself there, we jump every time the nitrate value does. Once our target patch is isolated, Dr. Strom directs the bridge to zigzag the ship through it to find maximum nitrate values and then radios the iron fish team. It’s 2.1….it’s 2.7…quick! Collect samples! It’s a crazy system, but for now it’s getting us the best results we can, considering the fluidity and changeability of the ocean.
I’m not sure what the bridge thinks about our maneuvers, and we’re all imagining what they’re saying! They have been very patient and willing to go along with requests; they’re pretty used to the demands of scientists in search of specific answers. We’re finding our highest values to be about 3.2 micromoles, and it seems that we’ve also narrowed down the “sweet spot.” In addition, a group of fin whales is moving through the area and is making regular appearances as we trace and retrace our path. At one point, Eric, the captain came down to chat and helpfully volunteered to look up the definition of “zig” and “zag” so that we would have our terminology correct. Is zig the upward progression or the downward one?
Most of the science done on board is carefully
planned and prepared for. Methodologies
are clean and precise in order to produce specific and incontestable
results. Sometimes, however, science
requires taking advantage of the situation at hand to find optimum data. Science can be messy and inexact, too, if the
end result is finding the perfect drops of water in the ocean.
Personal Log
We are now over the 50% point in our
trip. It is a bit ironic that as the
science team and the crew get to know each better and develop friendships, both
sides are also looking ahead to the end of the trip. It’s been fun to get to know the crew and to
discover the personalities that make this ship run so smoothly.
Our weather has been notably calm so far, with today’s nearly flat seas being the smoothest to date. We have fog every day; every day the sea surface temperature is higher than the air temperature. What might that be an indication of? Russ seems to think it’s a fairly unusual pattern. Even though today’s temperature is in the mid-50s, the stillness and reflected light off the surface of the ocean almost make it seem warmer. It looks like we can continue to expect fairly calm seas for the next few days, too. Every day someone posts a weather forecast in the mess hall, and every day the forecast is similar.
Seeing fog banks on the horizon is a daily occurrence.
We continue to eat remarkably well. Today’s lunch was spaghetti or zoodles with
eggplant parmigiana, shrimp, and hot veggies.
This week already, we’ve had pecan pies and oatmeal raisin cookies for
dessert and apple and berry turnovers for breakfast. The food is definitely one of the benefits of
being on this ship!
Did You Know?
The fresh water measured in the Copper River
plume equates to a quarter of the yearly excess melt from area glaciers. The question then is, where does the other
three-quarters go?
What do you want kids to know about your research?
Ana: There are nutrients in the water that
sea creatures need: large nutrients and small ones. The small ones are important because they’re
needed more often, like vitamins being a more regular part of your diet than
hamburgers.
Sea Creatures seen today:
A small group of fin whales came near us several times during our zigzag maneuvers.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern
Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 7, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 59° 40.065 N Longitude: 146° 04.523 W Wave Height: 2-3 ft Wind Speed: 10.4 knots Wind Direction: 254 degrees Visibility: 100 m Air Temperature: 12.0 °C Barometric Pressure: 1015.4 mb Sky: Overcast, foggy
Science and Technology Log
Usually LTER cruises are more focused on monitoring the ecosystem, but in our case, the cruise will also focus on a process study of the Copper River plume.
This is a satellite photo of the plume with an overlay of the salinity of the water along our course. The darker colors represent the lowest salinity.
This seasonal plume brings iron and fresh water into the marine ecosystem, where they are dispersed by weather and currents. Because our winds have been very light, the plume is retaining its coiled shape remarkably well. Our sampling on the Middleton Line (prior to the plume study) will add information about how both the Copper River fresh water and iron are spread along the shelf and throughout the food web.
Clay checking the fluorescence of a sample.
Clay Mazur has a particular interest in the iron-rich waters of the plume. He is a graduate student from Western Washington University who is working under Dr. Suzanne Strom (also onboard). He is one of a few on board who are working on their own experiments as opposed to assisting others. The overall goal of his work is to study how iron in phytoplankton is limited and how the sporadic addition of it can stimulate growth. He has a gigantic on-deck incubation experiment in which he will take an iron-limited plankton community from offshore in the Gulf and introduce iron-rich water from the Copper River plume to see what happens. Clay will measure chlorophyll – an indication of biomass – by which he can estimate the plankton population. He will also be checking the physiology of plankton in different size classes, and taking samples to see the pigments that every cell produces and if they change over time with the addition of water from the Copper River plume. His hypothesis is that everything should change: phytoplankton species composition, cell size, photosynthetic ‘health’, and chlorophyll production. When phytoplankton are iron-limited, they cannot produce healthy photosynthetic structures.
Clay measured the same indicators on every station of the MID (Middleton Island) line and will also measure the same on GAK line. These samples will use the metrics described above to show environmental heterogeneity along the cross-shelf sampling lines. Samples from the MID and GAK line will also allow his iron experiment to be seen in context. Does the iron-rich community that develops during the experiment match anything that we see on the shelf? How realistic is experiment within the Gulf of Alaska? Clay would also expect a diatom bloom with the introduction of iron into his sample population, but he says there are not a lot of cells greater than 20 microns out here and 5 days may not be enough for diatoms to grow up from this small seed population.
The Acrobat
One specialized instrument being deployed to gather information about the Copper River plume is the Acrobat. Where the CTD is critical to give a site-specific profile of various indicators in the water column, the Acrobat can provide much of the same information along the path of the research ship, such as through the plume or across the shelf from deep regions to shallow.
This is an example of the readout that comes from the CTD when it is deployed.
Lead scientist Dr. Seth Danielson from UAF, and Pete Shipton, a mooring technician from UAF’s Seward Marine Center are using the Acrobat to record a number of parameters as it moves through the water column. The Acrobat is lowered off the stern of the ship and towed behind us.
Bern, the Marine Tech, and Paul, the Bosun, with the Acrobat on deck prior to launch
As it is towed, it dives and climbs in a repeated vertical zigzag pattern to sample the water column vertically along the length of our course, creating a “cross-section” of the ocean along our line. The Acrobat measures water temperature, salinity, density, chlorophyll, particle concentrations and CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter). The CDOM indicator allows the Acrobat to distinguish between different water colorations.
The path of the Acrobat can be constrained by
distance from the surface or seafloor, in which case it receives depth sounder readings
from the ship itself to inform its “flight” behavior. It can also be set to run a path of a set distance
vertically, for example, within a 20m variation in depth. When set to a maximum depth of 40 m, it
can be towed at 7-8 kts, but someone must always be monitoring the “flight” of
the Acrobat in relation to ship speed to ensure the best possible results. The
operator provides a watchful eye for shallow regions and keeps an eye on the
incoming data feed. The Acrobat
also has two sets of wings. The
larger set will allow the Acrobat to reach a maximum depth of 100m or carry a
larger sensor payload. The profile
being created as we tow through strands of the plume indicates that there is a pronounced
layer of fresh water at the surface.
A concentration of phytoplankton, indicated by high chlorophyll a
fluorescence levels, lies just beneath the fresh water layer and as we exit the
plume, we observe a subtle shift towards the surface. The fresh water also contains a good deal of sediment from the
river that settles to the bottom as the plume spreads out. As we cross through
the plume, we see the sediment levels at the surface drop, while the
temperature, salinity and density remain fairly constant, showing a continued
flow of fresh water at the surface.
The readout from the Acrobat appears as a series of bar graphs that record in real time and provide a clear picture of what’s happening in the water column as we move.
This is what the Acrobat readout looked like as we went through a portion of the plume.
Once the data from the Acrobat is gathered, Dr. Danielson is able to create three-dimensional representations of the water column along our path according to the individual indicators. One that is particularly interesting and important for the Gulf of Alaska is salinity, which exerts strong control on water column stratification and therefore the supply of nutrients into the ecosystem.
Here is a 3-D representation of the salinity along our plume route.
The low-salinity waters of the Gulf of Alaska are influenced by the fresh water precipitation, snow melt and glacier melt in the coastal Alaska watershed, including the big rivers like the Copper River and the thousands of un-gauged small streams. Some of the fresh water runoff eventually flows into the Bering Sea, the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean, playing its role in the global hydrological cycle and the conveyor belt that circulates water through the world’s oceans. Oceanographic monitoring has shown that the Gulf of Alaska water column is warming throughout and getting fresher at the surface, a consequence in part of glaciers melting along the rim of the Gulf of Alaska.
Personal Log
Finding my way around onboard was initially
somewhat confusing. I would exit
the main lab and turn the wrong way to locate the stairway back up to my room,
and it took a few days to figure it out.
Here’s an idea of the path I take in the mornings to get from my room to
the lab:
Here’s what our stateroom looks like…yes, it’s kind of messy!
Stateroom
Door exiting stateroom
One rule when you open a door, because the hallways are narrow and the doors are heavy, is to open slowly and check for people.
Door exiting stateroom
Hallway
The stairs are steep with narrow treads and necessitate careful and constant use of the handrails.
Stairs
Exit
From the main hall, I usually go into the wet lab.
Main hall
Wet lab
From the wet lab I can either go into the main lab…
Main lab
… or into the Baltic Room.
Baltic Room
There are six levels to the ship. At the bottom are supply rooms,
equipment, the engine room, workrooms and the gym. On the main floor are the labs, workrooms, laundry areas and
computer center. On the first
floor are science team quarters, a control room for the main deck winches, the
mess hall and a lounge. On the
second floor are crew quarters.
The third floor has officer quarters, and the fourth level is the
bridge. There are also observation
decks at the stern and bow on the third level.
I have a bit of a reprieve during the plume study, since Steffi’s project does not focus on these waters. It’s been a great opportunity to shadow other teams and learn about what they’re doing, as well as to explore more of the ship. Now that the first phase of the plume study is over, we are extending it farther out in the gulf to be able to examine a fresh water eddy that is showing up on satellite imagery. After that, we will have about a 12-hour transit to the next line of stations, called the GAK (Seward) line, where Steffi (and I) will resume her testing.
Did You Know?
It’s still foggy and the sea state is very calm compared to what everyone expected. It’s great for the experiments, but doesn’t help with wildlife sightings. We’re under the influence of a high pressure system currently, which is expected to keep things quiet at least through Wednesday. At some point next week, we may have a low-pressure system pass through, which would increase wind speed and wave height.
What Do You Want Kids to Learn from Your Research?
**Note: I’m asking the various scientists on board the same question. Clay took five days to formulate this and it really captures the essence of his passion for his research and the effects of climate change. It’s worth the read!
Clay: Recently, I was asked by Cat, our Teacher at Sea for this cruise, what I want members of the general public to take away from my work studying iron limitation of phytoplankton. Though I can provide her a superficial answer to my research question immediately, the motivations for my work go much deeper than answering “How does a micronutrient affect phytoplankton growth?”
There are two main levels at which I want to answer Cat’s question:
1. Proximal: Though phytoplankton are microscopic, they have macroscopic impacts.
2. Philosophical: Why bother in the quest for such knowledge?
Level
1: The Macroscopic Impacts of a Microscopic Organism
Both human societies and phytoplankton communities are impacted by global climate change. Globally, humans are realizing the need to combat carbon emissions and mediate the effects of increasing global temperatures. Consequences of global climate change for us include mass emigration as sea levels rise and increased frequency of extreme weather events (e.g. droughts, wildfires). As a result, humans are racing to bridge political divides between countries, develop sustainable energy, and manage natural disaster response.
Phytoplankton, too, must respond to global climate change. As sea surface temperatures rise, phytoplankton will have to adapt. CO2 that is dissolved in seawater removes the precious materials some diatoms use to make their “shells” and takes away their protection. Dissolved CO2 can also alter the ability of micrograzers to swim and find food!
Melting glaciers are a double-edged sword. Glacial flour in freshwater runoff brings in vital nutrients (including iron) through the Copper River Plume and phytoplankton love their iron! But freshwater also works to trap phytoplankton in the surface layers. When all the nutrients are used up and you’re a phytoplankton baking in the heat of the sun, being trapped at the surface is super stressful!
As global climate change accelerates in the polar regions, phytoplankton in the Northern Gulf of Alaska are in an evolutionary race against time to develop traits that make them resilient to their ever-changing environment. Phytoplankton crossing the finish line of this race is imperative for us humans, since phytoplankton help to mediate climate change by soaking up atmospheric CO2 during photosynthesis to produce ~ 50 % of the oxygen we breathe!
Phytoplankton also form the base of a complex oceanic food web. The fresh salmon in the fish markets of Pike’s Place (Seattle, WA), the gigantic gulp of a humpback whale in Prince William Sound (AK) and even entire colonies of kittiwakes on Middleton Island (AK) are dependent on large numbers of phytoplankton. When phytoplankton are iron limited, they cannot grow or multiply (via mitosis). In a process called bottom up regulation, the absence of phytoplankton reduces the growth of animals who eat phytoplankton, the animals who eat those animals, and so on up the entire food chain.
Let us consider “The Blob”, an area of elevated sea surface temperature in 2015 to illustrate this point. “The Blob” limited phytoplankton growth and that of herbivorous fishes. As a result, the population of kittiwakes on Middleton Island crashed as the birds could not find enough fish to provide them the nutrients and energy to reproduce successfully. In this way, the kittiwake deaths were directly attributed to a lack of phytoplankton production.
Not only are phytoplankton ecologically important, they are
commercially important. For consumers who love to fish (and for the huge
commercial fisheries in the Northern Gulf of Alaska), the base of the food web
should be of particular interest, as it is the harbinger of change. Fisheries
managers currently use models of phytoplankton growth to monitor fish stocks
and establish fisheries quotas. If sporadic input of iron from dust storms,
glacial runoff, or upwelling stimulate phytoplankton to grow, fish stocks may
also increase with the newfound food source. Because phytoplankton are
inextricably linked to fish, whales, and seabirds, in years where nutrients are
plentiful, you may well see more fish on kitchen tables across the U.S. and
Native Alaskans may be able to harvest more seabird eggs.
Level
2: The Nature of Science
As a
supporter of place-based and experiential learning, I view myself as a student
with a duel scientist-educator role. To succeed in these roles, I have to be
able to combine reasoning with communication and explore questions like “How
does science relate to society?” and “How do we foster scientific literacy?”
What better way to think about these questions than embarking on a three-week
cruise to the Pacific Subarctic?! Not only am I working with amazing Principal
Investigators in an immersive research experience, I am able to collect data
and think of creative ways to communicate my findings. These data can be used
to build educational curricula (e.g. Project Eddy modules, R shiny apps, etc.)
in an effort to merge the classroom with the Baltic room (where the CTD is
deployed). But what’s the point of collecting data and sharing it?
Science is “a collaborative enterprise, spanning the generations” (Bill Nye) and is “the best tool ever devised for understanding how our world works” (Richard Dawkins). The goal of communicating my results in a way that touches the lives of students is two-fold. One aim is to allow them to appreciate the philosophy of science – that it is iterative, self-correcting, and built upon measurable phenomena. It is the best way that we “know” something.
The other aim is to allow students to engage in scientific discourse and build quantitative reasoning skills. As the renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said, “When you’re scientifically literate the world looks very different to you and that understanding empowers you.” Using phytoplankton to model the scientific process allows students to enter into the scientific enterprise in low-stakes experiments, to question how human actions influence ecosystems, and to realize the role science plays in society. Ultimately, I want students to use my data to learn the scientific process and build confidence to face the claims espoused by the U.S. government and seen on Facebook with a healthy amount of skepticism and an innate curiosity to search for the truth.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern
Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 5, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 59° 54.155’ N Longitude: 146° 18.252’ W Wave Height: 2 ft Wind Speed: 12.6 knots Wind Direction: 264 degrees Visibility: 1 nm Air Temperature: 14°C Barometric Pressure: 1022 mb Sky: Overcast, light fog
Science and Technology Log
Dr. Suzanne Strom, from Western Washington University, is the team leader for work being done in the wet lab. Simply put, her team is examining the amount and production rate of phytoplankton (single-celled algae) captured at various depths. The team uses information from sensors on the CTD during each cast to read light levels and determine the depths at which to collect water samples containing phytoplankton.
After bottles are filled from the CTD, the team introduce 13C (a heavy isotope of carbon) into the bottles and then packages them in varying layers of mesh bags to recreate light levels at the depths from which they were sampled, simulating 50%, 30%, 10%, 5% and 1% of surface light. For example, the sample representing 1% of surface light has seven layers of mesh over it. Depending on the concentration of particles in the water, the 1% sample might range from 20 meters down near shore to 50 meters or more in open ocean. After a 24-hour incubation, the team filters the plankton out of the water samples and has them analyzed for 13C content, which indicates the amount of primary production that has taken place in each bottle (and, by extension, at each depth in the water column). Once the production is known, it can be related to measures of phytoplankton abundance that are obtained from the sensors attached to the CTD.
Here is the live readout that comes from the CTD as it is lowered into the ocean and raised again.
Dr. Strom is in the process of discovering a way to estimate the production of phytoplankton based on the amount of chlorophyll present in the water. Currently, on site testing has to be combined with information from sensors and from satellite imagery (which will indicate the amount of chlorophyll present in the surface ocean). When a relationship between the two is established, it will allow scientists to make accurate predictions about plankton populations and their production without actual sampling. The spring bloom is a time of greater chlorophyll content and primary production and thus is a critical component of her data set.
Suzanne and Hana working in the lab.
Hana Busse is a graduate student from WWU who is studying under Dr. Suzanne Strom. Her work is based on the perceived distinction between phytoplankton (which photosynthesize) and microzooplankton (which feed on other organisms) and the identification of organisms that cross those boundaries. These organisms are called mixotrophic, and they can both photosynthesize and feed. She hopes to find out why particular organisms have developed that ability and how it helps them survive in a varied environment.
Although mixotrophy has been observed for a long time, it was commonly thought to be an anomalous phenomenon. However, with better sampling technology, mixotrophy has been discovered to be ubiquitous. Because this is a relatively new branch in the study of plankton, there are still many questions to be answered. Does mixotrophy promote ‘phytoplankton’ blooms? Does it promote resilience of species and communities? Can mixotrophs switch strategies, i.e. from photosynthesis to feeding and vice versa?
As a part of her research process, Hana is incubating a natural community of photosynthetic organisms in gradients of light and added nutrients.
The plankton nursery is being assembled on the main deck.
She will be trying to discover whether ingestion rates change according to the amount of light or nutrients a mixotrophic population is exposed to. Is the reverse true? Is feeding driven by lack of nutrients or by prey? Prey concentration experiments?
Because of the relative newness of this kind of a study (it has been growing in importance over the last ten years or so), the results will have important implications for the food web because you have organisms that fit both categories (phytoplankton and microzooplankton) rather than just one or the other. Hana is working with a modeler on this project to incorporate mixotrophy in models of the ecosystem we are sampling. Her work also has implications for previous studies that did not take mixotrophy into account. Although there are different kinds of mixotrophs, she is focused on dinoflagellates, while others, such as Dr. Strom, are looking at ciliates (they “borrow” chloroplasts to photosynthesize). Hana is also looking at different strategies that organisms use to become mixotrophic. Do they steal chloroplasts? Do they create them themselves when they are in need? Can they switch back? Her work has huge implications for our understanding of environmental variability, the food web and the dynamics of marine ecosystems worldwide.
Personal Log
There have been more safety protocols in place over the last few days that are noteworthy. First of all, since we’ve been traveling through fog, the ship must sound fog signals at a two-minute interval to alert other vessels of our presence. Every two minutes, it sounds like a VERY large angry goose or an annoyed Tyrannosaurus Rex sounds off. I think most of us have learned to ignore it, although, with the labs being open to the working deck, it is louder in there. Yesterday for the Fourth of July, Third Mate Artie and the Chief Mate led a safety briefing and demonstration on flares, rockets, projectile line launchers and preventing polar bears from coming on board the ship.
The announcement of the afternoon safety briefing on the message board in the Mess Hall.
It’s not something we’ll be dealing with, but it is an issue the ship encounters when it goes on arctic cruises. The line launcher is used to transfer a line over a distance to another vessel or to deploy it to someone in the water.
Third Mate Artie explains how the line launcher is used.
Kim, the Chief Steward and head chef on board volunteered to fire it.
Kim takes aim and fires!
To deter bears, two different shells are fired off: one that makes a loud bang and another that makes a loud squeal.
The Chief Mate explains how to deter bears from boarding the ship.
Both are fired from a small pistol at a 45-degree angle (to go over the head of the bear). A number of the crew as well as the science team took the opportunity to try firing the pistol.
Ayanda tests the bear deterrent pistol
Being that it was a relatively warm and sunny day (58 degrees outside), and that we were basically circling while one of the science sensors was being fixed, both the science team and the crew were able to enjoy some “overlap” and have a relaxing afternoon together. Luckily, we were also close enough to land for most of us to be able to text, if not call our loved ones. We were located in the Copper River plume in fairly shallow water, which meant that the color of the water was close to a tropical green, and was reminiscent of home.
It almost looks like home out here.
I’ve decided that I definitely over-packed
for the conditions we’ve experienced so far on this voyage. I expected to find temperatures to be
much colder and thus I brought two more jackets than I need. I brought a combination of short sleeved
and long sleeved shirts, planning on layering, but have not had to do much of
that yet, although we’ve still got a couple of weeks to go. I also brought a spare pair of shoes
that I haven’t worn yet. I am
glad, however, that I packed workout clothes, as the food on board is so good
that I definitely need to exercise!
I discovered the rowing machine in the gym and spent almost an hour on
it last night.
One diversion for a few of us yesterday was rescuing a hummingbird that had gotten into the Baltic Room (which opens onto the main deck) and couldn’t get out. One of the crew was able to assist by opening the cargo door and the bird flew out.
An unusual visitor on board: a hummingbird.
Birds Seen Today:
White-winged Scoters, a type of duck, fly towards islands at the mouth of the Copper River.
Did You Know?
Did you know that the draft of R/V Sikuliaq is less than 10m?
What do you want kids to learn from your research?
Hana: The boundaries that we see in nature
are not as firm as people expect them to be. There is a lot of overlap; everything is related.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 3, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 58° 54.647’ N Longitude: 146° 00.022’ W Wave Height: 4-5 ft. Wind Speed: 1.9 knots Wind Direction: roughly 90 degrees, but variable Visibility: 1 nm Air Temperature: 13.2 °C Barometric Pressure: 1014.4 mb Sky: Clear, then foggy
Weather overview
We have been fortunate so far to have very calm conditions. Winds have been variable or light and are expected to continue to be so through the weekend at least. Wave heights have generally been about 3 feet, although they’re up to 4-5 feet today, and are expected to drop tomorrow. The calm weather is critical for some of the testing being done, and thus is allowing more to happen.
Science and Technology Log
The focus of all of testing on board is
plankton. As the base of the food web,
all species depend on their health and abundance for survival. There are multiple
teams who are focused on various aspects of plankton and their reaction to
environmental conditions. Kira Monell is
a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who is working under
the direction of Dr. Russ Hopcroft while on board. She is studying zooplankton, or the animal
version of plankton. She is specifically
focusing on Neocalanus flemingeri, a
type of sub-arctic copepod. It is
important to study zooplankton because they provide a link between
phytoplankton (the plant version of plankton) and larger fish on the food
web. Copepods are extremely abundant and
varietal, found just about everywhere in the world. They are an important food source for most aquatic
species (they exist in both salt and fresh water). They are a trophic link – a connection in the
food web. Her target species is special
because they mostly eat phytoplankton during the seasonal plankton blooms. They convert their food into a lot of lipids
(fats) and thus are great sources of food and energy for larger fish. After fattening up, they go deep into the
ocean to hibernate around mid-summer.
Kira is specifically focused on the termination
of their hibernation (technically called diapause). She is doing genetic testing to see which
genes are activated or deactivated during this phase of their lives. Messenger ribonucleic acid (or mRNA) coded by
these genes is required to construct the enzymes that cause changes in body
functions, so she is looking at levels of different mRNA in the copepods. She
is expecting to see an increase in genes relating to oogenesis (egg formation). Her female copepods go into diapause ready to
start making eggs, so she expects to see changes in genes relating to egg
growth as they come wake up from diapause.
Kira is examining copepods through three
different experiments. With some
samples, she adds a stain called EDU (a dye that labels cells that are just
about to divide) into her samples and then checks them at 24 hours to see which
cells have divided. Because the copepods
are still alive, she can check back to see what further cell division have
happened over longer periods of time. A
fluorescent microscope is required to see the EDU. Scientists still struggle to understand what
actually triggers emergence from diapause since deep water copepods don’t
experience seasonal light changes, or other potential triggers that might exist
on the surface.
Another thing she is looking at is in-situ
hybridization. She makes a tag that is very
specific for the gene she wants to examine.
When the probe gene is introduced, it attaches to the gene she wants to
look at only if it is being actively copied.
Kira then attaches a colored or fluorescent dye to the probe and in that
way she can track which genes are being expressed in specific areas of the
body.
The third project that she is working on is
trancriptum analysis, which requires building a complete “catalog” that shows all
the RNA used by a species. She can then look at which gene transcripts are
present, and in how abundant they are, so as to compare them to the “average”
version of a transcriptum to see which genes are being turned off and on under
certain conditions.
To obtain samples of copepods, the zooplankton
team, including Kira, uses Calvet nets.
These are four long nets that terminate in collection tubes. Weight is
added to the bottom of the nets and they are submerged off the stern to 100
meters of depth and then pulled back up (a process that takes roughly five
minutes). The nets are then rinsed to
collect the samples in the tubes, which are transferred into jars and brought
to the lab for more detailed sorting and examination.
The Calvet is returning to the surface after being submerged
Kira and Kate rinse the length of the nets to collect their samples in the tubes in the end.
As the Calvet rises you can see the full net. (This video has no dialogue.)
Personal Log
This is the main working deck at the stern of the ship.
Getting prepared to go out on deck safely!
Boots
Hard hat
Life vest
Cat on Deck
All of the sample collection happens on the working deck at the stern of the R/V Sikuliaq or in the adjacent Baltic Room. The back deck is equipped with a variety of cranes and winches that are designed to handle heavy weights and lines under tension. As such, it is critical to wear the proper protective gear when you’re out there: boots (preferably steel-toed), a hard hat and a flotation vest of coat. If there’s a potential to get wet or dirty, rain gear or waterproof bibs are essential to stay dry and relatively clean. Being properly dressed is a process that took getting used to, but now it’s habit. Again, we’re lucky to have had good weather, so the deck is usually warm enough to wear a t-shirt and jeans. I find it calming to be outside, so I am enjoying learning about the sampling methods of other teams by watching and sometimes assisting them. There are also observation decks at the bow that do not require safety gear. A few of us have discovered that the forward decks are much quieter and are good spaces to decompress and look for sea life.
Animals Seen in the Last 24 Hours:
We’ve seen a few species of birds including
black turnstones, glaucous-winged gulls, Black-winged kittiwakes, as well as
deeper water birds such as storm petrels and shearwaters. In addition, there have been small pods of
dolphins in the distance and one humpback whale (all we saw was the tail).
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: 1 July 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 60’ 15” N Longitude: 145’ 30” N Wave Height: Wind Speed: 7 knots Wind Direction: 101 degrees Barometric Pressure: 1020 mb Air Temperature: 13.2° C Relative Humidity: 94% Sky: Overcast
Science and Technology Log
When I read some the material online about the NGA LTER, what struck me was a graphic that represented variability and resiliency as parts of a dynamic system. The two must coexist within an ecosystem to keep it healthy and sustainable; they must be in balance. On board, there is also balance in the studies that are being done. The Main Lab houses researchers who are looking at the physical aspects of the water column, such as sediment and plankton. The Wet Lab researchers are looking at the chemical aspects and are testing properties such as fluorescence, DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon), and DOC (dissolved organic carbon).
This is the working deck of the ship, where the majority of equipment is deployed
Today we deployed Steffi’s sediment traps, a process during which balance was key. First of all, each trap was composed of four collection tubes arranged rather like a chandelier.
These are the collection tubes that will be staged at selected depths to collect sediment
These were hooked into her primary line. Her traps were also attached to two sets of floaters: one at the surface and one as an intermediary feature on her line. These allowed her traps to sit at the proper depths to collect the samples she needed. The topmost trap sat 80m below the surface, while the next three were at subsequent 25m intervals.
Steffi’s traps were released against the background of the smoky sound.
We also collected more samples from another run
of the CTD today. Again, the Niskin
bottles (collection tubes) were “fired” or opened at various depths, allowing
sampling through a cross section of the water at this particular data point
PWS2. Unlike our previous collection, these samples were filtered with .45
micron mesh to eliminate extraneous particles.
This is a very careful process, we needed to be very careful to
eliminate air bubbles and replace the filters regularly as the clogged
quickly. For one depth, we did collect
unfiltered samples as a comparison to the filtered ones. Many groups use the CTD to collect samples,
so there must also be careful planning of usage so that there is enough water
for each team. Collection is a
complicated dance of tubes, syringes, bottles, labels and filters all circling
around the CTD.
Steffi looks over the sound as the buoys marking her traps recede into the distance.
Later this evening, we’ll have the chance to pull up Steffi’s sediment traps and begin to prepare her samples for analysis.
Personal Log
Balance is key in more ways than one when
you’re living aboard a research ship. Although it’s been very calm, we
experience some rolling motion when we are transiting from one site to the
next. The stairways in the ship are
narrow, as are the steps themselves, and it’s a good thing there are sturdy
handrails! Other than physical balance,
it’s important to find personal balance.
During the day, the science work can be very intense and demanding. Time schedules shift constantly, and it is
important to be aware of when your experiments or data collection opportunities
are taking place. Down time is precious,
and people will find a quiet space to read, go to the gym (a small one), catch
up on sleep or even watch a movie in the lounge.
A couple of weeks before I left, the Polynesian Voyaging Society hosted a cultural group from Yakutat, who had shipped in one of their canoes down for a conference. We were able to take them out sailing, and the subject of balance came up in terms of the worldview that the Tlingit have. People are divided between being Eagles and Ravens, and creatures are also divided along the lines of being herbivorous and carnivorous. Rather than this being divisive within culture, it reflects the principle of balance. Both types are needed to make an ecosystem whole and functional. And so, as we progress, we are continually working on maintaining our balance in the R/V Sikuliaq ecosystem.
Animals seen today:
A few dolphins were spotted off the bow this evening, but other than that, Prince William Sound has been relatively quiet. Dan, our U.S. Fish and Wildlife person, remarked that there are more boats than birds today, which isn’t saying much as I’ve only seen three other boats.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: 30 June 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 60.32 N Longitude: 147.48 W Wind Speed: 3.2 knots Wind Direction: 24 degrees Air Temperature: 72 °F Sky: Hazy (smoke)
Science and Technology Log
We arrived in Seward mid-day on Thursday, June 27th to find it hazy from fires burning north of us; the normally picturesque mountain ranges framing the bay were nearly obscured, and the weather forecast predicts that the haze will be with us at sea for a while as well. Most of the two days prior to departure were busy with loading, sorting, unpacking and setting up of equipment.
All equipment and supplies are placed on pallets to load on board
There are multiple experiments and different types of studies that will be taking place during the course of this cruise, and each set of researchers has a specific area for their equipment. I am on the particle flux team with Stephanie O’Daly (she specifically requested to have “the teacher” so that she’d have extra hands to help her), and have been helping her as much as I can to set up. Steffi has been very patient and is good about explaining the equipment and their function as we go through everything. Particle flux is about the types of particles found in the water and where they’re formed and where they’re going. In addition, she’ll be looking at carbon matter: what form it takes and what its origin is, because that will tell her about the movement of specific types of plankton through the water column. We spent a part of Friday setting up a very expensive camera (the UVP or Underwater Visual Profiler) that will take pictures of particles in the water down to 500 microns (1/2 a millimeter), will isolate the particles in the picture, sort the images and download them to her computer as well.
Steffi’s friend Jess was very helpful and instructive about setting up certain pieces of equipment. I found that my seamanship skills luckily were useful in splicing lines for Steffi’s tows as well as tying her equipment down to her work bench so that we won’t lose it as the ship moves.
Spliced lines
Steffi’s work space
As everyone worked to prepare their stations, the ship moved to the refueling dock to make final preparations for departure, which was about 8:30 on Saturday morning.
Day one at sea was a warm up for many teams. Per the usual, the first station’s testing went slowly as participants learned the procedures. We deployed the CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) at the second station. A CTD is a metal framework that carries various instruments and sampling bottles called Niskin bottles. In the video, you can see them arranged around the structure. The one we sent on June 28 had 24 plastic bottles that were “fired” at specific depths to capture water samples. These samples are shared by a number of teams to test for things like dissolved oxygen gas, and nutrients such as nitrate, nitrites, phosphate and silicate, and dissolved inorganic carbon.
The CTD is lowered over the side of the ship long enough to fill sample bottles and then is brought back on board. (This still photo is a placeholder for the video.)
One of my tasks today was to help her collect samples from specific bottles by attaching a tube to the bottle, using water from the sample to cleanse it and them fill it. Another team deployed a special CTD that was built completely of iron-free materials in order to run unbiased tests for iron in the water.
By late Saturday night, we will be in Prince William Sound, and will most likely spend a day there, before continuing on to Copper River. Usually LTER cruises are more focused on monitoring the state of the ecosystem, but in this case, the cruise will also focus on the processes of the Copper River plume, rates and interactions. This particular plume brings iron and fresh water into the Northern Gulf of Alaska ecosystem, where it is dispersed by weather and current. After spending some time studying the plume, the cruise will continue on to the Middleton Line to examine how both fresh water and iron are spread along the shelf and throughout the food web.
Personal Log
As the science team gathered yesterday, it
became evident that the team is predominantly female. According to lead scientist Seth Danielson,
this is a big change from roughly 20 years ago, and has become more of the norm
in recent times. We also have five
undergraduates with us who have never been out on a cruise, which is
unusual. They are all very excited for
the trip and to begin their own research by assisting team leaders. I’ve met most of the team and am slowly
getting all the names down.
I have to admit that I’m feeling out of my
element, much like a fish in a very different aquarium. I’m used to going to sea, yes, but on a
vessel from another time and place.
There is much that is familiar about gear, lines, weather, etc., but
there are also great differences. The
ship’s crew is a separate group from the science crew, although most are friendly
and helpful. Obviously, this is a much
larger and more high tech vessel with many more moving parts. Being on the working deck requires a hard
hat, protective boots, and flotation gear.
There are viewing decks that are less restricted.
I am excited to be at sea again, but a little
bit nervous about meeting expectations and being as helpful as I can without
getting in the way. It’s a little strange
to be primarily indoors, however, as I’m used to being out in the open! I’m
enjoying the moments where I can be on deck, although with the haze in the air,
I’m missing all the scenery!
Did you know?
Because space is limited onboard, many of the
researchers are collecting samples for others who couldn’t be here as well as
collecting for themselves and doing their own experiments.
Something to think about:
How do we get more boys interested in marine
sciences?
Questions of the day (from the Main Lab):
Do whales smell the smoke outside?
Answer: Toothed whales do not have a sense of
smell, and baleen whales have a poor sense of smell at best.
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Research (NGA-LTER)
Geographic
Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: 18 June
2019
Weather Data
(From Honolulu,
HI)
Latitude:
21.33 N
Longitude:
157.94 W
Wind
Speed and Direction: NE 15 G 23
Wind
Swell Height and Direction: NE 3-5 ft
Secondary
Swell Height and Direction: SSW 2-4 ft
Humidity:
47%
Barometric
Pressure: 1016.1 mb
Heat
Index: 93 F (34 C)
Visibility:
10.00 nm
Weather:
clear and sunny
(From
Seward, AK)
Latitude:
60.12 N
Longitude:
149.45 W
Wind
Speed and Direction: S 9
Swell
Height: 2 ft
Humidity:
77%
Barometric
Pressure: 1016.0 mb
Heat
Index: 56 F (13 C)
Visibility:
10.00 nm
Weather:
Overcast
Personal Log
Aloha kākou! Greetings everyone! In about a week, I will be exchanging currently very warm and sunny Honolulu for the vastly different climate and ecological zone in Seward and the Northern Gulf of Alaska. I will be embarking on R/V Sikuliaq there to participate in one part of a long-term study of the variability and resiliency of species in the area, but I will get to that in a bit.
In August, I will begin my seventeenth year as a sixth grade social studies teacher at ‘Iolani School, an independent K-12 school that is academically competitive at a national level. In sixth grade social studies, our students focus on the development of the modern world from ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. I enjoy challenging my students to broaden their worldviews, especially about the impacts ancient civilizations have had on today’s world. We cover those for three quarters, and in the fourth quarter we examine the choices these civilizations have made and whether or not they contribute to a sustainable society. I want my students to understand that sustainability is more than just picking up trash and conserving water, but it is also about choices in government, society, culture, behavior and environment. The content of our fourth quarter is predicated on the reality that we live in Hawai’i, an island group that is roughly 2000 miles from any other major point of land.
Living in Hawai’i can be just as idyllic as advertisements make it seem, with daily rainbows, colorful sunsets and blue ocean waves. However, it also comes with challenges that we all have to face. Our cost of living is among the highest in the nation, and we face constant struggles between maintaining culture and environment in a place with limited room for population growth. We have a high homeless population, yet many of us joke that the (construction) crane is our state bird. We are also braced to be at the forefront of climate change. With a rise in sea level of 3 feet, most of Waikiki and much of downtown Honolulu is at risk of inundation. In addition, changes in sea surface temperature affect our coral reefs and fish populations as well as minimizing or eliminating our trade winds through changes in weather patterns. For these reasons, I hope to plant the awareness in my students that their generation is poised to make some major decisions about the state of the world.
My passion for sustainability and ocean health stems from the amount of time I spend in and on the water. I have been a competitive outrigger canoe paddler for the last 30 or so years, and in the summers, I paddle five to six days a week. I go to six-man team practices as well as taking my one-man canoe out with friends. I also have coached high school paddling at ‘Iolani School for the last sixteen years. Being on the ocean so much makes me much more aware of the wildlife our waters shelter: monk seals, dolphins, sea turtles and humpback whales. It also makes me aware of the trash, especially plastics that are more and more present in the ocean. I’ve picked up slippers, coolers, bottles, bags and even pieces of cargo net out of the water on various excursions. Being on the water so often also fuels my interest in meteorology; you need to know what weather and ocean conditions to expect when you go to sea. One major impact that being on the water has is that it allows you to see your island from offshore and realize that it is an ISLAND, and not a very big one at that!
Me on my one-man canoe off He’eia, O’ahu
Some of the biggest lessons about the ocean that I’ve learned have come from my experiences with the Polynesian Voyaging Society, a non-profit organization founded in 1973 to recreate the original settlement of Hawai’i by ocean voyaging canoes, as well as revive the ancient art of non-instrument navigation. PVS is most well known for the voyaging canoe Hõkūlea, which sailed to Tahiti (and back again) in 1976 to prove the validity of these cultural arts. I began working with the organization in 1994, helping to build a second voyaging canoe, Hawai’iloa, and have been there ever since. As a part of this organization, I have sailed throughout the Pacific, to locations such as Tahiti, Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Mangareva, and the Marquesas. With Te Mana O Te Moana, another voyaging canoe initiative, I sailed to the Cook Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. I’ve seen many faces of the Pacific Ocean on my travels and I look forward to seeing another.
Between 2012 and 2017, PVS sent Hõkūle’a on a journey around the world. The name of the voyage was Mālama Honua (To Protect the Earth) and the goal was to visit with indigenous communities to learn what challenges they face and how they work to preserve their lands and cultures. One of the founding principles for this voyage is a Hawaiian saying, “he wa’a he moku, he moku he wa’a”, which means “the canoe is an island and the island is a canoe”. The saying refers to the idea that the choices we make about positive behavior, bringing what we need as opposed to what we want, and what we do with our resources and trash while living in the limited space of a voyaging canoe are a reflection of the choices we need to make living on the islands of Hawai’i as well as living on island Earth. I strive every day to make my students aware of the consequences of their choices.
Hõkūle’a en route to Aotearoa, 2014
Science and Technology Log
I’m pretty excited to go to Alaska, first of all, because I’ve never been there! Secondly, we have species in Hawai’i (birds and whales) that migrate between our shores and Alaska on an annual basis. Although the two locations are distant from each other, there are connections to be made, as Hawai’i and Alaska share the same ocean.
The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). R/V Sikuliaq is an NSF ship working with the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. LTER encompasses 28 sites nationwide, of which the Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) is one. In this area, three surveys a year are made to monitor the dynamics of the ecosystem and measure its resilience to environmental factors such as variability in light, temperature, freshwater, wind and nutrients. The origins of the NGA portion of this project have been in place since 1970 and have grown to include the Seward Line system (s series of points running southeast from Seward).
On our trip, we will be looking at microzooplankton and mesozooplankton as well as phytoplankton, the size and concentration of particles in the water, and the availability of nutrients, among other things. Information gathered from our study will be added to cumulative data sets that paint a picture of the variability and resiliency of the marine ecosystem. I will be a part of the Particle Flux team for this expedition. I have a general idea of what that entails and the kind of data we’ll be gathering, but I certainly need to learn more! If you’re curious, more detailed information about ongoing research can be found at https://nga.lternet.edu/about-us/.
I always ask my students, after they complete preliminary research on any project, what they want to learn. I want to know more about particle flux (as previously mentioned). I would like to learn more about seasonal weather patterns and how they influence the NGA ecosystem. I would like to find out if/how this ecosystem connects to the Hawaiian ecosystem, and I REALLY want to see the kinds of life that inhabit the northern ocean! For my own personal information, I am really curious to see how stars move at 60 degrees north and whether or not they can still be used for navigation.
Mahalo
(Thank you)
I’m spending my last week sorting through my collection of fleece and sailing gear to prepare for three weeks of distinctly cooler temperatures. I’m going to be doing a lot of layering for sure! My two cats, Fiona and Pippin are beginning to suspect something, but for now are content to sniff through the growing pile on the couch. While packing, I’m keeping in mind that this is just another type of voyage and to pack only what I need, including chocolate. As departure gets closer, I’d like to thank Russ Hopcroft, Seth Danielson, and Steffi O’Daly for their information and help in getting to and from Seward. I’m looking forward to meeting you all soon and learning a lot from each of you! Thanks also to Lisa Seff for her on board life hacks and detailed information…much appreciated!
