Tag: Long-Term Ecological Research Area

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Alexa Helm: Introduction, September 10, 2024

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Alexa Helm
Aboard R/V Tiĝlax̂
September 10-20, 2024

Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska Long Term Ecological Monitoring Project

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska – Port: Seward

Date: September 10, 2024

Weather Data from the Homer Spit

Time: 0930

Latitude: 59.601° N

Longitude: 151.410° W

Wind: ESE 1.9 knots

Air Temperature: 51.6°F

Air pressure: 29.97 in

Personal Introduction

Ahoy! My name is Alexa Helm, and I am so beyond excited to be joining the Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Monitoring (NGA LTER) team for their fall cruise on R/V Tiĝlax̂! I live in Homer, which is a short (3.5 hour) drive down the road from Seward where we’ll be departing from tonight and beginning our 10-day science adventure in the Gulf. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will be as calm in Seward as it is right now in Homer… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

I work for an environmental education nonprofit called the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS), and my job is somewhat of a two-parter. During the summertime, I coordinate and lead overnight youth and family camps across Kachemak Bay from Homer, and during the school year I work as an educator leading a variety of day and overnight programs for students of all ages. We strive to make these programs place-based, culturally-responsive, and led by student inquiry and exploration to facilitate meaningful learning experiences and relationship building with all of the wonders within and surrounding Kachemak Bay. 

A common theme for my job throughout the year is that I get to work with youth from Homer, other parts of Alaska, and from the Lower 48 outside in the incredibly rich and special ecosystems of Kachemak Bay. One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get the opportunity to learn just as much (and honestly, usually more) from the students I work with as they learn from me. 

Here are a couple highlights from some of the programs I’ve had the privilege to be part of recently:

two middle-grade students (we cannot see their faces) stand on either side of table that contains a partially-laid out skeleton. each student grasps a bone (or perhaps bone replica) and works to place it in the layout.
Campers investigating marine mammal anatomy during a tabletop skeleton articulation. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
three students - one standing, the other two crouching - are on a seaweed-covered pile of rocks at the edge of a tide pool. the middle student reaches down to grasp something. beyond, the bay is calm, we can see tree-lined mountains on the other side, and the sky is bright with many white wispy clouds.
Campers learning about intertidal ecology during low tide. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.
Four students stand around a table set up on an outdoor pavilion, with trees in the background. on the table in front of them are two salmon laid out on plastic; they've been partially dissected and salmon organs also dot the table. three of the students look on eagerly and reach to touch the organs. a fourth sits back, looking more skeptical, holding hands out of the way.
Campers exploring salmon organs during a dissection. Photo courtesy of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies.

Science and Technology Log

The NGA LTER project is really cool for a lot of reasons. It’s focused on investigating the many different factors and processes that drive productivity in the NGA and that make it so rich and resilient, and how all of these pieces respond to short- and long-term changes associated with climate change. These are some pretty massive questions, which means that there are a lot of different disciplines, individuals, and institutions working together to learn more about this exquisite ecosystem. On this cruise, researchers will be diving into questions related to zooplankton, phytoplankton, nutrients and chemistry, physics, marine mammals and seabirds… the list goes on! 

This cruise will be sampling stations along the 150-nautical-mile-long Seward transect line and in Prince William Sound, though the project also samples other transects in the NGA during other times of the year. Not only is this the 28th year of a fall survey along the Seward Line, but it also marks the 54th year of collecting data in the Gulf of Alaska more broadly.

a simple map of the Gulf of Alaska, including some shaded colors to indicate bathymetry and topography. survey transects are marked in dotted lines extending into the Gulf from, west to east: Kodiak Island (through Albatross Bank), near Cook Inlet (through Portlock Bank), south of Seward - GAK-1 - through the Amatuli Trough, then also from east of Prince William Sound (MI), and east of Copper River (KI).
NGA LTER survey transects (Photo credit: NGA LTER)

A huge part of this research is all of the partnerships and collaborations that help to make it all happen. The NGA was established as an LTER through the National Science Foundation back in 2018, and has been funded by the North Pacific Research Board, the Alaska Ocean Observing System, and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council since 2005. Before that, surveys were part of the U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics program, and even before that, it all started thanks to University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) professor Dr. Thomas C. Royer with the first Seward Line survey back in 1970. Don’t worry, I won’t quiz you on this, it’s just pretty cool to see how many different institutions have helped to make this research happen over the years.

Nowadays, the NGA LTER project has a lot of incredible people working on it from a lot of different places, including UAF, Western Washington University, University of California Santa Cruz, Oregon State University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Hawaii Manoa, Axiom Data Science, and the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. NGA researchers supply data and written contributions to NOAA’s regular Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Status Reports, and collect larval fish samples for other NOAA Fisheries research projects. Oh, and did I mention that R/V Tiĝlax̂ is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife vessel? The list of collaborators seems endless; it’s pretty incredible to see so many people and institutions coming together to learn more about the NGA.

view of the 120-ft long research vessel alongside a pier. the sky is gray and cloudy, and the water in the harbor is very still.
R/V Tiĝlax̂ in the Homer Harbor this spring!

I’m so grateful to be part of NOAA’s 2024 crew of Teachers at Sea, and can’t wait to bring you all on this adventure with me!