SGER: Primary and Secondary Production Measurements Along the Western Antarctic Coastline on the Oden Ship of Opportunity Cruise

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

The western Antarctic coastline is notoriously understudied but is thought to play a relatively large role in the Southern Ocean for global carbon cycling. The Oden transit cruise is an ideal opportunity to collect data in a chronically undersampled region of the Southern Ocean, from the West Antarctic Peninsula to Ross Island. The information collected will augment data obtained in adjoining regions during the conduct of two major ocean programs, Southern Ocean GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics) and Southern Ocean JGOFS (Joint Global Ocean Flux Study). We propose to conduct underway measurements of primary and secondary production to establish a baseline for future cruises and as support for the marine mammal, sea bird and ice observations being conducted concurrently. We will digitally sample the underway seawater stream for temperature, salinity, total chlorophyll, pH, dissolved oxygen, CDOM fluorescence, nitrate, phosphate, iron, and zoo and phytoplankton. In addition, discrete samples will be taken for total carbon, microplankton, and pigment structure by HPLC. Modis remote sensing data will be accumulated during the time period of the cruise to allow cross calibration with in situ pigment data and cross referenced with underway meteorological data. The overall goal is to understand how the sea ice edge dynamics influence both primary and secondary production, particularly with respect to larval krill dynamics. One Ph.D. student and one undergraduate student will be involved in the project. In addition, the project will foster international collaboration, in the spirit of International Polar Year, with Swedish and Chilean scientists that also will be collect oceanographic data on the cruise.