First Weekly Report NBP01-05 Palmer LTER Sea Ice Cruise 10-16 September, 2001 As elsewhere, a sense of grief, sorrow and disbelief fell upon us this week following the tragic events of the WTC. Several on our ship have relatives in the affected area and emails and calls when out to check on the whereabouts of friends and loved ones. It was almost surreal – work progressed more-or-less as normal while awful news from the "outside world" poured in via email. And, unlike any cruise I have ever been on, much attention focused on news from home. The dark series continued when, late in the week, we learned that our colleague and good friend, Doug Martinson, had been admitted to the hospital with a possible brain tumor. This painful news left us all with a great sense of sorrow and was the low point of a low week. Today, 16th, we learned that the neurosurgeon predicts an excellent chance for a full and complete recovery. With that good news our love, best wishes and good thoughts go out to Doug & Rhonda with the fervent hope that his upcoming operation is successful and that he has a full and complete recovery. It was reliably reported that the doctor said he "might not be able to remove Doug's sense of humor", but his friends and colleagues will be more than happy to endure that unchanged. After crossing the Drake, we enter pack ice in Bismark Strait and we have been in 10/10 pack ice since. During the week we carried out a series of CTD's within the Palmer LTER grid (600.040, 600.100, 500.100, 400.100, 300.100, 200.100, 200.040) as we traversed south to our first Sea Ice Process Station. During the crossing of the Drake we made along track chlorophyll, nutrient and XBT observations. On our transect through the pack ice we made hourly snow & ice observations following international (ASPECT) protocols. To date we have carried out over 500km of hourly sea ice observations. We had hoped to reestablish an ice station at the location of buoy #7413 (aka "Station Billy" from the previous SOGLOBEC cruise). Unfortunately, this ice buoy stopped sending reliable GPS signals on 8 September and after a short and unsuccessful search we selected an ice station to the west of the south end of Adeliade Island. Ice Process Station #1 was established the evening of 15 September and a full suite of ice observations have begun. During the first 24hrs on the ice station we have laid out the sampling areas including: an uncontaminated area for snow collection for the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) studies, transect lines for snow/ice thickness studies, areas for coordinated snow pit and core sampling, dive holes oriented so that above ice transects may be coordinated with below water diver transects, a hole for an under ice sediment trap, holes for freeze/refreeze biological experiments and an undisturbed area for snow and ice optics measurements. In addition, the CTD has been rigged so that periodic CTD casts may be made off the stern of the ship (since the ice beneath the ships Baltic room door was in excess of 2 meters thick). We are receiving outstanding and professional support from Captain Joe Borkowski and his crew and from MPC Randy Sliester and his RPSC staff. Individual group reports follow. BP-013 (Chris Denker & Heidi Geisz – for Bill Fraser) During the later stages of the crossing and into the search for the first ice station buoy, the sea bird team have been maintaining observations from the bridge, with specific attention toward Adelie locations. We have officially recorded 3 Snowpetrels, 1 Kelp Gull and 2 Crabeater seals during stationary censuses. We made note of a large group of Adelies numbering in the hundreds, scattered on an island ridge in the south side of the Gerlache Straight. Additionally, two groups of Adelies, a group of 3 and a group of 4, were observed near the 400.100 and 200.040 areas respectively. We are continuing afternoon observations on Ice Process Station #1 with hopes of finding a group of Adelies to diet sample. In addition to directly observing birds, we have been receiving ARGOS satellite data monitoring the locations of 9 Adelies. Once mapped, the data clearly indicates the majority of the birds are feeding on the north end of the Marguerite Bay polynya. One bird has spent the last few days west of Anvers Island, presumable feeding at the ice edge. BP-016 (Maria Vernet, Irene Garibotti, Wendy Kozlowski, Karen Pelletreau, Karie Sines, and Pamela Yeh) The phytoplankton group within the LTER 2001 Ice cruise is testing the hypothesis that both ice and the upper part of the water column are affected by the ice-sea water interface. Sampling sea ice and the water column, we have covered a North-South gradient in light and ice from 64 to 69 degrees South. Parameters estimated include phytoplankton biomass (photosynthetic pigments, particulate carbon and nitrogen, pico- and netplankton microscopy) and photosynthetic activity (Photosynthesis versus Irradiance curves and daily primary production). In addition, we are sampling for inorganic nutrients (nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate and silicic acid). Preliminary results indicate an active community, both in the ice and within the water column. Phytoplankton abundance in the water column is low, below 0.3 milligrams chlorophyll per cubic meter. P vs I curves indicate low-light adapted phytoplankton, with Pmax 0.34 mg C mg chla-1 h-1, alpha or light-limited photosynthesis = 0.11 mg C mg chla-1 h- 1 per microE m-2 s-1. Photosynthesis saturates (Ik) at 32.3 microE m-2 s-1. In contrast, ice algae at the ice-sea water interface are abundant (39.3 mg chla m-3), with higher photosynthetic activity (Pmax = 5.6, alpha = 0.048) and adapted to high light (Ik = 116). The upper part of the water column shows nutrient uptake by algae (lower silicic acid and nitrate in the upper 30 m). BP-021 (Rich Iannuzzi & Raul Guerrero, for Doug Martinson) The physical oceanography team has made 13 XBT drops (5 T-7; 8 T-4) for 7 separate events were made from 1:00 Sept. 10 while crossing the Drake Passage outside of the 200 mile country limit. Due to severe weather, XBT operations were stopped after the 13:00 cast on Sept. 10. Of those 13 there was only one failed probe; a T-7 on the 2nd drop. 14 CTD casts were made from 6:44 Sept. 12 to 00:39 Sept. 17. The first was simply to remove mis-feeding of the winch cable. Of the remaining 13, 7 provide useful casts for data profiles, and 6 were for collecting water for POP's (of which 2 consecutive casts had ~80% bottle trigger failures - a problem which was fixed by swapping triggers). At Ice Process Station 1, failure to complete CTD ice hole digging due to ice thickness and over-rafting resulted in the decision to move the rosette to the back deck and cast from the A-frame port trawl winch. The move was successful and a cast was made on Sept. 16. Salts have been collected, but are yet to be processed. While CTD ice hole digging was ongoing 3 successful XCTD's were dropped at Ice Station 1. Two were dropped consecutively for comparison and the results were impressively similar. BP-028 (Langdon Quetin, Charlie Boch, Amy Kaiser, Tim Newberger, Stephanie Oakes, Holly Rodrigues, Jordan Watson, Jenny White) The primary purpose for the prey component of the Palmer LTER for this cruise is to study the winter ecology and energetics of the AC0 (Age Class 0) stages of Euphausia superba in the Palmer LTER study region west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Age Class 0 stages inhabit the under-ice surface of annual pack ice in winter and can be found feeding mostly on upward facing ice surface in areas of over-rafted floes. Our group did final preparations for the cruise enroute to the Palmer LTER study area and our first station Process Station in pack ice. On September 13 we stopped the ship for a few hours to complete orientation dives from a zodiac sitting on the side of a lead. This gave everyone on the dive team an opportunity to make any last minute equipment changes prior to beginning work. Some krill were collected on these dives. We were able to measure them for length and stage frequency and preserve some for analysis of elemental carbon and nitrogen (chn). We had a few false starts prior to establishing the Process Station we are occupying at present. Prior to this station, two attempts to establish Process Stations were aborted due to sudden cracks forming in the ice. At the present site we have seen no new cracks and krill larvae are abundant. The site is heavily over rafted to depths of 5 m. We have started our first experiment to determine the instantaneous growth rates of larvae (IGR), preserved larvae for later analysis of chn, and filled jars to maintain a stock of larvae on board for feeding experiments. To date we have completed 5 dives. Set up times for the Process Stations is labor intensive, and we are fortunate to have great support from the employees of RPSC and the crew of the Nathaniel B. Palmer. BP-032 (Ray Smith, Enrique Curchister, Rob Massom, Yuko Massom & Sharon Stammerjohn) The sea ice and optics group are working with the biologists to investigate processes associated with the incorporation of biological material into sea ice during it's formation and the subsequent evolution of both sea ice and this incorporated biological material. We will also characterize the snow and sea ice and it's evolution over time. At the ice process station we have: set out a snow/ice bamboo thickness array which will remain for the duration of the station; begun snow/ice thickness transects (in parallel with under ice diver transects) to measure snow-ice interface temperature, snow/wicked/slush thickness, ice thickness and freeboard; obtained ice cores for structure analysis, temperature, salinity and d18O and numerous bio-cores; and dug snow pits for structural analysis, temp, salinity and d18O analysis. Conditions permitting, we will also collect brine samples for analysis. The optical properties of snow and sea ice evolve temporally and vary greatly both spectrally and spatially. These properties are an important element of the physical environment that strongly influences both the distribution of and resources available to Antarctic krill. During the previous SOGLOBEC cruises we (Martinson, Perovich & Smith) deployed an array of instrumented ice beacons and these buoys will be revisited, if possible, during this cruise to continue snow and ice observations at these locations. Optical characteristics of snow & sea ice will also be measured. Our goal is to create improved quantitative models with which to follow the temporal and spatial evolution of this snow and ice and their optical characteristics within the marine ecosystem. BP-045 (Hugh Ducklow, Rebecca Dickhut, Amy Chiuchiolo and Shelby Walker) The VIMS group (is principally concerned with testing the hypothesis that persistent organic pollutants (POPs, e.g., chlorinated pesticides) are transported into the Antarctic Polar region, deposited and accumulated on the sea ice in the Austral winter/spring and then injected into the trophic system following ice melt, during the phytoplankton bloom. We commenced operations at LTER Grid Station 600.100 on 12 Sept. by collecting 160 L of near-surface water for POP extraction. Large-volume water samples are filtered through a GF/F filter and then loaded onto an XAD resin column which retains the POPs. We will return the columns to VIMS for subsequent analysis. Water samples were also collected at stations 500.100, 400.100 and 300.100. Following establishment of the first ice station on 15 September, we collected 360 L of snow for extraction as described above. We will begin ice core sampling and extraction later today. We also carry out bacteriological investigations to compliment those of the Karl group (BP-046) and Ducklow's earlier work in the Ross Sea (1994-97). We collected and processed samples throughout the entire water column (0 - ca. 500 m) for bacterial abundance and production measurements (3H-thymidine and -leucine incorporation). Similar measurements will be carried out on the ice and underlying water at each of the ice stations. We are currently setting up a phytoplankton "bloom-in-a-bottle" experiment in collaboration with Maria Vernet (BP-016) and VIMS student Matt Church, here working in Karl's group. BP-046 (Chris Carrillo, Matt Church, Shaun Johnston & Tamara Pease, for Dave Karl) Measurements of oxygen saturation, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity ectoenzyme activity, bacterial abundance, archaeal abundance and bacterial activity are currently being sampled in the water column and within sea ice. Underway surface seawater pCO2 is also being monitored. Sediment traps have been deployed under the ice and experiments are currently being conducted to determine net community oxygen production and respiration beneath the ice. Additionally, the effects of sea ice formation and ablation on changes in total alkalinity and particle formation are being investigated. Respectively submitted, Ray Smith, Chief Scientist