LM GOULD Cruise 05-01 Palmer LTER January Cruise 2005 Situation Report 3 13-20 January 2005 In the second week of our cruise we successfully completed a high-density sampling grid off Anvers island, recovered the sediment trap mooring and completed the 400 and 300 sampling lines along the PAL LTER sampling grid. A the week's end we deployed the seabird ecology team (Brett Pickering and Peter Horne to Avian Island where they they'll occupy a field camp and conduct bird census, satellite tagging and diet studies over the next 5 days. We have been very fortunate to experience, enjoy and profit by clear, sunny and calm days. Most significantly, the clear skies allowed numerous good ice and ocean color images that helped guide navigation and sampling immeasurably. Thanks to Capt Flanagan and Mates Kevin Leboeuf, Robert Potter and Rod Fuentes for leading us into, through and back out of this yea's extensive summer sea ice along the Peninsula. Detailed reports follow. Hugh Ducklow B-045 and Chief Sci. B-013-L PAL LTER Seabird Ecology Principal Investigator: Bill Fraser Field Team: Peter Horne and Brett Pickering NOTE: The seabird ecology team deployed to the Avian Island field camp on 21 January and wasn't able to file a report. Stay tuned. B-016-L PAL LTER Phytoplankton Ecology Principal Investigator: Maria Vernet Field Team: Karie Sines, Eli Loomis, Austen Thomas, Jessica Spence The goal of our project is to characterize the ecology of phytoplankton including daily primary production rates and photosynthetic pigments in relation to environmental parameters. During the second week on the cruise we sampled 8 stations in a third transect, the 400 line off Serrano Island, performed 2 microzooplankton grazing experiments and obtained successful Profiling Reflectance Radiometer casts. Ice was present in the coastal stations. We performed experiments on diel variability in primary production in two stations, one in open waters southwest of Anvers Island and another one ice-covered near the Argentine Islands. Ice sampling yielded 2-m ice cores. Ice was covered by 20 cm of snow. Extensive algal growth was observed on the underside of the ice. We thank personnel on the ARV LMG Gould, Palmer Station and Punta Arenas for logistical support of this project. B-028-L PAL LTER Zooplankton and Micronekton Principal Investigators: Robin Ross (on LMG) and Langdon Quetin (at Palmer Station) Field Team: Lyndon Valicenti, Gregory Quetin, Kelly Moore, Stephen Holloway, Katie Davis, Diane Chakos Two different operations occurred during the past week in addition to standard sampling. On 13 Jan the weather cooperated with calm seas and we conducted our High Density (HD) sampling grid within the foraging area of Adelie penguins nesting near Palmer Station. The HD grid consists of simultaneous seabird and acoustic observations, with CTDs (done by the LMG and by one of the Palmer Station zodiacs) done throughout the 10 km by 20 km grid. Net tow samples taken by both the LMG and by Rubber Duke I (one of the Palmer Station zodiacs) were conducted in order to compare possible prey items in the water column to diet samples taken from the penguins. On 14 Jan two of our team members (Langdon Quetin and Josh Sprague who was at Palmer Station) dove under the ice at our ice station in the Grandidier Channel. They sampled the ice krill feeding under the ice, but did not find any Antarctic krill at that location. During the past week we also completed the series of simultaneous acoustic transects and net tows at standard stations along two more Palmer LTER transect lines, the 400.* and 300.* lines, which are several hundred kilometers south of Palmer Station. The patterns found on the northern lines remained true. We found salps and Antarctic krill at the same stations on the outer and middle shelf, and the female krill were not yet ready to spawn. Three in situ growth experiments were conducted on the 400.* line, and three are still in progress from the 300.* line. With a hearty thank you to the RPSC and ECO folks who help make our research possible! B-045-L PAL LTER Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry Principal Investigator: Hugh Ducklow Field Team: Nicole Middaugh, Elizabeth Waterson, Kristin France, Robert Daniels, William Ducklow We continued to sample grid lines and measure dissolved inorganic and organic carbon oxygen and bacterial processes. Bacterial protein and DNA synthesis rates appeared very uniform throughout the middle part of the grid and slightly faster than along the 600 line, with little onshore to offshore variability. The highlight of the week was the successful and smooth recovery and turnaround of the sediment trap mooring. It surfaced within 300 meters of the LMG about 2 minutes after ET Fred Stuart activated the releases. The mooring was sighted by Kelly Moore who earned a bounty for doing so. All sample cups operated as programmed and the MicroCat CTD on the mooring worked perfectly. This sensor package measures conductivity and temperature at the depth of the trap continuously over the year's deployment, giving us a valuable record of midwater variability at the mooring site. Thanks to MPC Andy Nunn, MTs Pete Dalferro and Jamee Johnson, MST Jeff Morin and ETs Fred Stuart and Mike Carpenter for conducting a flawless recovery and turnaround. This included last minute construction of battery packs for the releases. B-114 PAL LTER Microbial Ecology and Molecular Microbial Ecology Principal Investigator: James T. Hollibaugh Field Team: Matthew Erickson and Gary LeCleir Over the past week the project has been able to sample from numerous locations within the LTER grid. Preliminary results have shown that increased rates of ammonium production were present in samples collected from an ice station ,slush ice found between flows, vs samples collected from the water column. The project would like to thank B-016, Dr. Maria Vernet's group for allowing the use of ice they had collected. Increased sampling for DNA was done to look at the spatial variability of ammonium oxidizing bacteria within the LTER grid. The project again would like to thank the crew of the LMG and the staff of Raytheon for their continued and tireless support. ---------------------------------------------------------- Hugh Ducklow Aboard the research vessel LM GOULD Palmer LTER Cruise Jan05