PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP MAY 1999 Bruce D. Sidell, SSL NEWS FROM THE LAB. Diane Wetterlin, Winter Asst. Supervisor, Laboratory Operations Science and station personnel are still in a state of flux. Station population at this time is down to 25 with the May 28th departure of 13 people on the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD. Among those who departed were Bruce Sidell (BO-036) with two team members and Bill Detrich (BO-037) with one team member. Both groups still have personnel on station until the end of June. The scheduled asbestos abatement work was completed with minimal disturbance to the community. Areas completed this month were: the comm's room, darkroom, stair landing outside of the galley and both top landings of the GWR stairways, the weight section of the gym, and the section in GWR from the first floor bathroom through the doorway and down what used to be the first floor hallway. The majority of the Comm's remodel project is done and went very smoothly. All of the servers, computers, and weather station equipment have been put in their new locations and are fully operational. The completion of the shelves is waiting for the arrival of the carpeting on the next ship before all books and software can be returned to their proper place. The first floor GWR remodeling project is coming along nicely too, although this is a much bigger project scheduled to last most the winter season. FMC (facility, maintenance and construction) has the plumbing, electrical, and ductwork roughed in. They have started framing the walls and are working on sheet rocking, insulating and finishing (taping, mudding, and painting) as the framing goes up. The addition of the Field Gear room to the deck side of the Dive locker begun this month. FMC will be coordinating this project with the GWR remodel. The walls are framed. One window from the boathouse and one from the dive locker has been removed. The R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD had a busy schedule this month at Palmer station. Palmer Logistics did a quick off-load of necessary cargo at the beginning of the month so the ship could depart as soon as possible on its first of three fishing trips. The lab received and set up the Beckman L5-50 ultracentrifuge that was requested from Punta Arenas warehouse to replace the non-functioning Beckman XL-80. After several fishing trips the ship went to Hugo Island on May 10th so the Science Technician could service an AWS (automated weather station) that had ceased transmitting data. Due to the complexity of the problem the Science Technician was unable to repair the AWS onsite, therefore it was dismantled and brought back to Palmer Station where it was eventually sent back to the states for repair. As stated before the ship headed north on May 28th with a stop at King George Island, COPA camp to drop off four antenna riggers tasked to put up a new antenna there. The RV/IB NATHANIEL B. PALMER will pick them up on June 1st. During most of the fishing trips and the Hugo Island trip the artist, David Rosenthal (W-005), took advantage of the opportunity to get out and see more of Antarctica. From over 500 sketches he has painted one hundred twenty watercolor studies. He is currently working on twenty oil paintings from these studies. There were two noticeable absences from Palmer Station this month. One, was the Wilson Storm Petrels who have apparently left us for the winter. The other was the lack of leopard seal sightings especially after such a spectacular month last month. Nothing exciting to report in the weather section: The average temperature was -0.6 C with a high of 6.9 C and low of -7.1 C. The average wind was 12 knots with a peak of 63 knots on 24th. Melted precipitation measured 44.0 mm. We had 29 days with precipitation with 25 of those being snow. The maximum snow cover on the ground for the month was 21 cm occurring on the 27th. Here is the most typical part of weather at Palmer station, cloud cover; it was overcast 28 days out of the month with one clear day. The following programs were involved in research at Palmer station: BO-036-0 EVOLUTION OF AN OXYGEN-BINDING PROTEIN IN AN UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT: Myoglobin in the hemoglobinless Antarctic icefishes. Bruce D. Sidell, Principal Investigator, University of Maine Personnel on Station: T. Grove, C. Marshall, T. Moerland, T. Moylan, B.D. Sidell The ARSV L.M. Gould arrived at Palmer Station early this month carrying field team members Marshall, Moerland and Moylan, bringing us up to full compliment of science personnel for this season. In the ensuing period, we have conducted experiments aimed at understanding the physiological and evolutionary implications of variable expression of myoglobin among species of the Antarctic icefish family and have initiated new lines of experimentation to expand upon findings from previous field seasons. Among the efforts this field season is working out initial protocols for transient expression assays aimed at assaying expression of injected nucleic acid constructs in oxidative muscle tissues of icefish that do not express myoglobin. We hope to use this approach in future seasons to test hypotheses of the specific mechanism(s) that may be responsible for lack of myoglobin production in some species. Tissues also have been harvested from icefish species that express or do not express the intracellular oxygen-binding protein, myoglobin. Some of these tissues have been frozen for subsequent biochemical and molecular biological analyses at our home institution. Others have been used as starting material for developing initial protocols for purification of enzymes involved in aerobic energy metabolism (citrate synthase, fatty acyl CoA synthetase) and anaerobic energy metabolism (creatine kinase) of muscular tissues. The past month also included three successful trips aboard the L.M. Gould, two for capture of fishes that were returned to Palmer Station aquarium facilities and, one to explore locations south of Palmer Station in hope of finding suitable bottom for future trawling activities. Both of the former trips yielded catches that have met needs of our program very well. The latter provided a valuable opportunity to survey bottom and, in some cases, conduct experimental trawls in 9 different locations. Although we were unable to locate areas with suitable bottom characteristics that also yielded good catches of fish, the information gained was very valuable. As this section of our 1999 field season comes to a close and several of us prepare to leave Palmer Station (Marshall, Moerland, Sidell), we would like to take this opportunity to thank all ASA Personnel at Palmer for their essential contributions to a very successful season. We also offer our thanks in advance for the help they undoubtedly will show to those of our party remaining for LMG 99-5 through June (Grove, Moylan). S-037 Structure, Function, and Expression of Cold-Adapted Tubulins and Microtubule-Dependent Motors from Antarctic Fishes. H. William Detrich, P.I., Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Personnel on Station: H. William Detrich, Christian Busold, and Steven Hann During May, we completed a major portion of our 1999 experimental program on the microtubule cytoskeleton, the hematopoietic system, and the light-dependent DNA repair system of Antarctic fishes. First, we continued to isolate microtubule proteins to support our CONUS studies of microtubule dynamics and kinesin motor activities. Five microtubule preparations using G. gibberifrons brain tissue were performed. With the return of the retired Beckman L5-50E ultracentrifuge (Old Paint) to Palmer to replace the Beckman Suboptima XL-80K, we were able to resume the purification of brain kinesin from G. gibberifrons; six preparations were performed. The L5-50E was also used to prepare seven testis extracts from N. coriiceps and G. gibberifrons for subsequent purification of the cytoplasmic chaperonin CCT at our CONUS laboratory. Second, we conducted experiments to measure the kinetics of expression of the photolyase gene in the icefishes C. aceratus and C. rastrospinosus following exposure of these organisms to various doses of ultraviolet light. Finally, we have sampled numerous tissues, both from icefishes and from red-blooded notothenioids, to support work at our home institution. In conjunction with project S-036 (Sidell), we conducted three fishing trips on the ARSV LM Gould, two to our established fishing grounds at Low Island and one five-day exploratory trip to the south. Trawling operations at Low Island were very successful; see the S-036 report for details on the specimens captured. During the southward exploratory trip, eight potential grounds were surveyed by sonar and sampled by bottom trawl. Unfortunately, no grounds suitable for future fishing efforts were discovered. On 28 May project members Detrich and Busold departed Palmer Station for CONUS on board the ARSV Gould. S. Hann remains at Palmer to continue his work on photolyase, and D. Yergeau will arrive at Palmer at the start of cruise LMG99-5 to continue our work on hematopoiesis in red-and white-blooded notothenioids. We thank the ship and station personnel for their excellent help in the performance of our field and laboratory work. GO-052-P GPS CONTINUOUS OPERATION REFERENCE STATION. J. Mullins, U.S. Geological Survey The station science technician has monitored the system. During the month, GPS data was collected continuously, converted daily to a RINEX format, compressed, and transmitted to the US Geological Survey in Reston, VA. A second survey marker was installed on Humble Island, and a static survey of the marker was performed. A new base station software program, GBSS, was installed on a spare computer and run in parallel for a few days with the current program, GPS-Base. GBSS is expected to replace GPS-Base in the near future. GO-091-O GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH STATION AT PALMER STATION. R. Butler, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) The station science technician has operated the system. Global seismic events were recorded throughout the month. All operations during the month were normal. AO-106-O STUDIES OF LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION OF THE IONOSPHERE. U. Inan, Stanford University The station science technician has operated the system. The Stanford receiver records very low frequency (VLF) radio waves for studying ionospheric and magnetospheric natural phenomena. A small capacitor-resistor filter was installed in parallel with the incoming 100 KHz signal of the narrowband HAIL system. This reduced the number of system restarts by approximately 90%. Further examination led to the identification of a bad thermostat in a wall heater as a source of interference, and after this thermostat was replaced the restarts virtually disappeared. Precision GPS readings were again taken of the lower vertices of the antenna loops. It is hoped that the loops will not move (much) more before next austral spring's thaw. OO-204-O MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC O2 IN RELATION TO THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE. Ralph Keeling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Air samples are collected on a semi-weekly basis by the station physician. The samples are return shipped to Scripps for analysis of O2 and CO2 content. The goal of the program is to resolve seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric O2 (detected through changes in O2/N2 ratio) which can aid in the determination of rates of marine biological productivity and ocean mixing and aid in the separation of the global sink for anthropogenic CO2 into terrestrial and oceanic components. The program involves air sampling at a network of sites in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Palmer Station is especially well situated to resolve signals due to carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. OO-254-O CHLORINE-AND BROMINE-CONTAINING TRACE GASES IN ANTARCTICA. R.A. Rasmussen, Oregon Graduate Institute for Science and Technology Air samples are taken on a weekly basis by the station physician. The samples are returned to the Institute for analysis of a number of trace components, especially chlorine-and bromine-containing gases. These elements have been implicated in the chemical processes that contribute to the austral-spring depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the buildup of trace constituents, particularly those of high-latitude marine origin. OO-264-O COLLECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR FOR THE NOAA\CMDL WORLDWIDE FLASK SAMPLING NETWORK. James T. Peterson, Environmental Research Laboratories, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Air samples are taken on a weekly basis by the station physician. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory team continue long-term measurements of trace atmospheric constituents that influence climate. The Palmer Station air samples are returned to the NOAA laboratory for analysis of trace constituents, including carbon dioxide. These measurements are part of NOAA's effort to determine and assess the long-term buildup of global pollutants in the atmosphere. This data will be used to determine how the rate of change of these parameters affects climate, particularly by including them in climate model studies. OO-275-O UM/DOE-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM. C. Sanderson, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory The station science technician has operated the system. One sample filter was exposed for the duration of each week, and a weekly schedule of calibration, background, and sample counts was maintained. The RAMP system is part of a global network seeking to characterize the quantity and distribution of radionuclide particles occurring both naturally and artificially in the atmosphere. OO-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATED WEATHER STATIONS. Charles Stearns, University of Wisconsin The station science technician has monitored the local sites. Automated Weather Station (AWS) transmissions were monitored from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and RACER Rock using the TeraScan system. The Hugo Island AWS electronics box and sensor boom were brought back to Palmer for troubleshooting. It was determined that the equipment could not be repaired on site, so it was returned to Wisconsin, and a new unit will be supplied by Wisconsin. The Racer Rock AWS site reported a steady wind direction and zero wind speed for a few days, but it then resumed reporting more physically believable data. TO-312-O TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM. R. Whritner, Scripps Institute of Oceanography The station science technician has operated the system. Throughout the month, the TeraScan system collected, archived, and processed DMSP and NOAA satellite pass telemetry, maintaining a schedule of 17-20 passes per day. NOAA and DMSP telemetry were archived for BP-032-O when the LTER grid was clear of clouds. Ice images were provided to the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD to enable it to avoid ice debris coming off of the B-10A iceberg. Ice images of the Larsen ice shelf were supplied to the Antarctic Research Center of Scripps Institute of Oceanography. TO-513-O UV MONITORING NETWORK. C. Booth, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The station science technician has operated the system. Throughout the month, raw irradiance data scans were collected daily and transmitted to BSI, and preliminary irradiances and spectral integrals were produced in support of Science. The annual BSI site visit took place this month. Following a series of "season closing" calibrations, the system was removed from the roofbox. Components that are subject to wear were examined and replaced as needed, and all optical surfaces were examined and cleaned as needed. The PMT cooler housing was modified to support a new power supply that allows for tighter temperature regulation. Following system reassembly and reinstallation, a series of "season opening" calibrations was performed. After the instrument was returned to the roofbox, the auxiliary data system began to produce sporadic header errors. The spare digitizer was installed, but the errors persisted, perhaps at an even higher rate, so the original digitizer was reinstalled. Efforts continue to locate the source of the errors which, though annoying, do not impact primary data collection. Artist Report: Traveled on the LMG for three fishing trips, resulting in over five hundred sketches. Have completed about one hundred twenty watercolor studies and working on twenty oil sketches. Currently working in the studio while the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD is away. Finding a lot of views in the local area. A productive time for the artist.