PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP December 2002 Dr. Hugh Ducklow, Station Science Leader NEWS FROM THE LAB Hugh Ducklow Last month the Palmer bywords were icebergs, turkey and mattresses. The icebergs remained, turkey also - along with roast beef at Christmas, and steaks at New Years, as Palmer Station began moved into the summer season, celebrating the holidays and doing science with equal vigor. We continue to marvel at the myriads of icebergs in our neighborhood. As the weather warms and the sun moves higher in the sky, they are melting, softening and turtling, but several have become familiar landmarks in the Arthur Harbor seascape. The other feature of Palmer life this past month has been whales. Humpbacks and Minkes have been almost daily visitors to the harbor. Each weekend or holiday saw Zodiacs of whale seekers and they were invariably successful. We even adopted a spotter strategy, with hikers on the glacier behind the station informing the boaters where the whales were on the radio. The whales add to the wildlife bonanza that is Palmer Station. The following projects conducted research at Palmer Station this month: BP-013-P: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: SEABIRD COMPONENT Dr. William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. BO-198-O: MONITORING THE EFFECTS OF TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY ON ADELIE PENGUINS AT PALMER STATION, ANTARCTICA Dr. William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. Personnel on station: Chris Denker, Brett Pickering and Cindy Anderson Overall weather and ice conditions for the month of December did not effect the movements of BP-013 allowing us twenty-eight days of sampling. Two days were lost due to high winds (Dec 13-14) and one due to ice (Dec 15). The arrival of the Laurence M. Gould on January 4 brought reinforcements. Dr. Bill Fraser, Donna Patterson, and Jennifer Jerrett will be staying on station, while Heidi Geisz and Brett Pickering departed on the annual LTER summer cruise. Adelie penguin population counts were conducted on Torgersen, Humble, Litchfield, Christine, and Cormorant Islands. Reproductive sites were followed on Torgersen and Humble giving us true hatch dates on the majority of nests. Satellite transmitters were deployed on breeding male and female Adelies. Thirty presence/absence tags have also been deployed. A single trip to Dream Island was conducted on the 22nd for Chinstrap penguin censusing. Southern Giant Petrel work began mid-month. Actively breeding adults are in the process of being censused on all area islands. Satellite transmitters have been deployed, and will be switched every two weeks in order to increase the data set. South Polar and Brown Skua study sites have been visited every five days to determine arrival dates, pair formation, territory establishment, and egg laying. The south polar skuas are arriving in greater numbers, however no eggs have been seen at this time. Brown skuas began hatching in early January. Blue-eyed shags are being monitored every five days on Cormorant Island with hatches being observed mid month. Marine mammal observations are conducted daily within the two-mile boating limit. Humpback whales have been most numerous with sittings being reported almost daily. Three large tour ships visited Palmer Station during the month of December as well as three small sailboats. Tourist visits were monitored on Torgersen Island to obtain data on tourist flow, and to compare aspects of Adelie reproductive biology and ecology with control sites not visited by tourists. Special thanks to the Raytheon staff. The carpenters insured our telemetry hut will not blow away for yet another year, while the comms tech, Jeff Kietzmann, provided quality assistance in the telemetry set-up. BP-016-P: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: PHYTOPLANKTON ECOLOGY COMPONENT Dr. Maria Vernet, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Personnel on station: Wendy Kozlowski, Karie Sines, Lauren Rogers and Michelle Ferrara A combination of excellent weather, calm sea conditions and a little bit of good luck allowed full profile core sampling at stations B and E to be completed nine times over the course of the month of December. Preliminary estimates of primary production show continued low levels, increasing slightly toward the middle of the month. Average December production was about half what we saw in November, which is only slightly lower than average production during the same time period one year ago. Chlorophyll levels closely track these production estimates as well. Four more DOC (phytoplankton production/heterotrophic uptake) experiments and three more microzooplankton grazing experiments were also done during December. The fast repetition rate fluorometer (FRRF) was set up in the aquarium for nearly the entire month as well, and continuous, time series data was collected on the sea water intake flow. The dissolved inorganic nutrient analyzer was set up and tested, pigment sample analysis (HPLC) began, and the last few days of the month were spent preparing for the annual summer cruise. We would like to give a huge thanks to Jeff Kietzman and Jeff Otten for their assistance with the prr and frrf this past month, as well to the Palmer FEMC crew for their rapid response and quality craftsmanship to our various support needs. BP-028-P: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: PREY COMPONENT. Drs. Robin Ross and Langdon Quetin, Principal Investigators, Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara Personnel on station: Dan Martin, Stephanie Oakes, Charlie Boch (Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara), and Emily Lindsey (Brown University). The LTER spring sampling continued to run smoothly through the month of December. The weather remained unusually calm, and waters relatively ice free in terms of boating access, although brash ice conditions sometimes altered our schedule. Icebergs still dominate the seascape, but have only caused small detours in the acoustic transects. Turnover in the field personnel occurred as the 1 December LMG port call brought us Emily Lindsey, and the 20 December shuttle took Stephanie Oakes home for the holidays. Dan Martin turned over to work with BP- 022 on 25 December while Charlie and Emily remained to continue the acoustic transects, growth experiments, and sample processing until they the board the LMG for the January LTER cruise. With persistent trawling efforts we were able to keep on the schedule set for our LTER sampling protocols and growth experiments. Krill juveniles and young adults dominated the catches while the larger and more reproductively mature individuals remained rare or absent through this time period (these observations were also been reflected in the seabird diet samples collected by BP-013). To date, we have completed 10 growth rate experiments and CHN samplings, and acquired our extensive "post- bloom" samplings for chemical composition/physiological condition for both young of the year and young adults. Any time remaining has been spent processing growth, fluorescence, and fecal pellet production samples from the winter cruise, and the growth and additional whole-body fluorescence experiments run this season. Stephanie Oakes continued with her dissertation work to complete a total of 13 surface and 7 water column feeding experiments. In addition, the collaboration with BO-179 regarding the use of molecular techniques to investigate krill feeding ecology was taken to the point of optimizing DNA amplification and subsequent DGGE band extractions for sequencing stateside. As January begins we are taking down experiments, packing for the LTER cruise, and cleaning up the lab as we vacate our space for the season. And, again, we owe a huge thanks to all Palmer Station personnel for their dedication in providing excellent support and helping to make this a productive and successful season. BP-032-P: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: BIO-OPTICS, REMOTE SENSING, SEA ICE COMPONENT Dr. Raymond C. Smith, Principal Investigator, ICESS, University of California at Santa Barbara Personnel on station: Kim McCoy and Graham Tilbury The first weeks of December were used to familiarize the members of BP- 016 with the deployment, retrieval, maintenance and data acquisition of the automated profiling vehicle (APV) to be moored in the Palmer inshore vicinity. The APV was deployed twice in the Arthur Harbor area, 05 December for 65 hours and 07 December for 48 hours, with successful retrieval and viable data. The instrument became inoperable when attempts were made to replace the batteries on 07 December and remained so for the remainder of the month. During this time, work was done with an acoustic release to be used for deeper-water APV deployments (>100m). Larger scaled moorings were fabricated for these increased depths and bathymetry surveys were also conducted. Efforts were made to determine the resistance of the mooring to the weather and ice surrounding Palmer station. The mooring was found to resist much of the small pieces of ice in the area but was pulled from the water when several large bergs entered Arthur Harbor. We hope for more favorable ice conditions for deployment in the coming months. Many hours were spent with boating coordinator, Doug Fink in our efforts to establish feasible mooring deployment and recovery practices. We would very much like to thank him for all his patience and availability. We would also like to thank communications tech Jeff Kietzmann for his assistance in the repair of the APV. BP-045-O: PALMER, ANTARCTICA LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: CLIMATE MIGRATION, ECOSYSTEM RESPONSE AND TELECONNECTIONS IN AN ICE-DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT: MICROBIAL/BIOGEOCHEMISTRY COMPONENT Dr. Hugh Ducklow, Principal Investigator, School of Marine Science, The College of William and Mary Personnel on station: Hugh Ducklow We continued routine sampling (in conjunction with, and assisted by BP- 016) for prokaryote abundance, bacterial production and dissolved organic carbon semiweekly at Stations A, B and E of the LTER inshore grid. Measurements of DOC release from phytoplankton are being performed in cooperation with Maria Vernet's group (BP-016, W. Kozlowski, L. Rogers and M. Ferrara). Large volume (~40-80 liter) particulate organic matter samples are taken once per week from Station A. Our dissolved organic matter concentrator (Separation Engineering, Inc.), is nearly operational, due to the efforts of RPSC staff Barb Watson, Gary Jirschele and Tom Curran. Terrestrial organic matter sampling on Stepping Stones Island was conducted during the Palmer Science Support Group (Cara Sucher, Barb Watson, Doug Fink, Jeff Otten) Christmas survey. The latter part of December was spent staging for the LTER summer cruise (LMG03-01), departing January 05. BO-179-O: GENE EXPRESSION IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: EXTENDING MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND LIFE AT ITS LIMITS. Dr. Alison E. Murray, Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada. Personnel on station: Alison Murray (DRI), Joe Grzymski (Rockefeller University), and Alison Kelley (DRI) The final 20 days of the BO-179-0 field season at Palmer Station were exceedingly productive (albeit exhausting). Open water prevailed with only a few days of weather-restricted conditions. The local region was crowded with large icebergs, at times sitting on top of our sampling stations. Field efforts included collections at LTER stations C and I on three occasions, the seawater intake system on one occasion and execution of 3 mesocosm experiments (lasting 36-60 hours). The phytoplankton bloom that occurred in late November dissipated and a new water mass appeared to move in with very low levels of chlorophyll a (ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 ug/L on different sampling dates in December) and lower numbers of bacterioplankton. Three mesocosm experiments (in 100L tanks) were conducted under various conditions. (1) A thermal tolerance/stress experiment was conducted in both environmental rooms operating at different temperatures. (2) Two phytoplankton blooms at different stages in their growth cycle were used as inoculum for incubations in 4 tanks under 24 hour light at 1.0 C. (3) A third set of experiments was conducted with additions of antibiotic and dissolved inorganic carbon in both light and dark conditions at 1.0 C. The thermal and phytoplankton mesocosms were sampled for basic chemical and biological parameters, then cells were concentrated with a tangential flow filtration system, while the third mesocosm experiment had a more limited subsampling regime. Protein production and community respiration measurements were conducted at the initiation and end point of most mesocosm experiments. Though the methods development of the fiber optic oxygen sensors is still in progress, the data sets appear to be yielding promising measurements. Extracted RNA from all mesocosm experiments will be assayed for differential gene expression back at the molecular microbial ecology laboratory at the DRI. Days between sampling events were spent processing samples, which included nucleic acid extractions, PCR surveys (for functional genes 16S rDNA sequence diversity and semiquantitative archaeal 16S rRNA amplification), salinity measurements, chlorophyll a determinations, bacterial abundance, and maintenance of marine bacterial cultures. Bacterial 16S diversity was also monitored over the course of the mesocosm experiments by analyzing amplified 16S rRNA genes with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Marine bacterial isolates were also screened by DGGE to assess heterogeneity of the culture collection. This proved to be quite useful for identifying common isolates. Collaborations with other LTER groups on station continued through the month. Joe Gryzmski (BO-179-0) worked with the Vernet group (BP- 016-P) to rig the fast repetition rate fluorometer in the aquarium room to obtain real time measurements of phytoplankton physiology from the seawater intake system. A 48 hour collaborative experiment then ensued utilizing the FRRF and subsamples from the system. Additionally, the collaboration with the Ross and Quetin group (BP-028-P) made promising headway in evaluating the potential for using molecular approaches in krill diet analysis. Generous thanks are extended to all of the RPSC support staff at Palmer Station in helping make this a very successful and memorable field season. The assistance of the lab staff, Barb Watson and Cara Sucher, as well as the boating coordinator, Doug Fink, and FEMC crew (especially Gary Jirschele) were keys to our success. AO-106-P GLOBAL THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE RADIATION BELTS AND THE LOWER IONOSPHERE Umran Inan, Principal Investigator, Stanford University. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The Stanford equipment receives and records Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio waves in order to study natural ionospheric and magnetospheric phenomena, as well as to study the distribution of the lightning strikes that are a principle source of natural VLF signals. GO-052-P GPS CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING REFERENCE STATION Jerry Mullins, Principal Investigator, U.S. Geological Survey. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, 15 second epoch GPS transmissions were collected continually at station PALM. Each day, the previous day's data file was examined for completeness, compressed, and transmitted to the USGS in Reston, VA. During the first part of the month, 0.5 second epoch GPS transmissions were also collected continually. This data was passed on to NASA and Centro de Estudios Cientificos (CECS) for use in improving the accuracy of their aerial surveying of the glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula in the Pine Island Bay area. The surveying, which uses a laser altimeter, is part of a study to investigate areas of ice that have begun quite recently to thin, apparently following removal or weakening of ice shelves into which they flowed. The base station transmitting antenna was replaced with a new one. GO-090-P GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK (GSN) SITE AT PALMER STATION Rhett Butler, Principal Investigator, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Station PMSA is one of more than 130 sites in the GSN, monitoring seismic waves produced by events worldwide. Data files are recorded to tape and also sent to the USGS in real time. OO-204-O A STUDY OF ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN VARIABILITY IN RELATION TO ANNUAL TO DECADAL VARIATIONS IN TERRESTRIAL AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS Ralph Keeling, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Air samples are collected on a semiweekly basis by the station physician. The goal of this project is to resolve seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric O2 (detected through changes in O2/N2 ratio), which can aid in determining rates of marine biological productivity and ocean mixing. The results are also used to help determine the terrestrial and oceanic distribution of the global anthropogenic CO2 sink. The program involves air sampling at a network of sites in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Palmer Station is especially well situated for resolving signals of carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean. Samples taken from the station are sent to Scripps where the analysis of O2 and CO2 content takes place. OO-264-O COLLECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR FOR THE NOAA\CMDL WORLDWIDE FLASK SAMPLING NETWORK David Hofmann, Principal Investigator, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Air samples are collected on a weekly basis by the station physician. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory continues its long term measurements of carbon dioxide and other climate relevant atmospheric gases. The Palmer Station air samples are returned to the NOAA laboratory for analysis as part of NOAA's effort to determine and assess the long term buildup of global pollutants in the atmosphere. Data from this experiment will be used in modeling studies to determine how the rate of change of these parameters affects climate. OO-275-O DOE-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM (RAMP) Colin Sanderson, Principal Investigator, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. 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. One sample filter was exposed for the duration of each week, and a weekly schedule of calibration, background, and sample counts was maintained. OO-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATIC WEATHER STATIONS (AWS) Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin. The Science Technician monitors data transmissions for the project. AWS transmissions from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and RACER Rock were monitored using the TeraScan system. The RACER Rock anemometer is broken. The Hugo Island AWS is not currently transmitting. The electronics from the Hugo Island AWS installation were delivered to Palmer Station where they were diagnosed. The problem was determined to be nonrepairable on site so the electronics were returned to the University of Wisconsin for repair. TO-312-O TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM Dan Lubin, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Throughout the month, the TeraScan system collected, archived, and processed DMSP and NOAA satellite telemetry, capturing approximately 25 passes per day. An 85GHz SSM/I "ice concentration" image was produced and transferred to UCSB for BP-032-P (Smith) on a weekly basis. TO-513-O ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRORADIOMETER NETWORK Charles Booth, Principal Investigator, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The BSI UV monitor produces full sky irradiance spectra ranging from the atmospheric UV cutoff near 290nm up to 605nm, four times per hour, while the sun is above the horizon. TIDE GAGE Tony Amos, Point of Contact, The University of Texas Marine Science Institute. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Tide height and sea water temperature and salinity are monitored on a continual basis by a gage mounted at the Palmer Station pier. METEOROLOGY Each day, three synoptic weather observations were performed, coded, and sent to Rothera Station via HF radio. At the end of the month, a summary report was prepared and sent to interested parties. Data from the PALMOS electronic weather system was used to create a wind rose for the past year, indicating how frequently and how strongly the wind blew from each compass direction. A spreadsheet was created with a macro that will remove garbage characters from the data files that the PALMOS electronic weather system has created for the past year. A subset of the PALMOS electronic weather data was prepared for BO- 179-O. Numerous tests were made to locate the source of the problem of garbage characters showing up intermittently on the serial line coming from the PALMOS ZENO data logger. The problem appears to be due to differences between the RS232/RS485 converters on either end of the transmission line. Oddly enough, most of the problem disappeared after increasing the baud rate. Adding a termination resistor to the RS-485 signal line stopped one of the two error messages that show up in the electronic log, but the second error message remains. This second error message may also be due to incompatible converters on either end of the transmission line. Two new versions of the Report Generator software were received from Coastal Environmental Systems. These versions do not corrupt the operating system, but they completely hang during their initial configuration and so cannot be used. Manual synoptic observations will have to be continued until Coastal fixes this software.