PALMER STATION SCIENCE SITREP OCTOBER 2001 Alison Murray, Station Science Leader NEWS FROM THE LAB Cara M. Sucher, Sr. Assistant Supervisor, Laboratory Operations With October came the beginning of the summer science season at Palmer Station. BO-179-O (Murray), having arrived at the end of September, was in full swing and field team members from BP-016-O (Vernet), BP-028-O (Ross/Quetin) and BP-032-O (Smith) arrived mid-way through the month on the LAURENCE M. GOULD. Also arriving on the same ship were the Palmer Area Manager, the Assistant Logistics Supervisor and the Sr. Assistant Lab Supervisor. The Winter Assistant Lab Supervisor finished his contract with RPSC and began work as a field team member for BP- 013-O (Fraser). October's high winds, stormy weather and snow kept everyone busy shoveling out the Station. Winds peaked at upwards of 75 knots, though the average remained a fairly tame, northerly 17 knots. 149cm of snow was measured adding to the already significant snowdrifts around Station, and building snow caves became a popular project. Temperatures remained cool, ranging from –17.5C to 5.0 C and averaging –2.3C. Arthur Harbor and beyond are still frozen preventing any boating activities, though everyone on Station has now taken the Boating 1 course in anticipation of the open water soon to come. The weather and ice presented a number of interesting situations and scientific opportunities this month. The R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER, originally scheduled to drop off grantees and science equipment from the LTER Ice Cruise on the 14 th, became trapped in the ice in Marguerite Bay. Once free, their attempt to reach Palmer was thwarted by more ice approximately 25 miles from Station. Personnel and science cargo went back to Punta Arenas and transferred to the LMG, scheduled to arrive at Palmer on the 31st. Thick, sticky ice kept the LMG from reaching Station as scheduled, and they were forced to delay their arrival further. Although the ice presented problems for the ships, science at Palmer was able to take advantage of the situation. Shortly after the arrival of the LMG on the 13th, the sea-ice solidified enough to allow sampling and travel. Flag routes were established to Station A, Station B and to Torgersen Island. Additional routes were set up to Humble and Litchfield Islands to allow BO-013-O to conduct animal surveys and snow transects. Most groups were short-staffed, but the science teams assisted each other with ice drilling and field sampling and RPSC personnel helped out whenever needed. Even with personnel and equipment shortages, October turned out to be a very successful science month. Wildlife around Station has continued to increase throughout October. Weddell and crabeater seals have become a fairly common sight on the ice near Station, and skuas, sheathbills, kelp gulls and cormorants are often seen flying by. Towards the end of the month, the number of Adelie penguins on Torgersen Island had swelled to the thousands and a few elephant seals were spotted at Elephant Rocks. The following projects conducted research at Palmer Station this month: BP-013-O: LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT (SEABIRD COMPONENT) Dr. William R. Fraser, Principal Investigator, Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, MT. Personnel On Station: Brett C. Pickering Early season bird work has been atypical to say the least. Chris Denker and Heidi Geisz, who were to have started the early season monitoring work on the 15th of October, were not able to arrive on station during the month. Their arrival was delayed three times during October. The first delay was due to the NBP being beset in the ice near Marguerite Bay. After the NBP broke free of the ice it attempted to reach Palmer Station on the 22nd, but the ship found itself in thick ice again only 30 miles from Station. The field team was then subjected to a northbound crossing of the Drake on the NBP, a day in Punta Arenas, Chile and a southbound crossing of the Drake on the LMG. On the last day of the month the LMG sailed within 5 miles of station only to be stopped by the ice one more time. Due to the heavy ice in the area, no boating has been possible and all travel to nearby islands has been over ice. Members of the five science groups along with the Jeff Bechtel and Doug Fink have established ice routes to Torgersen, Litchfield, Humble, and Station B off the tip of Bonaparte Point. Early season penguin indicator colony counts on Torgersen and Humble Islands began on the 21st of the month. Snow transects and indicator counts for Litchfield were conducted on the 27th. To be able to access the islands and perform some of the work assistance was required from Palmer Station community members. Thanks go to the following individuals who assisted in the field: Jeff Bechtel, Orion Carlisle, Brandon Carter, Doug Fink, Laura Hamilton, Alison Kelly, Rick Lichtenhan, Hugh MacMullan, Dan Martin, George Ryan, Mike Thimgan, Kristin Van Konynenburg, and Brenda Walker. BP-016-O LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA, AN ICE DOMINATED ECOSYSTEM - PHYTOPLANKTON ECOLOGY COMPONENT Maria Vernet, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Personnel on station: Michael Thimgan Personnel arrived on station on October 13 for the opening of the 2001- 2002 season. Unfortunately, the unusually high ice year around the peninsula has caused two main problems for standard sampling. First, the majority of the BP-016-0 equipment and expected personnel were on board the NATHANIEL B. PALMER with an unknown arrival date to Palmer. Secondly, no boating has occurred due to seawater ice around Anvers Island. Despite these unusual circumstances, water sampling in the month of October was a success. With the help of the other scientists and the science support staff, equipment and manpower were obtained to accommodate BP-016-0 for sampling. Our modified sampling began off Bonaparte Point and at the Seawater Pump for Palmer Station on October 19th with the help Brett Pickering. Surface water was collected for both high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and chlorophyll analysis. With the thickening of the ice, a flagged ice route off Bonaparte Point allowed personnel to get within 0.1 miles of Station B (one of the biweekly sample locations). Water column sampling for three depths occurred on the 24th and 29th for HPLC and chlorophyll at Station B with the help of Kirk Ireson, Dan Martin, and BO-179 while the Seawater Pump continued to add to the data set. In addition to water column sampling, ice core samples were taken on the 24th and 29th to complement water column sampling. From the ice cores, samples for nutrients, salinity, chlorophyll, HPLC and particulate carbon and nitrogen were obtained. Along with water column sampling and ice core sampling, CTD data was acquired on all sampling days after the 19th. On non- sample days, time was spent with Kirk Ireson (BP-028) learning the protocol for Ocean Sensor's Autonomous Profiling Vehicle (APV) mooring and testing of the APV. Due to the delayed arrival of the NATHANIEL B. PALMER, preliminary results from October sampling are not known at this time although samples are ready for analysis. With the much anticipated arrival of personnel, necessary equipment, and an open ocean, sampling will expand to include Station E with additional experiments run and additional sampling. BP-028-O LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE ANTARCTIC PENINSULA, AN ICE DOMINATED ECOSYSTEM: PREY COMPONENT. Robin Ross and Langdon Quetin, Principal Investigators, Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara Personnel on station: Dan Martin (Marine Science Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara) Activity from 13 October to 31 October, 2001 Our field team (Dan Martin) arrived at Palmer Station on 13 October (LMG01-08a) after helping POC John Evans with season-opening logistics at Copa. Upon arrival it was clear that no boating would be possible owing to heavy ice in the area. Cancellation of the R/V NATHANIEL B. PALMER's LTER equipment and personnel drop also meant that much of our sampling gear would not arrive for some time. However, within 3 days of arrival the surrounding pack and fast ice had consolidated and thickened enough so as to allow safe and efficient sea ice travel. With reciprocal help from the various science groups (BO-179, BP-013, BP-016, BP-032) and excellent support from Raytheon staff, sampling sites were established and maintained on the sea ice near station A in Arthur Harbor, and station B off Bonaparte Point. On 17 October, sampling through the ice hole at A produced enough larval krill to start the season's first growth experiment. Over the next 2 weeks we collected enough late-stage larvae and juveniles between these sites to complete 3 growth experiments, 3 condition factor and CHN samplings, and 2 full chemical composition samplings. These represent the most comprehensive early-season larval samples collected to date. We anxiously await the retreat of the sea ice and the now-delayed R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD. The LMG has aboard the remainder of the LTER season-opening field team personnel, equipment and supplies. BP-032-O LONG TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (LTER) ON THE ANTARCTIC MARINE ECOSYSTEM: AN ICE- DOMINATED ENVIRONMENT Raymond C. Smith, Principal Investigator, ICESS, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA Personnel on station: Kirk Ireson Our team arrived on Oct 13th with two main goals: preliminary testing of an Ocean Sensor's Autonomous Profiling Vehicle (APV) mooring, and the training of BP-016 of all BP-032 duties. We first tested the operation and buoyancy of the APV in an aquarium. After the test however, the drive rod for the cable drum sheared. It was decided that we needed to machine a replacement rather than trust a repaired part. Thanks to a lathe on station, a brass piece was milled, and after two field tests, it has shown to work well. Since the area is iced-in, the only deployments so far have been through an ice hole near the pier in 12 m of water. Each test consisted of three profiles with an attached transmissometer and a line secured to the APV to help it back to the hole at the end of each mission. Data and performance look good with the exception that some of the calibration coefficients seem to be off. Thus, after the ice breaks up, deployments this season at Station B should work well. We will program it for hourly profiles and check on it weekly throughout the season. Worksheets, SOPs, and equipment has been covered with Mike Thimgan (BP-016), given that the APV is the only piece of our equipment currently on station. Kirk has assisted Mike with water and ice sampling twice a week at the iced-in Station B (see BP-016 section). BO-179-0 GENE EXPRESSION IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS: EXTENDING MICROARRAY TECHNOLOGY TO UNDERSTAND LIFE AT ITS LIMITS. Alison E. Murray, Principal Investigator, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada. Personnel on station: Alison Murray, Brandon Carter , Alison Kelley (Desert Research Institute). The BO-179-0 field team commenced a rigorous sampling regime throughout the month of October. Our activities fell under the following five areas: (1) collection, concentration and enumeration of bacterioplankton from seawater to obtain large amounts of cell biomass for gene expression work to be completed back at the DRI; (2) collection of ice cores at various spatial scales on the sea ice; (3) establishment of a culture collection of marine bacteria from the seawater and sea ice; (4) nucleic acid extractions followed by PCR screening for Bacteria, Archaea, and the presence and expression of several biogeochemically relevant functional genes (RUBisCO, NifH, AmoA, NirK, NirS, RecA); (5) Experimental incubation experiments under varying light and temperature regimes with concentrated cells, and diurnal sample collections. The inclement late-winter weather in the beginning of the month delivered consistently high winds and snow. Sample collections out of the seawater intake system at the pumphouse commenced Oct 1. With the help of the GSAR leader Brett Pickering and Lab Manager Rob Edwards two sea ice stations were established for sampling. One station near the LTER Station "A" was established on Oct. 3, and the other only 60 m off shore on Oct. 6. Sea ice thickness ranged between 8 and 36 inches throughout the area surveyed. Along with the arrival of the R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD on 13 October, came 400 L of seawater collected early that day (200 L from 5m and 200 L from 300m) from convergence of the Neumeyer and Bismark Straits. We are grateful to the LMG crew and RPSC Science Support Staff for arranging to have these samples collected during this time when obtaining deep water was not possible. Following arrival of the LTER groups on station we established a third sea ice station near LTER Station B off Bonaparte Point. Appreciation is extended to the LTER groups on station (BP-013, BP-016, BP-028, and BP-032) and volunteers George Ryan and Brittney Baldwin for helping with the man-hauling effort required to bring our 200 + liter seawater samples and gear back to station! In the end, we concentrated cells from over 3000 liters of seawater in October. Taking advantage of the current sea ice conditions in Arthur Harbor and the surrounding region we collected sea ice cores on three dates at spatial scales ranging from 3m, 50m, and 100m between Palmer Station and Loudwater Cove. Twenty ice cores were fractionated into 2-3 sections, melted, and subsampled for bacterial enumeration, in situ hybridizations, chlorophyll determinations, nutrient analysis, salinity, RNA and DNA. Approximately 70 bacterial cultures were established using a combination of different media and temperature conditions. These cultures will be screened for diversity upon return to the DRI and used for controls in DNA microarray hybridization experiments to be performed in the next year. Nucleic acid extractions proved to be successful, and initial PCR experiments indicated the presence of Archaea in most samples. RT-PCR experiments were initiated, and will be continued back at DRI. Experimental incubations and diurnal collections were enumerated and subsampled for DNA and RNA, and will be analyzed for differential gene expression at the DRI. We gratefully thank the Station and Vessel personnel for their support through the month. The Palmer Station lab staff, Brett Pickering, Cara Sucher, Rob Edwards, and Barbara Watson were all a great asset to our program. All problems were met with speedy solutions and great attitudes. This has been a very productive month indeed. SYNOPTIC WEATHER OBSERVATIONS Daily weather observations were collected and sent to Rothera Station via HF radio. GO-052-P GPS CONTINUOUS OPERATION REFERENCE STATION. J. Mullins, Principal Investigator, U.S. Geological Survey. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The system has been operating smoothly. There were problems with FTP due to the client's FTP server becoming full. The client cleared space on their server and FTP resumed normal flow on 02 October. GO-091-P GLOBAL SEISMOGRAPH STATION AT PALMER STATION. R. Butler, Principal Investigator, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. On 15 October the MT1 tape drive went off line with the status of "TAPE DEAD". The tape was removed and the system reset. The system is now functioning normally. Data tapes were packed for shipment to the US. AO-106-P STUDIES OF LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION OF THE IONOSPHERE. U. Inan, Principal Investigator, Stanford University. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The system has been operating smoothly. Tapes and CDs have been packed for shipment to the US. The VLF cable has been removed from under ice and snow throughout the month. OO-275-O DOE-EML REMOTE ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM. C. Sanderson, Principal Investigator, Department of Energy, Environmental Measurements Laboratory. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Weekly filter changes and monthly filter blank were performed. The computer crashed on 1 October. After a reboot the acquisition program could not communicate with the GPS via the parallel port. The cables were checked. Due to high winds the connection to the GPS unit could not be checked. On 2 October the serial/parallel converter was replaced. The system started up normally. The old converter was put back in and the system again started up normally. The cause of the problem is unknown. The system resumed normal operation. OO-283-P ANTARCTIC AUTOMATED WEATHER STATIONS. Charles Stearns, Principal Investigator, University of Wisconsin. The Science Technician monitors data transmissions for the project. Automated Weather Station (AWS) transmissions from Bonaparte Point, Hugo Island, and RACER Rock were monitored using the TeraScan system. The Bonaparte Point unit continued to send an invalid wind speed, presumably due to a CPU failure. RACER Rock transmits telemetry during midday. The RACER Rock unit was checked out by RPSC staff from the LAURENCE M. GOULD. They discovered some damaged solar cells. Repairs will be made when new solar cells arrive. The current solar cells produce enough power to run the unit during daylight hours, but they cannot charge the batteries for nighttime operation. The Hugo Island unit still remains off line. Repair of the AWSs is contingent on the arrival of new parts and on vessel scheduling. R-035 TIDE GAUGE. Tony Amos, Point of Contact, The University of Texas Marine Science Institute. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. The tide gauge unit was reset into place and is running normally. The NIST time-keeping program crashed a couple of times. It was restarted and appears to be working normally. TO-312-O TERASCAN SATELLITE IMAGING SYSTEM R. Whritner, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. Successfully decrypted the first SeaWiFs Pass of the season. Two new milvans were placed in the vicinity of the TeraScan antenna, the tops of which come to a point halfway up the antenna dome. Lines in some of the image passes over the area indicated a possible interference. A quick tally was made of images two weeks prior to the milvan placement and two weeks after to compare the number of images with noise (not including the beginning/end portions of each pass). More noise was observed in the weeks following placement of the milvans, though there are other variables that may be responsible for the observed interference. The closest milvan will be moved away from the antenna to see if the amount of noise/interference is reduced. TO-513-O UV MONITORING NETWORK. C. Booth, Principal Investigator, Biospherical Instruments, Inc. The Science Technician operates and maintains on-site equipment for the project. System is running smoothly. An Absolute Calibration Scan was run on 25 October 2001. OO-204-O MEASUREMENTS OF ATMOSPHERIC O2 IN RELATION TO THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE. Ralph Keeling, Principal Investigator, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Air samples are collected on a semi-weekly 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 return-shipped to Scripps where the analysis of O2 and CO2 content takes place. OO-254-O CHLORINE-AND BROMINE-CONTAINING TRACE GASES IN ANTARCTICA. R.A. Rasmussen, Principal Investigator, Oregon Graduate Institute for Science and Technology. Funding for this project has been discontinued and samples are no longer being collected at Palmer Station. OO-264-O COLLECTION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR FOR THE NOAA\CMDL WORLDWIDE FLASK SAMPLING NETWORK. David Hofmann, Principal Investigator, Environmental Research Laboratories, 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 team 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.