BERING SEA

So this is the post that is actually the most important. I think all of you know, but I am heading out to the Bering Sea for 42 days!!!!! My journey starts Tuesday, March 31st. First to Philly, then to Salt Lake, then up to Anchorage for one night. Hopefully...our flight from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor will be on time.

Few of you may have seen about the Volcano(Mt. Redoubt) erupted last week. It's clearing up now, but it's made it a bit more difficult for flights in and out of Anchorage as Redoubt is not far away from the city.

We've shipped all of our gear out already and a lot of it has been sitting there since last June/July. So, hopefully we(My boss and I) will get into Dutch on April 1, load/set up our lab space April 2/3. And on April 4 were our in the Bering Sea until May 13!

Honestly, I really don't feel like giving a summary, so I'm gonna go ahead and do a science no-no and "plagarize" from one of our Websites.

"The main focus of this cruise is to learn about sea ice, and how climate change will affect it. As the Earth becomes warmer, the Bering Sea may freeze for a shorter time each winter, or even stop freezing over. This could disrupt the whole ecosystem. Fish could appear at different times or in different places. Whales, seals, and humans could have trouble finding food.

As we zigzag through the Bering Sea, researchers will be looking at many parts of the ecosystem. Some will be collecting bottles of water, scoops of mud, or cores of ice to see how much photosynthesis is going on in those places—how much phytoplankton is turning sunlight into energy that will travel up the food chain. Others will be studying tiny animals that swim in the water or live on the seafloor. Still other scientists will spend daylight hours on the ship's bridge, watching for seabirds."

Here's a list of websites to check out if you're interested:

a. Polar Discovery: http://polardiscovery.whoi.edu/
b. Polar Trec: http://www.polartrec.com/ Our teacher’s name is Simone Welch
c. BSIERP/BEST Site at NPRB: http://bsierp.nprb.org/
d. The Healy Web Cam: http://mgds.ldeo.columbia.edu/healy/reports/aloftcon/2009/
e. Healy's position: http://www.icefloe.net/reports_healy.html
click on "where is Healy?"

Definitely check out Polar Discovery. Go to Live from the Poles(Upper Bar), then Bering Sea, then on the side, click Research Team. I've got a little Bio up saying how big of a Nerd I am.

Also, here's an abstract of the work. Hope you can understand it.

The Impact of Changes in Sea Ice Extent on Primary Production, Phytoplankton Community Structure, and Export in the eastern Bering Sea

"Funds are provided to test the following core hypothesis: climate-driven interannual variability in sea-ice extent and duration shifts the eastern Bering Sea autotrophic community between one of two states; marginal ice-zone (MIZ) blooms vs. open-water blooms. The MIZ bloom state is characterized by high biomass, diatom-dominated blooms, high pelagic export and tight pelagic-benthic coupling, whereas the open-water bloom state is characterized by lower biomass, flagellate blooms, low pelagic export, and reduced pelagic-benthic coupling. This project will generate measurements of primary production using traditional 14C, 13C methods, and use the innovative triple oxygen isotope technique and dissolved oxygen concentrations to estimate gross and net primary production, respectively. This combination of productivity measurements will be used to test the hypothesis that while gross primary production does not change with sea-ice extent, net production does, and is inversely related to sea-ice extent.

Phytoplankton community structure measurements will allow the PIs to test their hypothesis that the autotrophic community switches from a diatom-dominated, high export system in the MIZ, to a flagellate-dominated, lower export, system in open water blooms.

This project is part of a larger program designed to develop understanding of the integrated ecosystem of the eastern Bering Sea shelf, a highly productive region of US coastal waters. This ecosystem is home to a major portion of the commercial fisheries of the US and also provides significant resources to subsistence hunters and fisherman of Alaska.

Characterization of rates of primary production by phytoplankton and the varying structure of the phytoplankton community in response to changing sea ice conditions will provide information about changes at the base of the food chain that will constrain models of the ecosystem. This information will be essential to a successful integrated ecosystem modeling protocol for the region."

Not sure how available internet will be. I've been told there is wireless and I can get online, but don't expect updates from my Blog. I WILL be writing them regularly on the ship and will post as soon as I return. I will have a Ship email as well that I will figure out.

I doubt most of you are still reading this far, but to conclude I don't really know what to expect, besides being disappointed in my beard-growing ability. I think the cruise will go by pretty quickly. With actually lots of time not sampling, I will be in full force working on a paper from our labs previous grant. Exciting! Also...I got some pretty good news too, the work I did the past summer is getting published. First publication with my name on it...WOOOOOOOOOO!

I return to Bermuda, May 15 and will be eager to host if anybody is interested!