Antarctica 2004
Antarctica 2004
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Journals from The Ice Excerpts from Dr. Hugh Ducklow's Journals. Dr. Hugh Ducklow is the Glucksman Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute for Marine Science (VIMS) at the College of William & Mary. He received his A.B. in 1972 , his A.M. in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1977 from Harvard University. He was originally trained as a microbial ecologist. His current research centers on the interactions between climate change and ecosystem function, especially on the Antarctic Peninsula, a region of especially rapid warming. Read more of Dr. Ducklow's biography. |
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Log 2 Hello, We were hoping for a chance to show a photo including the L.M. Gould to show you our happy home for the next month. As we were sampling just off shore of Palmer Station, a visiting cruise ship, The World, was pulling out and Dave Bresnahan snapped this photo from Station.
Our 230 ft. oceanographic research vessel
is capable of breaking one foot of first year ice at continual progress
and has 8 labs on board with a total occupancy allowance of 44 people
for 75 days. The World, an obviously larger vessel, is 664 feet/196 meters
long, displaces 43,000 tons with 12 decks. It has a crew of 320 and is
set up as a resident community with 110 luxury two to six bedroom residences,
88 studio apartments and two golf holes on board. Our chief scientist,
Hugh Ducklow, aptly commented, "The World meets the rest of the world." 1. measuring light levels in the water column We promise there will be a more detailed explanation of each project in following pictures of the day. 13 January 2004 0700 local time,
Log 3
We are just beginning Day 7 of our research. We departed Punta Arenas, Chile on New Year's Day and arrived at Palmer Station, Antarctica on 05 Jan after a slightly rough crossing of the Drake Passage. Several of our science party were seasick for a few days (they're OK now). Following a full day of loading and setup at Palmer, we departed to begin the science portion of LM GOULD cruise 04-01 (that is, the first cruise of LM GOULD in 2004). We will be sailing along the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) until 31 January. In general we will be working our way south from Palmer Station on Anvers Island (64S, 64W) across the Antarctic Circle to Rothera Station on Adelaide Island (67S, 67W). Palmer is our home base, one of several research stations maintained by the US Antarctic Program. Rothera is home base of the British Antarctic Survey. We'll spend a day visiting our colleagues at Rothera and have a big party Saturday night, 24-Jan. During our cruise, we will be occupying a
grid of locations laid out along the Peninsula, known as hydrographic
stations. In our program we visit each one of these every January, collecting
samples and data on the physical, biological and chemical properties in
the water column. We have been doing this since 1991. Over time, this
arduous sampling program has built up a comprehensive picture of the Antarctic
marine ecosystem. Our scientific objectives include: Cheers -- Palmer LTER 20 January 2004, Log 4 Every vessel has a chain of command, or leadership hierarchy with the Captain at the top and everyone else somewhere beneath. On this cruise I'm the Chief Scientist, which means I was designated by my colleagues and by the US Antarctic Program (USAP) to serve as the leader of our scientific program. One might think this allows me to order everyone around and tell them what they should do. And in theory I could take the ship anywhere I wanted. But of course the reality is not so exciting. Our project does have some overall goals, but each group has its own objectives and mostly what happens is that they tell me what they want and my job is to help make it all happen. On USAP vessels the chain of command runs from the Captain down to the Marine Projects Coordinator (MPC) to the Chief Scientist and the various principal investigators for each project. So I tell the MPC what we want to do and he discusses our plans with the Captain who has the ultimate authority. The USAP has a contract with Raytheon Polar Services Company to provide logistic support for the cruises. Raytheon in turn supplies the marine technicians, electronics technicians and science techs, plus scientific cargo coordinators and other assistance. The MPC is the leader of the Raytheon team. Each day I take the scientists' plans and meet with Andy Nunn, the MPC. Then he assigns his crew to help us accomplish our daily objectives. All our plans, including where the ship will go, have to be OK-ed by Captain Robert Verret (Captain Rob). For example, the other day we finished up the 600 and 500 lines on our sampling grid and were ready to proceed to our first Process Station . We had two sites in mind, one north, and one south of Renaud Island. Renaud is the site of a large Adelie penguin colony and the penguins were last counted in about 1980. Our group visited the north site last year, so we were interested in the southern area this time. But this plan had to meet other needs as well: was the water suitable for what the phytoplankton group wanted to do? Was the site satisfactory for Zodiac operations? And was it within a few hours sailing time to our next stations? Was it ice-free? We had to balance all the factors and make a decision in a few hours. In the end, we decided to give it a shot and it worked out well (see Jan 17 picture of the day). Right now we are back running along our sampling grid so things are pretty routine. Next Friday we drop the birders off for a 4-day field camp on Avian Island, a very large penguin colony, and we conduct another process station in the vicinity. So we'll be making these decisions again soon. In addition to serving as Chief-Scientist, I have my own group to supervise, and my own scientific work to do. I work about 16-18 hours each day, getting up at 0400 and finally hitting the rack about 10 at night. Read other Journals from The Ice. |
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