Ducklow's dispatches from the ICE
Related content:
Ducklow leads Antarctica team
Background on Ducklow
Anne Mills' dispatches from the ICE
Images from the ICE.
Feb. 8: Tourist season at Palmer Station
08 Feb 2004
64 46S, 64 03W
37 degrees C
winds 25 knots
 |
| A cruise ship dwarfs the research vessel L. M. Gould. As many as a dozen cruise ships per year pass by Palmer Station. |
The ship is gorgeous, of course, and huge. We just went straight to the Auditorium (holds 600, full stage, balcony, cocktail seating) so I didn't get to see much of the vessel. Maybe someone else has pictures I can send later.
We gave a 90-minute presentation, then after the first group (a full house) left, we did it again to another full house. Bob (Stn. Mgr) and Cara (Lab Sup.) gave Powerpoint presentations about the Antarctic and Palmer, then I introduced all the scientists and we answered questions for about half an hour. The questions were excellent, insightful, interesting. People asked good questions about global warming and seemed to me very concerned and open minded. I expected cruise passengers would be more on the Bush side but several people came up afterward and asked why the USA hadn't signed to Kyoto Accord. It was a lot of fun.
The vessel staff was typically Holland-America—Dutch, Indonesian, and so on. They still do Beef Wellington and Baked Alaska. They were thrilled to have us. It was a rough, very wet, long Zodiac ride out to where the ship was moored (3 miles in 27 knot winds) and lots of the pax were watching us come, swept by sheets of water. So we got a rock-star welcome, full standing ovation when we came into the auditorium. It was silly but cool. The ship gave us four or five cases of fresh veg and fruits, a case of wine and a case of liquor plus a lot of ship souvenirs. They come back next month.
06:49 a.m.
65 deg 13 min South; 69 deg 49 min West
LTER Station 400.200 (3000 meters deep)
1 degree C, sunny; winds 28 knots
 |
| This is the path the LM Gould takes so the W&M/VIMS scientists can collect samples from the sea for their LTER research. |
 |
| Adelies congregate just south of Renaud Island. Top left: Birder Brett Pickering leaps over the gunwale into the Mark V Zodiac. |
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 (Capn 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.
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-Sci, 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.
Jan 10: The science begins
 |
| Hugh Ducklow and Mary Turnipseed near Palmer Station. |
long: 67 05
air and sea temp: +1.5C
station 500.120 on the LTER Grid
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:
1. describing the structure and function of the Antarctic food chain (diatoms to krill to penguins);
2. documenting climate change in this region;
3. understanding the ecosystem responses to climate change (warming).
Our science party consists of 22 students, technicians and college professors (Robin Ross, UC-Santa Barbara; Hugh Ducklow, College WM) and 6 support personnel from Raytheon Polar Services. We'll spotlight some or all these people in the pictures of the day we're sending.
Also,we'll describe our work and other events that happen in the next few weeks. We hope you enjoy and learn from our expedition along with us.
Jan 7: Departure from Punta Arenas
 |
| Hugh Ducklow cavorts with the Adelies on Torgersen Island. |
But because the ship was a few days late, we had some extra time in Punta Arenas.
Currently we are sailing along the coast of Tierra del Fuego after leaving the Straits of Magellan sometime in the night. We will enter the open seas of the Drake Passage later today. We hope it's not too rough! (Many others have taken seasickness medicine; I don't). Our plan is to dock at Palmer Station (64.46S; 64.06W) Monday afternoon. Then we spend all day Tuesday setting up the vessel for our cruise and depart Palmer again Tuesday evening. After that, we'll be occupying oceanographic stations in the Palmer, Antarctica Long-Term Ecological Research Program (PAL-LTER) station grid for the next 25 days.
During the cruise, we'll be collecting data on the following properties at each station (about 65 stations overall, 12 depths in the water at each station = 780 measurements of each item):
meteorology
temperature and salinity
phytoplankton abundance
photosynthetic rates
bacterial abundance
bacterial growth rates
krill abundance
krill feeding rates
nutrients, oxygen and carbon dioxide
particle sedimentation rates
organic matter composition
penguin foraging
We'll be sending you reports and tell you in more detail about some of these activities, plus what it's like to be out here doing this research.
© 2010 The College of William & Mary