Barents Sea Cruise 5-1-13

Skidaway Institute scientists Marc Frischer and Jens Nejstgaard are participating in a research cruise in the Barents Sea, north of Norway. This is an account of the experience from Marc.

First day of the cruise.  Everyone is excited and anxious.  We were all on board the ship by 9:00am and busy scurrying around making final preparations, securing instruments & lab gear and setting up the various work stations.  The crew was exceedingly helpful and efficient.

The Marine Tech was delayed in Oslo (coming by plane) so we couldn’t leave until he arrived.  He made it around noon and we were underway at about 12:45pm.  We headed north through the fjords.  The scenery was fantastic.  Calm water, snow and fog covered mountains, sun and clouds.  Not too much wildlife present, some seabirds.  The captain (Tom Ole) predicted that we’d see a lot of life near the ice edge, perhaps even whales.  Next week they have a whale observing cruise scheduled in the same area that we are heading to now.

Heading out to sea

After discussions with Aud Larsen and Jens Nejstgaaard we decided that due to our late departure we would head to immediately to the polar front and ice edge to take full advantage of the night to steam.  Of course night doesn’t really feel like night since it only gets dim for a few hours this far north this time of year, but for some reason we still get tired.  We also decided to stop a various points along our course to characterize the water and plankton communities.  We are occupying a standard transect used by IMR (Norwegian Institute of Marine Research) called Fugløya – Bjørnøya and are lucky that the previous week (25 – 29 April 2013) this line had been run giving us a pretty good idea of what we’ll find this week.  The data from the previous week indicated that water conditions are not unusual and that we could expect to reach the polar front approximately 225 NM north of our first sea station after leaving the fjords.

Our goal is to locate water masses containing the algae Phaeocystis pouchetti in various stages of its bloom cycle so that we can study how it is eaten (or not) by other organisms and thereby contributes to the food web.  It’s a very interesting and mysterious algae because of its importance as a major blooming algae in high latitude waters and because whether it is eaten seems to be highly variable.  We suspect that at times it is readily eaten and at others it is not and that this is mainly due to its ability to dramatically alter its size, chemically defend itself from predation and its resistance to ubiquitous viruses.  Despite the fact that this algae is slimy and smelly, all of us who study it love it because it’s so interesting.  We call the  project “Phaeo Enigma” because there is so much we don’t understand about this organism.

We stopped around 3:30 pm (13:30 GMT) in the fjord to take a quick sample.  The water column profile was classic textbook fjord with a chla maximum at about 23 meters.  The water contained big colonies of the algae we are studying (Phaeocystis pouchetti), but we are sticking with our plan to head north.

Continuing north we finally made it to our first sea station at 70 30 N 20 00 E.  Again, it was a quick stop to look at the water.  As we expected we found classic Norwegian Coastal Current water.  Phaeocystis was present here too, though at lower concentrations that we found in the fjords.  After a quick 30 min stop we were back on our way.

Since there wasn’t much to do most for the remainder of the evening, most of us thought it was prudent to turn in early for the evening.  Soon enough we will all be very busy!

Young loggerhead sea turtle to make public debut at Skidaway Marine Science Day

In August of last year, a tiny loggerhead sea turtle was born on Ossabaw Island. Unlike his brothers and sisters, he wasn’t able make his way to the ocean. Fortunately for this one baby loggerhead, he was rescued by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Having determined the young turtle would not survive on his own, Mark Dodd of DNR contacted the University of Georgia (UGA) Marine Extension Service Aquarium on Skidaway Island.

Since his arrival last year, the sea turtle, named “Ossabaw,” has thrived. (Actually, while he may be referred to as a “he,” his gender is not known.) Starting as a small hatchling that would easily fit in the palm of your hand, he has lived behind the scenes at the aquarium and has been cared for by the curator team of Devin Dumont and Karin Paquin.

Ossabaw is held by Karin Paqun, assistant curator at the UGA Marine Extension Service Aquarium.

“When he first arrived, he was so tiny,” said Paquin. “Now he is over three pounds and very active.”

Loggerhead sea turtles are on the threatened species list at the state and federal level. They are the most common sea turtle species to nest regularly along the Georgia coast and barrier islands. Female loggerhead turtles crawl up on beaches between May and October to lay their eggs in nest chambers dug in the sand with their back flippers and then return to the sea.  The eggs incubate for approximately two months before the hatchlings emerge and head to the water where they can live as long as 70 years and grow to over 200 pounds.

“We hope that Ossabaw will grow strong, healthy and be ready for release in three to four years,” said Paquin. “If a turtle is deemed not releasable by a veterinarian, we work with larger aquariums to find a new home.”

Ossabaw’s predecessor at the aquarium, “Eddie,” was released into the wild last year. However, an earlier loggerhead, “Joey,” was transferred to the Georgia Aquarium when he grew too large for his home at the UGA Aquarium.

Ossabaw the young, loggerhead sea turtle.

After living in a tank behind the scenes for his first year of life, Ossabaw will make his debut on public display in time for Skidaway Marine Science Day, which will be held on Saturday, October 20 from noon to 4 p.m.

Skidaway Marine Science Day is a campus-wide open house with activities geared for all ages from young children to adults. These will include programs, tours, displays and hands-on activities, primarily related to marine science and the coastal environment. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

Along with the aquarium, the event will be presented by the campus’s marine research and education organizations, including Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, the UGA Shellfish Research Laboratory and Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary.

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography will offer a variety of activities for adults and children, including tours of the Research Vessel Savannah and smaller research vessels; science displays and talks on current research programs; and hands-on science activities.

The aquarium will be open to visitors with no admission fee. In addition to “Ossabaw,” the aquarium education staff will offer visitors a full afternoon of activities including science talks, a reptile show, boat tours, touch tanks and behind-the-scene tours of the aquarium.

The UGA Shellfish Laboratory will provide visitors with displays and information on marine life on the Georgia Coast. Children will be given the opportunity to help protect the marine environment by bagging oyster shells used for oyster reef restoration projects.

The staff of Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary will set up their remotely-operated-vehicle (ROV) in a swimming pool and teach visitors how to “drive” it and pick up objects from the bottom.

Skidaway Marine Science Day will also be open to non-campus scientific and environmental groups. Organizations such as The Dolphin Project and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center will be on-hand to present, information, displays and activities.

School classes or other large groups wishing to attend Skidaway Marine Science Day can be accommodated only through advance arrangements. For additional information, call (912) 598-2325.

All activities at Skidaway Marine Science Day will be free. For additional information, call (912) 598-2325, or visit http://www.skio.usg.edu.

Gator in the pool

Skidaway Institute had an unexpected visitor this morning.

This guy showed up in the old Roebling swimming pool. We’re not sure how he got there. He probably fell in while out looking for a midnight snack. The walls are around seven feet high, and there’s only a couple of inches of water in the bottom, so he is stuck. We are calling someone to “rescue” him. No one around here want’s to volunteer. Smart.

News media trip to Wassaw Island

We took several reporters to Wassaw Island this week for a story on marine plastic debris. We’ve seen two TV stories thus far and expect a story in the Savannah Morning News, probably over the weekend.

Alice Massimi from WSAV-TV (NBC) in Savannah interviews UGA Marine Extension Service educator Dodie Sanders on the beach at Wassaw Island.

 

Skidaway Marine Science Day set for Saturday, October 20

An afternoon of marine science programs, displays, tours and activities — Skidaway Marine Science Day 2012 — will be held on Saturday, October 20, from noon to 4 p.m. on the campus of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography at the north end of Skidaway Island.

The Skidaway Marine Science Day is a campus-wide open house with activities geared for all ages from young children to adults. These will include programs, tours, displays and hands-on activities, primarily related to marine science. The University of Georgia Aquarium will be open free-of-charge with special displays and activities. Skidaway Institute of Oceanography’s ocean-going research vessel, the R/V Savannah will also be open for tours.

Visitors examine the controls of the R/V Savannah during Skidaway Marine Science Day 2011.

The event is open to the public and admission is free.

The event will be presented by the campus’s marine research and education organizations, including the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, the University of Georgia (UGA) Marine Education Center and Aquarium, the UGA Shellfish Research Laboratory and Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary.

All activities at Skidaway Marine Science Day will be free. For additional information, call (912) 598-2325, or visit http://www.skio.usg.edu.

Plastics pollution a widespread problem on the Georgia Coast

No part of the Georgia coast is protected from pollution by plastics and other marine debris. That is one finding of a study conducted by Skidaway Institute of Oceanography scientists Jay Brandes and Dick Lee.

The scientists studied the collection totals from beach clean-up programs by environmental groups like Clean Coast and the Tybee Beautification Association and Rivers Alive. They found that while beach-sweep programs at populated spots like Tybee Island collect the most plastic, even sweeps in relatively remote locations like Cumberland and Ossabaw Islands collect a sizeable haul. A 2007 beach sweep on Tybee by the Tybee Beautification Association and Rivers Alive collected 5,400 pounds of plastic. In similar clean-ups by Clean Coast in 2009, volunteers collected 1,100 pounds on Cumberland Island and 750 pounds on Ossabaw Island.

The places with the largest amount of plastics accumulation were Tybee Island, Little Tybee Island, Turner’s Creek and Pigeon Island.

“It is interesting that some of the beaches receiving relatively low numbers of visitors, such as Blackbeard Island and Cumberland Island, still have relatively high amounts of plastic debris,” Brandes said. “This suggests that the source of plastics on remote beaches is the surrounding coastal waters that contain plastics from both inland and the coast.”

The Skidaway Institute researchers focused their attention on plastics for several reasons. Plastics tend to be very durable and persist in the environment for long periods of time.  Also, relatively small pieces of plastic can be a threat to marine animals. Fish sometime eat the plastics, which can block their digestive systems. Sometimes harmful contaminants tend to cling to plastic and can be ingested when the plastic is eaten.

“Plastics pollution has been getting a lot of attention recently, especially those large gyres, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Brandes. “But most of those plastics are coming from land and that means that most of the plastic in our environment is going to remain near the shore.”

For this study, the scientists were restricted to analyzing data provided by the various beach clean-up groups. The problem is these groups are, understandably, usually more concerned about cleaning up the beach than sorting types of debris they collect. Based on earlier studies of marine debris and limited sorting that has been done during some cleanups, the research team worked under the assumption that one half of the total material collected was comprised of plastics.

The plastics problem is not limited to coolers and plastic cups. According to Brandes, many of the larger plastic objects eventually become broken down into smaller pieces, as tiny as a grain of sand. They may remain suspended in the water column. Brandes has found these micro-plastic particles while collecting samples for other projects.

“Right now, very little is known about what kind of impact these micro-plastics might be having on fish or other parts of the marine ecosystem,” said Brandes.

Students in the Marine Debris program weight some of the material they have collected on the north beach of Wassaw Island.

To help with the problem of understanding what kinds of plastics foul our beaches and marshes, Skidaway Institute scientists are collecting additional data on marine plastics and other debris though a cooperative educational program, “Marine Debris,” with the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service.

“Marine Debris” is a hands-on, interactive program that incorporates the topic of marine debris with an emphasis on plastic debris along the coast of Georgia. Students and their teachers are conducting shoreline marine debris surveys on Wassaw Island to determine types of marine debris, weight of plastics collected and accumulation rates for the designated site. The students are compiling the data using the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Accumulation Survey protocol. The data is being submitted to the Southeast Marine Debris Initiative data base.

Stubbins joins Arctic cruise

Skidaway Institute scientist Aron Stubbins has spent the last couple of months working in Germany. He reports in on a cruise he is about to join.

I’m off to the Arctic on Germany research vessel Polarstern.

I will be collecting samples to determine the export of dissolved black carbon from the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. The cruise will transect Fram Strait, the major gateway for the exchange of water and dissolved material between the two ocean basins. Today we will leave Bremerhaven in Germany, site of the Alfred Wegener Institute which houses the R/V Polarstern.

In a few days we will reach Svalbard and begin a transect from there towards Greenland following 78.5 degrees north. During this transect we will first cross the West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) which carries warm Atlantic waters north into the Arctic Ocean. This is the northernmost extent of the Gulf Stream that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and travels past Georgia and Savannah at the edge of the Georgia shelf.

We will then transit west towards Greenland, breaking ice as we go. In this part of the cruise we will collect water samples from the East Greenland Current (EGC). This carries cold, polar water south into the Atlantic Ocean. A figure of the currents is shown at http://www.whoi.edu/science/PO/people/pwinsor/project_ao02.html.

My work will look at the amount and type of dissolved organic carbon that these two massive currents carry north (WSC) and south (EGC). Our progress can be followed in real time at http://www.awi.de/en/infrastructure/ships/polarstern/where_is_polarstern/. This site will also post weekly updates about life and science aboard R/V Polarstern.

The cruise will end in Longyearbyen on Svalbard where I will collect some samples to continue ongoing investigations into the sources and nature of glacier carbon (http://www.skio.usg.edu/?p=research/chem/biogeochem/glaciers).

Little help for marsh from eco-friendly dock designs

New dock designs intended to reduce damage to salt marshes are not much better than traditional docks, according to a recently completed study by Clark Alexander of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. Alexander also concluded the compass orientation and height of a dock has more impact on the health of the salt marsh than the dock design or materials.

The problem is the shadow docks cast on the salt marsh vegetation beneath them. The marsh grass (Spartina alterniflora) does not flourish in reduced sunlight.  In recent years, alternative materials and designs have appeared on the dock-building market to try to mitigate this problem. Alexander tested three types of alternative material and designs – ThruFlow fiberglass-impregnated plastic grating; Gator Dock Fibergrate grating; and the DockRider Sundock, which uses a set of wooden rails and an electric trolley in place of traditional wood planking.

“These all sounded good,” said Alexander. “But what we didn’t know was if they actually worked effectively.”

To answer that question, Alexander conducted a three-year, two-part research project funded by a $195,488 grant from the Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program.

The first part of the study was to conduct field-based “before-and-after” studies of salt marshes where some of the new designs were being built. Alexander’s team collected samples and recorded conditions in the marsh before the docks were built and continued to monitor the salt marshes after they were completed.

In the second part of the study, Alexander and his team constructed four dock models, “mock docks”, using alternative materials on high ground at the Skidaway campus. The docks were placed in a field with unobstructed sunlight and were fitted with light meters that measured the amount of sunlight being received above and below each dock. The researchers measured the shadow footprint of the various dock designs over the course of two years.

Clark Alexander (r) and research team member Mike Robinson examine the light meter equipment beneath on of the mock docks.

“Because orientation is an important parameter in light transmission through these materials, we made the mock docks mobile, so we could re-oriented them during the four seasons to see the effects of orientation and seasonal sun angle” said Alexander.

They also adjusted the dock heights to assess the impact of height on light penetration to the ground below.

In the first part of the study, Alexander and his team examined three separate field sites – Turners Creek (ThruFlow decking), Shell Point Cove (Dockrider) and Betz Creek (traditional plank design) They measured the stem density of the marsh grass before the docks were constructed and then monitored it for two years after construction. Stem density in the dock shadow footprint decreased between 44 and 80 percent compared to nearby, non-dock sites.

The team also observed additional dock-related impacts. Some sections of salt marsh transitioned to denuded mudflats due to the marsh wrack that accumulated around the dock pilings.

The results of the field study were supported by the mock-dock project on the Skidaway campus. Seasonal measurements showed a significant reduction of the light needed to support the health of the marsh plants in the areas affected by the docks’ shadows.  At Skidaway Institute’s latitude, the elevation of the sun is high enough to allow sunlight to penetrate through the grated deck material only during the spring and summer, and even then, provides only about 10% more light than traditional plank decking.

The mock-dock project also documented two additional dock-shading impacts.  The compass orientation of a dock plays a significant role in the effect the dock has on the marsh. Docks that are oriented in a generally north-south direction have a much smaller shading impact than those oriented east-west. The height of the dock also has a significant effect. The duration of the shadow under the dock and the total light loss decreases as the height increases, up to 7 feet above the marsh surface, with smaller, less significant decreases above that height.

“The results of the two studies demonstrate that neither current alternative materials nor construction methods effectively negate the effects of dock shading in our region,” said Alexander. “However, the Dockrider system had one half to one third the shading impact of decked walkways in our study.”

“In addition to shading impacts, marsh wrack accumulation around dock and walkway pilings also negatively impacts the marsh and will be a problem with any piling-supported structure.”

The results of the study have been sent to the Department of Natural Resources, which will use these results to better manage the important coastal saltmarshes of Georgia.

Coastal threats focus of upcoming workshop

A Georgia Coastal Hazards Portal Training Workshop will introduce a new Web-based tool to study threats to the Georgia coast. It will be held at the Sapelo Island Visitor Center in Meridian, Ga., on Friday, April 13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The workshop will focus on the Georgia Coastal Hazards Portal (GCHP) — a Web-based interactive tool designed to provide a better understanding of coastal resources, coastal hazards and the effects of rapid population growth and development. It was created through a partnership between the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and the Savannah Area GIS program with funding provided by the Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program.

“This online tool can be utilized in many ways, such as, identifying vulnerability to coastal hazards and identifying connections between hazards and natural resources,” said Skidaway Institute’s Clark Alexander, the lead scientist on the GCHP project.

The workshop is targeted towards community planners, resource managers, research scientists, outreach specialists and elected officials. They will have the opportunity to discuss current coastal hazard research, network with others from the coastal hazards community and learn how to use the new interactive GCHP website as a resource and tool for communicating the facts and risks of coastal hazards.

The workshop is sponsored by the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division.

Registration is available on-line at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CGHPRegistrationForm.

Workshop participants will receive lunch and a flash drive containing presentations and GCHP reference material.

The American Planning Association has approved the GCHP Training Workshop for six credits.

For additional information, contact Angela Bliss at abliss@uga.edu.

Fossil fuels fire glacier carbon cycle according to Skidaway Institute scientist

New clues as to how the Earth’s remote ecosystems have been influenced by the industrial revolution are locked, frozen in the ice of glaciers. That is the finding of a group of scientists, including Aron Stubbins of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

The research is published in the March 2012 issue of Nature Geoscience.

The key to the process is carbon-containing dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the glacial ice. Glaciers provide a great deal of carbon to downstream ecosystems. Many scientists believe the source of this carbon is the ancient forests and peatlands overrun by the glaciers. However, Stubbins and his colleagues believe the carbon comes mainly from contemporary biomass and fossil fuel burning that gets deposited on the glacier surfaces. Once deposited on the glacier surface by snow and rain, the DOM moves with the glacier and is eventually delivered downstream where it provides food for microorganisms at the base of the marine food web.

Aron Stubbins

“In vibrant ecosystems like in the temperate or tropical zones, once this atmospheric organic material makes landfall it is quickly consumed by the plants, animals and microbial populations,” said Stubbins. “However in frigid glacier environments, these carbon signals are preserved and standout.”

“Remote regions are often perceived as being pristine and devoid of human influence”, Stubbins continued. “Glaciers show us that nowhere goes untouched by industry. Instead, burning fuels has an impact upon the natural functioning of ecosystems far removed from industrial activity.”

Glaciers and ice sheets together represent the second largest reservoir of water on earth, and glacier ecosystems cover ten percent of the Earth, yet the carbon dynamics underpinning those ecosystems remain poorly understood.

“Increased understanding of glacier biogeochemistry is a priority, as glacier environments are among the most sensitive to climate warming and the effects of industrial emissions” said Stubbins.

Globally, glacier ice loss is accelerating, driven in part by the deposition of carbon in the form of soot or “black carbon”, which darkens glacier surfaces and increases their absorption of light and heat. Biomass and fossil fuel burning by people around the globe are the major sources of that black carbon.

Stubbins and his fellow scientists have conducted much of their research at the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau, Alaska. Mendenhall and other glaciers that end their journey in the Gulf of Alaska receive a high rate of precipitation. High levels of rain and snow acts to strip the atmosphere clean of organics, dumping it on the glacier. Consequently, these glaciers are among the most sensitive to global emissions of soot.

The researchers’ findings also reveal how the ocean may have changed over past centuries. The microbes that form the very bottom of the food web are particularly sensitive to changes in the quantity and quality of the carbon entering the marine system. Since the study found that the organic matter in glacier outflows stems largely from human activities, it means that the supply of glacier carbon to the coastal waters of the Gulf of Alaska is a modern, post-industrial phenomenon. “When we look at the marine food webs today, we may be seeing a picture that is significantly different from what existed before the late-18th century,” said Stubbins. “It is unknown how this manmade carbon has influenced the coastal food webs of Alaska and the fisheries they support.”

A warming climate will increase the outflow of the glaciers and the accompanying input of dissolved organic material into the coastal ocean. This will be most keenly felt in glacially dominated coastal regions, such as those off of the Gulf of Alaska, Greenland and Patagonia. These are the areas that are experiencing the highest levels of glacier ice loss.

“Although it is not known to what extent organic material deposition has changed and will continue to alter glacially-dominated coastal ecosystems or the open ocean, it is clear that glaciers will continue to provide a valuable and unique window into the role that the deposition of organic material plays in our changing environment,” Stubbins said.

Stubbins collaborators on the project included Eran Hood and Andrew Vermilyea from the University of Alaska Southeast; Peter Raymond and David Butman from Yale University; George Aiken, Robert Striegl and Paul Schuster from the U.S. Geological Survey; Patrick Hatcher, Rachel Sleighter  and Hussain Abdulla from Old Dominion University; Peter Hernes from the University of California-Davis; Durelle Scott from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and Robert Spencer from Woods Hole Research Center.

The paper can be viewed on-line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1403

Further details are available at http://www.skio.usg.edu/?p=research/chem/biogeochem/glaciers. This work is being continued with support from the National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1146161

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is an autonomous research unit of the University System of Georgia located on Skidaway Island in Savannah, Ga. The mission of the Institute is to provide the State of Georgia with a nationally and internationally recognized center of excellence in marine science through research and education.