Research

Collaborative Research: Monitoring hydrothermal fluid origin, crustal permeability and seafloor morphology in preparation for the next volcanic eruption at the East Pacific Rise axis, 9° 45’-53’N NSF/OCE/MGG - 1949485 - Funded

Engineering dives associated with HOV ALVIN

48hrs for JASON engineering - testing single-body operations on the .681 cable.

We propose a short dive series with the ROV Jason to 5 hydrothermal vent-sites at the summit of Lō’ihi seamount, where we already have an extensive time-series (2006-18), to test two key hypotheses: that recent seismic episodes beneath the Lō’ihi seamount (May 2020, December 2021) have perturbed the subseafloor hydrothermal circulation system within the seamount and the composition of these vents that impact basin-scale ocean biogeochemistry.

The Southern California Bight (SCB) is the submerged region offshore California extending along the curved coastline from Point Conception to Cobo Colnett in Baja California, Mexico. Due to a complex tectonic combination of tension and extension, uplift and subsidence, the historic SCB was home to shallow productive marine basins that later created the rich, organic, source materials for the many tar balls and hydrocarbon seeps that dot the California Coastline and nearby islands. The fruitful marine ecosystems paired with abundant hydrocarbon seeps, contributed to this region’s noted early human habitation, where migrations of Pleistocene maritime hunter-gatherers likely remained in the area due to abundant marine mammal, fish, shellfish, and plant resources, tar resources, as well as easy access from the mainland to productive offshore islands (Gusick and Erlandson 2019). However, the SCB landscape experienced significant environmental shifts during the transition from the terminal Pleistocene to Late Holocene. Most notably, the region experienced a massive loss of subaerial land in the region due to inundation during the eustatic sea level rise that occurred approximately 20,000-8,000 years ago following the last glacial maximum (Clark et al. 2014). This transition from the Terminal Pleistocene to Early Holocene coincided with changes in climate further altering vegetation and animal diversity. There is ambiguity as to the timing and extent of extinction events and landscape evolution in the SCB. Therefore, the submerged portions of the landscapes extending offshore the regional continental shelf and islands in the SCB may provide crucial information on the evolution of landscapes, species extinctions and arrivals, and introduction of humans into this rapidly changing environment. The modern-day SCB has grown to be a densely populated region where people continue to influence and interact with both migratory and resident animal populations as well as disturb previous human settlements. To preserve and understand these vulnerable ecosystems and cultural heritage sites, baseline data must be assembled. These data will be collected over two multidiscplinary projects using remote sensing and sampling techniques more traditionally used for geological studies. Our goal is to use the rock record and sediment character to establish a baseline for paleolandscapes and biodiversity within the SCB. We believe that by focusing on defining the SCB on a variety of temporal scales with regards to human settlement and activity, we can not only provide data germane to geological and paleontological disciplines, but also narrow search parameters to identify archaeological “hot spots” on the continental shelf. This will be a joint effort between students and experts from many disciplines and institutions to collect data that bolsters our ability to investigate sensitive cultural landscapes and to eventually to document and preserve marine flora, fauna, and cultural heritage resources.

The Slope Sea and the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), in the Northwest Atlantic east of Cape Hatteras, NC, are sites of strong mesoscale and submescale variability in physical and biogeochemical properties. This is where the Gulf Stream separates from the continental slope as it passes over the Deep Western Boundary Current. This is also one of the few "crossover" regions where NASA's new Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will provide unprecedented twice-daily coverage for a short period during the satellite's 90-day duration calibration/validation. The SWOT US East Coast crossover region will observe the Gulf Stream precisely where it separates from the continental slope. The MAB-SWOT campaign has three main objectives: observing the Gulf Stream mesoscale (meander) and submesoscale (frontal eddy) variability; measuring the MAB shelf-break front and shelf-deep ocean exchange; assess the validity/usefulness of SWOT velocity for coastal-scale features and interpreting biophysical interactions. To do this, a combination of high-frequency radar, glider, current- and pressure-sensor equipped inverted echo sounders (CPIESs), and ship-based biogeochemical sampling during the cal/val period are planned and will provide independent observations for comparison with SWOT altimetry. The combination of different types of in situ observations with SWOT remote observations will provide an unprecedented depiction of mesoscale and submesoscale variability in this very dynamic region of the Northwest Atlantic. This cruise will serve as the deployment cruise for 6 CPIESs so they are in the water during (and beyond) the SWOT cal/val period.

We propose to conduct a 20 day cruise to the Eastern Equatorial Pacific as the basis for a graduate-level seminar-style course on equatorial processes and how they are studied. The course will have three emphases: 1) the unique atmospheric and oceanographic processes that occur at equatorial latitudes, 2) atmospheric and oceanographic research methods at sea, and 3) how the collection, analysis, and dissemination of oceanographic knowledge can be made more accessible and inclusive. During the ship’s 8-day transit to the equatorial region, the science party will be focused on student-led class discussions on the course content. Students will then translate these lessons into practice through individual and small-group research projects over a 2,445 km research transect spanning the equator at 117.5° W. These projects will include 1) an investigation into how barite microcrystal size and morphology varies across the equatorial primary productivity gradient, 2) measurements of core top marine barite strontium/calcium ratios to support the reconstruction of paleo seawater chemistry, and 3) sampling of atmospheric particulate matter to investigate transcontinental dust transport dynamics and changes in composition with latitude. Students will also conduct daily observations of changing surface oceanography and biological communities during the research transect. These observations will be quantified and incorporated into video blogs produced throughout the cruise and shared with the Scripps Communication Office. Additionally, students will participate in think tank discussions to develop methods for making ocean science more transparent and accessible to the general public.

Ship time dedicated to facilitate experiential learning for UGA and USG graduate and undergraduate students.

he physical properties of the ocean from the surface layers to the abyssal water masses are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing and sustained observations of the ocean are critically important to establish these rates of change. One of the longest open-ocean hydrographic stations in the world is maintained at the Hydrostation S site (formerly known as the Panulirus site) located about 25 km southeast of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean. This repeat biweekly hydrographic observations was initiated by Henry Stommel and co-workers in 1954. Now, in its seventh decade, it continues to be recognized as one of the most important sustained ocean time-series and provides an invaluable metric for the long-term state of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre in relation to the meridional overturning circulation, western boundary transport, and gyre recirculation. For example, the upper ocean warming trend has strengthened (about 0.8° C since the 1970's) while the deep Labrador Sea has cooled by a few tenths of a degree. The signature of deoxygenation has been observed at Hydrostation S in the upper ocean (about 7 micro-moles/kg/decade decrease in dissolved oxygen) as well as an intensification and expansion of the oxygen minimum zone. These changes suggest that the North Atlantic subtropical gyre is experiencing deoxygenation as in the Pacific Ocean as a result of increased upper ocean stratification and reduced solubility of oxygen in warmer waters. The Hydrostation S program and its data set are managed as a service to the ocean community, being openly distributed and used as a resource in understanding processes and patterns of variability in the ocean, as well as for education, mentorship and outreach activities. The Hydrostation S project will contribute to the research and training of six research specialists and research technicians at BIOS and contribute to the research projects of at least three Ph.D. students through on-going educational partnership with Princeton University and the University of Southampton in the U.K. The one-day Hydrostation S research cruises are an ideal platform for testing new sensors and for providing hand-on training to undergraduate students enrolled in summer programs. The Hydrostation S project is designed to address the overarching hypothesis that the physical properties of the upper-ocean to deep-ocean are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing. Sustained observations of the ocean, such as those from Hydrostation S, remain critically important to establish rates of change to provide quantitative empirical data for myriad regional and global ocean synthesis and modeling of ocean processes and future ocean change. The major objective of Hydrostation S into the seventh decade is to continue the frequent water column sampling of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (and indirectly, sampling of important ocean carbon time?series) of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Such work is complementary to other sustained observations such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and Ocean Flux Program (OFP). As for the past five years, two CTD profiles will be conducted to better capture the deep-water variability while maintaining all the previous discrete depths. The first CTD cast will profile to full ocean depth (3,200-3,500 m) while the second CTD cast will profile from the surface to 500 m to allow for biogeochemical instrumentation not rated for full ocean depth and to support ancillary studies of ocean physics, biological processes and biogeochemistry. A secondary objective will be to build upon the collaborative comparison of physical data collected as part of two autonomous sensor projects. In the latter stages of the project, as ocean glider deployment becomes more sustainable and reliable, collaborative and comparative efforts will be used to test the capability of ocean gliders to provide data of sufficient quality to detect long-term oceanic change in a "virtual" mooring time-series mode. The robust and highly accurate Hydrostation S data will be used to test the capability of emerging technologies over the next five to ten years.

Long-term observations over several decades are a powerful tool for investigating ocean physics, biology, and chemistry, and the response of the oceans to environmental change. The Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study, known as BATS, has been running continuously since 1988. The research goals of the BATS program are: (1) to improve our understanding of the time-varying components of the ocean carbon cycle and the cycles of related nutrient elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon; and, (2) to identify the relevant physical, chemical and ecosystem properties responsible for this variability. In addition, the BATS program has strong and diverse broader impacts, contributing to the field of ocean sciences by providing high quality ocean observations and data for seagoing scientists and modelers, and a framework through which researchers can conceive and test hypotheses. This award will support the operations of the BATS program for five more years. The primary BATS research themes are as follows: (1) Quantify the role of ocean-atmosphere coupling and climate variability on air-sea exchange of CO2, and carbon export to the ocean interior; (2) Document trends and the controls on the interannual to decadal scale variability in carbon and nutrient cycles to their coupling in the surface and deep ocean via the Redfield Ratio paradigm; (3) Quantify the response of planktonic community structure and function, and impact on biogeochemical cycles to variability in surface fluxes and dynamical processes; (4) Facilitate development, calibration and validation of next generation oceanographic sensors, tools and technologies; and, (5) Generate a dataset that can be utilized by empiricists, modelers and students. This research integrates ocean physics, chemistry and biology into a framework for understanding oceanic processes and ocean change in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. The existing 29 years of BATS data provide robust constraints on seasonal and interannual variability, the response of the Sargasso Sea ecosystem to natural climate variability, and signal detection of potential ocean changes. This project would extend the BATS program through years 31-35 to address a series of ten interlinked questions through integrated research approaches and a multitude of collaborative efforts. In addition to the themes above, and embedded into the ten questions and approaches, the BATS team will focus on, for example, coupling of particle production and biogeochemistry; revisiting the complexities of the biological carbon pump; oxygen decline; and changes in the hydrography, physics, ocean carbon cycle and biogeochemistry of the Sargasso Sea. The highest quality data observation and collection will be maintained and used to address these questions. Importantly, a wide range of collaborations at the BATS site, spanning the physical and biogeochemical disciplines, will aid these broad goals. Strong links to community stakeholders, and close collaboration (including methods intercomparisons and personnel exchanges) with the Hawaii Ocean Time-series are proposed. This work will extend the research findings of the project into educational and training opportunities within and beyond the oceanographic community, including training and mentorship of both undergraduate and graduate students.

he physical properties of the ocean from the surface layers to the abyssal water masses are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing and sustained observations of the ocean are critically important to establish these rates of change. One of the longest open-ocean hydrographic stations in the world is maintained at the Hydrostation S site (formerly known as the Panulirus site) located about 25 km southeast of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean. This repeat biweekly hydrographic observations was initiated by Henry Stommel and co-workers in 1954. Now, in its seventh decade, it continues to be recognized as one of the most important sustained ocean time-series and provides an invaluable metric for the long-term state of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre in relation to the meridional overturning circulation, western boundary transport, and gyre recirculation. For example, the upper ocean warming trend has strengthened (about 0.8° C since the 1970's) while the deep Labrador Sea has cooled by a few tenths of a degree. The signature of deoxygenation has been observed at Hydrostation S in the upper ocean (about 7 micro-moles/kg/decade decrease in dissolved oxygen) as well as an intensification and expansion of the oxygen minimum zone. These changes suggest that the North Atlantic subtropical gyre is experiencing deoxygenation as in the Pacific Ocean as a result of increased upper ocean stratification and reduced solubility of oxygen in warmer waters. The Hydrostation S program and its data set are managed as a service to the ocean community, being openly distributed and used as a resource in understanding processes and patterns of variability in the ocean, as well as for education, mentorship and outreach activities. The Hydrostation S project will contribute to the research and training of six research specialists and research technicians at BIOS and contribute to the research projects of at least three Ph.D. students through on-going educational partnership with Princeton University and the University of Southampton in the U.K. The one-day Hydrostation S research cruises are an ideal platform for testing new sensors and for providing hand-on training to undergraduate students enrolled in summer programs. The Hydrostation S project is designed to address the overarching hypothesis that the physical properties of the upper-ocean to deep-ocean are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing. Sustained observations of the ocean, such as those from Hydrostation S, remain critically important to establish rates of change to provide quantitative empirical data for myriad regional and global ocean synthesis and modeling of ocean processes and future ocean change. The major objective of Hydrostation S into the seventh decade is to continue the frequent water column sampling of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (and indirectly, sampling of important ocean carbon time?series) of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Such work is complementary to other sustained observations such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and Ocean Flux Program (OFP). As for the past five years, two CTD profiles will be conducted to better capture the deep-water variability while maintaining all the previous discrete depths. The first CTD cast will profile to full ocean depth (3,200-3,500 m) while the second CTD cast will profile from the surface to 500 m to allow for biogeochemical instrumentation not rated for full ocean depth and to support ancillary studies of ocean physics, biological processes and biogeochemistry. A secondary objective will be to build upon the collaborative comparison of physical data collected as part of two autonomous sensor projects. In the latter stages of the project, as ocean glider deployment becomes more sustainable and reliable, collaborative and comparative efforts will be used to test the capability of ocean gliders to provide data of sufficient quality to detect long-term oceanic change in a "virtual" mooring time-series mode. The robust and highly accurate Hydrostation S data will be used to test the capability of emerging technologies over the next five to ten years.

Over four decades of research have shown that tiny free-swimming offspring of the unique inhabitants of hydrothermal vents can disperse effectively between their specialized habitats. Yet, we know almost nothing about how these larval animals complete the journey by locating and settling down in suitable locations. This question remains one of the key unresolved puzzles in the ecology of the deep sea and is becoming increasingly important to solve as hydrothermal vents are becoming threatened by human impacts. The investigators suggest that the films of bacteria that first form at vents are good signposts for settlement of larvae because they indicate that the hydrothermal vents are suitable for life. This project uses a combined program of field experiments, cutting-edge molecular biology techniques, and shipboard experiments with hydrothermal-vent larvae and cultured bacterial films. The project also connects undergraduate research interns at a primarily undergraduate institution (Western Washington University) with undergraduate research interns at two research institutions (Rutgers and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) while working on the project at sea together. Finally, the team is producing a science-in-action documentary filled with ocean science and exploration intended for television distribution and museum screenings. The investigators are using footage of the deep-sea vents, shipboard and diving operations, and laboratory work to create a documentary that highlights the foundation of scientific research?hypothesis-driven research, the application of the scientific method, and the importance of critical thinking?all in the framework of the study of an exciting, but threatened, ecosystem. Hydrothermal vents are particularly tractable systems in which to study questions about the roles of biofilms in larval settlement because biofilms at vents are relatively low-complexity; vent animals are strictly dependent on vent microbes, often through symbiotic partnerships acquired after settlement; and environmental variations are present within the range of a common larval pool. Moreover, decades of research on settlement in model organisms give us good insight into biofilm cues; there is solid foundational understanding about colonization patterns at vents; we now have excellent tools to collect, identify, and culture vent larvae and microbes; and modern environmental "-omics" techniques are a good tool to characterize biological cues produced by biofilms. The project provides an unprecedented, quantitative look into the role of microbial biofilms in structuring larval settlement at hydrothermal vents, achieved only through the close collaboration of microbial and larval ecologists. The combined field program of short-term settlement experiments, microbial "-omics" work, and subsequent shipboard settlement experiments allows the investigative team to use field experiments to statistically model the factors that best predict larval settlement in the field, then test those predictions with shipboard experiments that decouple covarying conditions. This extensive characterization of putative larval settlement cues and their relationship to colonization success in heterogeneous vent habitat niches will contribute to a broader understanding of colonization success across diverse marine ecosystems. Understanding the role that the initial settlement of larvae plays in the recovery and resilience of hydrothermal-vent ecosystems is critical to developing informed management plans for deep-sea mining.

Collect coordinated measurements of coastal physics, biology, and chemistry for analytical interpretation of the coupled local, regional, and remote processes influencing the transport and exchange of South Florida coastal waters and their suspended and dissolved constituents. Thus, this research will require the use of a well calibrated flow through system measuring temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a, and Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter. CTD casts will be conducted at discrete section to survey the vertical structure of the water column and collect samples at depth. In addition, there will be some biological sampling. Plankton tows will be conducted at roughly ten stations to assess the zooplankton community in the area. Otter trawls will be conducted to survey the benthic juvenile fish community most likely in the area of Marquesas. To do this characterization we will conduct six five-day cruises. Each cruise will begin sampling near Fowey Rocks off of Biscayne Bay and will continue sampling along the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas. The survey will then head northeast to Charlotte Harbor and sample along the southwest Florida shelf south to Cape Sable before returning back to Miami. Ideal dates for cruise departures are Jan 2017, Mar 2017, May 2017, July 2017, Sep 2017, and Nov 2017.

The human society has had significant influence on the global ocean carbonate chemistry (aka ocean acidification or OA) through fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and cement production over the past 250 years. In the coastal ocean however, other forcings such as continental nutrient input and physical oceanographic changes can have stronger impacts on both the magnitude of short-term variation and long-term trend in carbonate parameters (pH, carbonate saturation states). Among the NOAA designated Large Marine Ecosystems, the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) remains poorly understood in terms its current OA conditions, despite its ecological and economic significance. In the northwestern GOM (nwGOM), a decadal acidification has been observed in the shelf-slope region with the anthropogenic CO 2 contributing to a smaller fraction of CO 2 accumulation than that from metabolic production. This acidification effect is significantly greater than that in other tropical and subtropical areas. Unfortunately, whether the observed OA in this region represents a short-term phenomenon or a long-term trend is unknown. Given the fact that nutrient pollution through continental runoff is predicted to worsen due to enhanced hydrological cycle and that future upwelling may become stronger, both as a result of climate change, the nwGOM will likely experience more serious acidification while atmospheric CO 2 level keeps increasing. Collaborating with colleauges from NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Texas A&M University, the Gulf of Mexico Coast Ocean Observing System, and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, we will investigate spatial and temporal changes in carbonate chemistry signals in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico for the optiminzation of ocean acidification monitoring effort in this region.

Collaborative Research: Investigating the Detachment Fault Cycle at the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center

This award will support the management and implementation of a research expedition from Tahiti to Chile that will enable sampling for a broad suite of trace elements and isotopes (TEI) across oceanographic regions of importance to global nutrient and carbon cycling as part of the U.S. GEOTRACES program. GEOTRACES is a global effort in the field of Chemical Oceanography, the goal of which is to understand the distributions of trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean. Determining the distributions of these elements and isotopes will increase understanding of processes that shape their distributions, such as ocean currents and material fluxes, and also the processes that depend on these elements, such as the growth of phytoplankton and the support of ocean ecosystems. The proposed cruise will cross the South Pacific Gyre, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, iron-limited Antarctic waters, and the Chilean margin. In combination with a proposed companion GEOTRACES expedition on a research icebreaker (GP17-ANT) that will be joined by two overlapping stations, the team of investigators will create an ocean section from the ocean?s most nutrient-poor waters to its highly-productive Antarctic polar region ? a region that plays an outsized role in modulating the global carbon cycle. The expedition will support and provide management infrastructure for additional participating science projects focused on measuring specific external fluxes and internal cycling of TEIs along this section. The South Pacific Gyre and Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean play critical roles in global water mass circulation and associated global transfer of heat, carbon, and nutrients, but they are chronically understudied for TEIs due to their remote locale. These are regions of strong, dynamic fronts where sub-surface water masses upwell and subduct, and biological and chemical processes in these zones determine nutrient stoichiometries and tracer concentrations in waters exported to lower latitudes. The Pacific sector represents an end member of extremely low external TEI surface fluxes and thus an important region to constrain inputs from the rapidly-changing Antarctic continent. Compared to other ocean basins, TEI cycling in these regions is thought to be dominated by internal cycling processes such as biological uptake, regeneration, and scavenging, and these are poorly represented in global ocean models. The cruise will enable funded investigators to address research questions such as: 1) what are relative rates of external TEI fluxes to this region, including dust, sediment, hydrothermal, and cryospheric fluxes? 2) What are the (micro) nutrient regimes that support productivity, and what impacts do biomass accumulation, export, and regeneration have on TEI cycling and stoichiometries of exported material? 3) What are TEI and nutrient stoichiometries of subducting water masses, and how do scavenging and regeneration impact these during transport northward? This management project has several objectives: 1) plan and coordinate a 55-day research cruise in 2021-2022; 2) use both conventional and trace-metal ?clean? sampling systems to obtain TEI samples, as well as facilitate sampling for atmospheric aerosols and large volume particles and radionuclides; 3) acquire hydrographic data and samples for salinity, dissolved oxygen, algal pigments, and macro-nutrients; and deliver these data to relevant repositories; 4) ensure that proper QA/QC protocols, as well as GEOTRACES intercalibration protocols, are followed and reported; 5) prepare the final cruise report to be posted with data; 6) coordinate between all funded cruise investigators, as well as with leaders of proposed GP17-ANT cruise; and 7) conduct broader impact efforts that will engage the public in oceanographic research using immersive technology. The motivations for, and at-sea challenges of this work will be communicated to the general public through creation of immersive 360/Virtual Reality experiences, via a collaboration with the Texas A&M University Visualization LIVE Lab. Through Virtual Reality, users will experience firsthand what life and TEI data collection at sea entail. Virtual reality/digital games and 360° experiences will be distributed through GEOTRACES outreach websites, through PI engagement with local schools, libraries, STEM summer camps, and adult service organizations, and through a collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences.

Over the course of 5 years, GO-BGC is deploying a total of 500 robotic biogeochemical profiling floats, transforming the US Biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) fleet to a global reach. On each deployment cruise, almost all of which are cruises of opportunity with other lead science projects, GO-BGC deploys an average of 6 to 10 floats. GO-BGC floats are equipped with chemical and biological sensors and are being distributed globally in open ocean waters deeper than 2000 meters. The resulting GO-BGC array will be a major contribution to BGC Argo, which is a major extension of the highly successful Argo network of ~4000 robotic floats. Argo floats drift freely at 1000 meters depth and profile from 2000 meters depth to the surface every 10 days. At the surface, the profile data and the float position are transmitted to shore via satellite communication systems, and are publicly available within 24 hours. The BGC-Argo floats carry a suite of proven sensors for oxygen, pH, nitrate, chlorophyll fluorescence, particle abundance, and irradiance in addition to the standard Argo temperature, salinity, and pressure sensors. Each of these corresponds to an Essential Ocean Variable or Essential Climate Variable identified by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The array is being deployed with relatively even spacing through close coordination with other agencies and nations. Floats carry sufficient batteries for over 200 profiles from 2000 m to the surface (> 5.5 year life at a 10 day profiling interval). The data are being processed and delivered by internet to the US Argo Data Assembly Center in near real-time (typically < 24 hours) with simultaneous quality control to yield a product suitable for research. These data are freely available immediately. The float BGC sensors are calibrated independently of local water sampling. However, because of the relative sparsity of in situ oceanographic data for comparison, it is highly preferable to collect a high quality hydrographic validation profile at the deployment location and time, including water samples that are analyzed for HPLC and particulate organic carbon (POC), macronutrients (emphasis on nitrate), and, if possible, pH/TAlk and dissolved oxygen. Such water sample data are collected from sampling bottles on a rosette with a CTD for continuous temperature, salinity and pressure profiling. GO-BGC can and does augment measurements that are being made by the principal project on the ship in order to obtain these in situ observations. An example would be deployments during a GO-SHIP cruise, with augmentation of sampling to include HPLC at the deployment locations, of which there could be about 10 during a cruise that has typically more than 100 high quality station profiles. On transits, if a region is particularly high priority in being difficult to reach and cover, GO-BGC might request a small amount of additional shiptime (2 hours per float for up to 10 floats) to carry out the validation profile measurements.

We propose to deploy a moored dual-sediment trap within the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM; 28.240117°N, 89.127993°W, ~1,125‐m water depth) to collect and quantify particulate fluxes at the base of the euphotic zone and collect and examine eDNA associated with sinking particulates. The proposed deployment site is ideal to study variability in the BCP, as it experiences dynamic biogeochemical conditions driven by Loop Current eddies, transient tropical cyclone events, and pulsed input of nutrients and organic matter via Mississippi River discharge. The deployment of two sediment traps on a single mooring will allow for sample collections to be treated distinctly to best preserve eDNA in Trap 1 (e.g., using a DNA preservative) and particulate materials in Trap 2 (buffered formalin). Trap 1 will be stationed at 120 m (near the bottom of the nGoM euphotic zone) and Trap 2 will be stationed at 700 m water depth to maximize microfossil collection (also for historical time-series consistency). The traps will be programmed to collect samples on a biweekly to monthly basis and will be recovered and redeployed on an approximately annual basis.

The Florida Current is a strong oceanic current flowing northward along the eastern coast of Florida carrying warm tropical waters that eventually feed the Gulf Stream. The Florida Current represents both the western boundary current for the subtropical wind-driven gyre as well as a return pathway for the Thermohaline Overturning Cell, which consists of a slow circulation redistributing the waters of the world ocean based on sinking at the high latitudes and upwelling elsewhere. The Thermohaline Overturning Cell has been documented to have strong impacts on the global climate, and as such variations in the Florida Current, which returns surface waters to the northern North Atlantic, represent an important climate signal to be monitored. Since 1982, NOAA has recognized the importance of long-term monitoring of the Florida Current and it has funded a project, as part of the Western Boundary Time Series project in the Atlantic Ocean, to monitor the transport variations of the current using a submarine cable and snapshot estimates made by shipboard instruments. This webpage presents the results of this study.

We will conduct 10m2 and 1m2 MOCNESS tows across epipelagic, mesopelagic, and upper-bathypelagic depths, sampling zooplankton and micronekton organisms and examining diel vertical migration patterns in the Southern California Bight. We will conduct paired day-night tows within stations and examine biomass and community composition. The proposed operations will also support ongoing co-training of early-career students and scientists in preparation and use of MOCNESS and LVPKI system(s).

he physical properties of the ocean from the surface layers to the abyssal water masses are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing and sustained observations of the ocean are critically important to establish these rates of change. One of the longest open-ocean hydrographic stations in the world is maintained at the Hydrostation S site (formerly known as the Panulirus site) located about 25 km southeast of Bermuda in the North Atlantic Ocean. This repeat biweekly hydrographic observations was initiated by Henry Stommel and co-workers in 1954. Now, in its seventh decade, it continues to be recognized as one of the most important sustained ocean time-series and provides an invaluable metric for the long-term state of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre in relation to the meridional overturning circulation, western boundary transport, and gyre recirculation. For example, the upper ocean warming trend has strengthened (about 0.8° C since the 1970's) while the deep Labrador Sea has cooled by a few tenths of a degree. The signature of deoxygenation has been observed at Hydrostation S in the upper ocean (about 7 micro-moles/kg/decade decrease in dissolved oxygen) as well as an intensification and expansion of the oxygen minimum zone. These changes suggest that the North Atlantic subtropical gyre is experiencing deoxygenation as in the Pacific Ocean as a result of increased upper ocean stratification and reduced solubility of oxygen in warmer waters. The Hydrostation S program and its data set are managed as a service to the ocean community, being openly distributed and used as a resource in understanding processes and patterns of variability in the ocean, as well as for education, mentorship and outreach activities. The Hydrostation S project will contribute to the research and training of six research specialists and research technicians at BIOS and contribute to the research projects of at least three Ph.D. students through on-going educational partnership with Princeton University and the University of Southampton in the U.K. The one-day Hydrostation S research cruises are an ideal platform for testing new sensors and for providing hand-on training to undergraduate students enrolled in summer programs. The Hydrostation S project is designed to address the overarching hypothesis that the physical properties of the upper-ocean to deep-ocean are changing in concert with natural and anthropogenically influenced physical forcing. Sustained observations of the ocean, such as those from Hydrostation S, remain critically important to establish rates of change to provide quantitative empirical data for myriad regional and global ocean synthesis and modeling of ocean processes and future ocean change. The major objective of Hydrostation S into the seventh decade is to continue the frequent water column sampling of temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (and indirectly, sampling of important ocean carbon time?series) of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Such work is complementary to other sustained observations such as the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and Ocean Flux Program (OFP). As for the past five years, two CTD profiles will be conducted to better capture the deep-water variability while maintaining all the previous discrete depths. The first CTD cast will profile to full ocean depth (3,200-3,500 m) while the second CTD cast will profile from the surface to 500 m to allow for biogeochemical instrumentation not rated for full ocean depth and to support ancillary studies of ocean physics, biological processes and biogeochemistry. A secondary objective will be to build upon the collaborative comparison of physical data collected as part of two autonomous sensor projects. In the latter stages of the project, as ocean glider deployment becomes more sustainable and reliable, collaborative and comparative efforts will be used to test the capability of ocean gliders to provide data of sufficient quality to detect long-term oceanic change in a "virtual" mooring time-series mode. The robust and highly accurate Hydrostation S data will be used to test the capability of emerging technologies over the next five to ten years.

Long-term observations over several decades are a powerful tool for investigating ocean physics, biology, and chemistry, and the response of the oceans to environmental change. The Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series Study, known as BATS, has been running continuously since 1988. The research goals of the BATS program are: (1) to improve our understanding of the time-varying components of the ocean carbon cycle and the cycles of related nutrient elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon; and, (2) to identify the relevant physical, chemical and ecosystem properties responsible for this variability. In addition, the BATS program has strong and diverse broader impacts, contributing to the field of ocean sciences by providing high quality ocean observations and data for seagoing scientists and modelers, and a framework through which researchers can conceive and test hypotheses. This award will support the operations of the BATS program for five more years. The primary BATS research themes are as follows: (1) Quantify the role of ocean-atmosphere coupling and climate variability on air-sea exchange of CO2, and carbon export to the ocean interior; (2) Document trends and the controls on the interannual to decadal scale variability in carbon and nutrient cycles to their coupling in the surface and deep ocean via the Redfield Ratio paradigm; (3) Quantify the response of planktonic community structure and function, and impact on biogeochemical cycles to variability in surface fluxes and dynamical processes; (4) Facilitate development, calibration and validation of next generation oceanographic sensors, tools and technologies; and, (5) Generate a dataset that can be utilized by empiricists, modelers and students. This research integrates ocean physics, chemistry and biology into a framework for understanding oceanic processes and ocean change in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. The existing 29 years of BATS data provide robust constraints on seasonal and interannual variability, the response of the Sargasso Sea ecosystem to natural climate variability, and signal detection of potential ocean changes. This project would extend the BATS program through years 31-35 to address a series of ten interlinked questions through integrated research approaches and a multitude of collaborative efforts. In addition to the themes above, and embedded into the ten questions and approaches, the BATS team will focus on, for example, coupling of particle production and biogeochemistry; revisiting the complexities of the biological carbon pump; oxygen decline; and changes in the hydrography, physics, ocean carbon cycle and biogeochemistry of the Sargasso Sea. The highest quality data observation and collection will be maintained and used to address these questions. Importantly, a wide range of collaborations at the BATS site, spanning the physical and biogeochemical disciplines, will aid these broad goals. Strong links to community stakeholders, and close collaboration (including methods intercomparisons and personnel exchanges) with the Hawaii Ocean Time-series are proposed. This work will extend the research findings of the project into educational and training opportunities within and beyond the oceanographic community, including training and mentorship of both undergraduate and graduate students.

The purpose of this collaborative project is to advance understanding of the role of marine planktonic animals (or zooplankton) in the biological pump, or transport of carbon from surface to deeper ocean waters. This movement of carbon from surface to deep ocean water can ultimately affect carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with implications for global climate. Many marine zooplankton, including species of copepods and krill, play a direct role in the biological pump both because they are abundant and because they can migrate from surface waters at night, where they feed, to depths of more than 500 m at night. At the same time, some organisms called flux feeders will remain at depth and do not migrate. Instead, they rely on particles produced by other zooplankton feeding in surface waters. In this project, the investigators are focusing on populations of flux feeders in the deeper ocean waters of the Sargasso Sea. They are leveraging an ongoing long-term research program, conducting field collections using specialized nets and particle traps, as well lab experiments, as a way to understand how these organisms modify the particles around them. This project is supporting a postdoctoral scientist and providing research experiences for undergraduates at two institutions. An education specialist is creating lesson plans for an award-winning Ask-A-Biologist website, designed for public and K-12 audiences. Images of zooplankton will be disseminated to the public and scientific community via EcoTaxa (a web platform devoted to plankton biodiversity, with images and taxonomic annotation) and physical samples will be archived as part of a teaching library. The oceanic biological carbon pump refers to the export of dissolved and particulate organic carbon to the deep ocean, and it is a significant driver of atmospheric carbon uptake by the oceans. Evidence from long-term research carried out at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site suggests that the spectrum of particles collected by gel-traps below the euphotic zone changes drastically below 150 m, which is attributed to resident populations of zooplankton that feed on vertically migrating zooplankton as well as sinking particles. The goals of this study are to investigate the role of different zooplankton taxa on both particle aggregate formation and in particle transformation, and to compare and characterize the particles generated by the zooplankton communities with those collected by particle traps. The investigators are combining field collections with experiments onboard ship and in environmental chambers. They are collecting samples over two years, with three cruises a year to capture distinct seasons. They are assessing high-resolution vertical distribution of zooplankton in the upper 600 m using Multiple Opening-Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS) tows during day- and night-time, to distinguish diel vertical migrators from resident populations and to quantify contributions to particulate organic carbon flux via fecal pellet production. On each cruise, sinking particles are being collected using gel trap tubes attached to the particle traps deployed monthly at BATS. In addition, roller tank experiments are determining how individual zooplankton mediate aggregate formation. Particle types and fecal pellets are being characterized using image analysis and DNA-based analysis of microbial communities. Finally, ongoing data collection from the long-term BATS program is providing invaluable environmental context and will ensure results from this study contribute to ongoing community efforts to observe and predict the fate of carbon in our global system.

Project involves deployment and recovery of oceanographic equipment.

The research team proposes to the sample fluids and dissolved gases from this ascending slurry in three mud volcanoes that tap different pressure (depths ranging from 10 to 20 km) and temperature conditions at depth. These ascending fluids discharge from scientific boreholes that were emplaced during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 366. Prior to sampling these fluids, CORK-Lite instruments will be deployed to enable sampling operations. This infrastructure will also provide for a range of potential experimentation and monitoring efforts that can be used in the future. Specifically, the project will: (i) design, fabricate, and deploy CORK-Lites, (ii) sample discharging fluids with gas-tight and large volume sampling systems, (iii) analyze collected fluids for a range of solutes, dissolved gases, and isotopes, and (iv) measure borehole pressure and fluid discharge rates. The CORK-Lites will be sealed at the end of the field program for future experimentation and monitoring efforts. Results from this effort will test a model of abiotic methane formation, constrain the extent of serpentinization during the initial stages of subduction, set limits on potential microbial metabolic capabilities, and resolve water-rock reactions and solute sources.

Volatiles elements such as helium (He), carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) are exchanged between Earth’s exterior (atmosphere and oceans) and interior (crust and mantle) at convergent margins. Volatiles are input via subduction and released in volcanos and seeps across the entire arc system. The efficiency of this transfer controls mantle heterogeneities, Earth’s redox conditions, atmospheric evolution, and in turn, the global distribution of life. Despite the importance of global-scale deep volatile cycles, volatile fluxes have not been extensively studied in submarine volcanic forearcs, as these regions are notoriously difficult to access. Recently emplaced boreholes offer a unique opportunity to sample large volumes of deeply-sourced pristine volatile-laden fluids across a wide expanse of the submarine Mariana forearc. However, volatile outfluxes may be complicated by the fact that shallow forearc temperatures are amenable to life, and thus some of these deeply-derived (i.e., from the subducting slab and/or mantle) volatiles (e.g., CO 2 , CH 4 , NH 4 + ) may be altered by subsurface microbes. This project will determine forearc volatile fluxes, quantifying biological and geochemical reactions by comparing fluxes of reactive volatiles (C, N) with inert indicators of mantle contributions (e.g., He) and the relative activity levels of known microbial metabolic pathways. This project will leverage previously emplaced boreholes that have never been sampled for He, C, and N isotopes, or microbiology, to determine how volatile recycling efficiency is controlled by complex interactions between geochemical and biological processes in the Mariana forearc. Cased boreholes were recently installed in four active serpentinite mud volcanoes in the Southern Mariana forearc. Together, these four boreholes form a trench-parallel transect, enabling access to deep fluids from active serpentinite mud volcanoes across the Mariana forearc. This project will gather geochemical and biological data from these boreholes, enabling a systematic assessment of forearc volatile fluxes and the key processes (e.g., calcite precipitation, heterotrophy, autotrophy, respiration) mediating those fluxes. This will determine volatile (He, C and N) fluxes between Earth reservoirs and quantify their sources (slab, mantle wedge, crust) and sinks (geochemical and biological). Boreholes are located at different distances from the trench and the emanating fluids have varying pH and temperature; as such the dominant biological and geochemical processes at each borehole are expected to vary. This proposal piggybacks on a 25-day cruise scheduled for 2022 (PIs Wheat, Lang and Seewald; Funded Proposal #1922671) and will leverage rich datasets previously gathered at these sites, while adding important estimates of volatile sources and sinks with whole community assessments of metagenomic DNA (relative abundance of different microbial groups and microbial potential functions) and metatranscriptomic RNA (activity of these microbes and their functions).

Project involves deployment and recovery of oceanographic equipment.

This cruise is a transit for the GEOTRACES GP17-OCE expedition, which will mobilize in San Diego but will ultimately embark from Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. During the San Diego-Papeete transit, shipboard researchers will deploy a variety of floats and will test The GEOTRACES GP17-OCE expedition from Tahiti to Chile that will enable sampling for a broad suite of trace elements and isotopes (TEI) across oceanographic regions of importance to global nutrient and carbon cycling as part of the U.S. GEOTRACES program. GEOTRACES is a global effort in the field of Chemical Oceanography, the goal of which is to understand the distributions of trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean. Determining the distributions of these elements and isotopes will increase understanding of processes that shape their distributions, such as ocean currents and material fluxes, and also the processes that depend on these elements, such as the growth of phytoplankton and the support of ocean ecosystems. The proposed cruise will cross the South Pacific Gyre, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, iron-limited Antarctic waters, and the Chilean margin. In combination with a proposed companion GEOTRACES expedition on a research icebreaker (GP17-ANT) that will be joined by two overlapping stations, the team of investigators will create an ocean section from the ocean’s most nutrient-poor waters to its highly-productive Antarctic polar region – a region that plays an outsized role in modulating the global carbon cycle. The expedition will support and provide management infrastructure for additional participating science projects focused on measuring specific external fluxes and internal cycling of TEIs along this section. The South Pacific Gyre and Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean play critical roles in global water mass circulation and associated global transfer of heat, carbon, and nutrients, but they are chronically understudied for TEIs due to their remote locale. These are regions of strong, dynamic fronts where sub-surface water masses upwell and subduct, and biological and chemical processes in these zones determine nutrient stoichiometries and tracer concentrations in waters exported to lower latitudes. The Pacific sector represents an end member of extremely low external TEI surface fluxes and thus an important region to constrain inputs from the rapidly-changing Antarctic continent. Compared to other ocean basins, TEI cycling in these regions is thought to be dominated by internal cycling processes such as biological uptake, regeneration, and scavenging, and these are poorly represented in global ocean models. The cruise will enable funded investigators to address research questions such as: 1) what are relative rates of external TEI fluxes to this region, including dust, sediment, hydrothermal, and cryospheric fluxes? 2) What are the (micro) nutrient regimes that support productivity, and what impacts do biomass accumulation, export, and regeneration have on TEI cycling and stoichiometries of exported material? 3) What are TEI and nutrient stoichiometries of subducting water masses, and how do scavenging and regeneration impact these during transport northward? This management project has several objectives: 1) plan and coordinate a 55-day research cruise in 2021-2022; 2) use both conventional and trace-metal ‘clean’ sampling systems to obtain TEI samples, as well as facilitate sampling for atmospheric aerosols and large volume particles and radionuclides; 3) acquire hydrographic data and samples for salinity, dissolved oxygen, algal pigments, and macro-nutrients; and deliver these data to relevant repositories; 4) ensure that proper QA/QC protocols, as well as GEOTRACES intercalibration protocols, are followed and reported; 5) prepare the final cruise report to be posted with data; 6) coordinate between all funded cruise investigators, as well as with leaders of proposed GP17-ANT cruise; and 7) conduct broader impact efforts that will engage the public in oceanographic research using immersive technology. The motivations for, and at-sea challenges of this work will be communicated to the general public through creation of immersive 360/Virtual Reality experiences, via a collaboration with the Texas A&M University Visualization LIVE Lab. Through Virtual Reality, users will experience firsthand what life and TEI data collection at sea entail. Virtual reality/digital games and 360° experiences will be distributed through GEOTRACES outreach websites, through PI engagement with local schools, libraries, STEM summer camps, and adult service organizations, and through a collaboration with the National Academy of Sciences.

Over the course of 5 years, GO-BGC is deploying a total of 500 robotic biogeochemical profiling floats, transforming the US Biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) fleet to a global reach. On each deployment cruise, almost all of which are cruises of opportunity with other lead science projects, GO-BGC deploys an average of 6 to 10 floats. GO-BGC floats are equipped with chemical and biological sensors and are being distributed globally in open ocean waters deeper than 2000 meters. The resulting GO-BGC array will be a major contribution to BGC Argo, which is a major extension of the highly successful Argo network of ~4000 robotic floats. Argo floats drift freely at 1000 meters depth and profile from 2000 meters depth to the surface every 10 days. At the surface, the profile data and the float position are transmitted to shore via satellite communication systems, and are publicly available within 24 hours. The BGC-Argo floats carry a suite of proven sensors for oxygen, pH, nitrate, chlorophyll fluorescence, particle abundance, and irradiance in addition to the standard Argo temperature, salinity, and pressure sensors. Each of these corresponds to an Essential Ocean Variable or Essential Climate Variable identified by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The array is being deployed with relatively even spacing through close coordination with other agencies and nations. Floats carry sufficient batteries for over 200 profiles from 2000 m to the surface (> 5.5 year life at a 10 day profiling interval). The data are being processed and delivered by internet to the US Argo Data Assembly Center in near real-time (typically < 24 hours) with simultaneous quality control to yield a product suitable for research. These data are freely available immediately. The float BGC sensors are calibrated independently of local water sampling. However, because of the relative sparsity of in situ oceanographic data for comparison, it is highly preferable to collect a high quality hydrographic validation profile at the deployment location and time, including water samples that are analyzed for HPLC and particulate organic carbon (POC), macronutrients (emphasis on nitrate), and, if possible, pH/TAlk and dissolved oxygen. Such water sample data are collected from sampling bottles on a rosette with a CTD for continuous temperature, salinity and pressure profiling. GO-BGC can and does augment measurements that are being made by the principal project on the ship in order to obtain these in situ observations. An example would be deployments during a GO-SHIP cruise, with augmentation of sampling to include HPLC at the deployment locations, of which there could be about 10 during a cruise that has typically more than 100 high quality station profiles. On transits, if a region is particularly high priority in being difficult to reach and cover, GO-BGC might request a small amount of additional shiptime (2 hours per float for up to 10 floats) to carry out the validation profile measurements.

Ship time dedicated to facilitate experiential learning for UGA and USG graduate and undergraduate students.

Characterization of the biological and chemical properties of dissolved organic matter in subsurface and surface microlayer waters of the western North Atlantic Ocean to establish a mechanistic understanding of conditions that promote surfactant accumulation that can influence air-sea gas exchanges. This work will include cruises during a high productivity period (between May and August) and a low productivity period (November). Four stations varying in relative productivity will be sampled. These stations will represent Delaware Bay, the coastal western Atlantic Ocean (~25km offshore), a productive open ocean region (~200km offshore), and an oligotrophic open ocean region (also ~200 km offshore). Stations will be occupied for 2 days on each cruise and surface waters (<1m) and surface microlayer waters will be collected throughout the day and night. Samples will be analyzed for their biological, chemical, and physical properties to better understand the controls on surfactant organic matter accumulation in the surface ocean.

Pioneer Array servicing of moorings approximately every 6 months through 2023.