Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 02:23:54 -0500 To: mpc@lmg.usap.gov From: Hugh Ducklow Subject: SITREP 1 Cc: vernetma@lmg.usap.gov, rossro@lmg.usap.gov, pickerbr@lmg.usap.gov, gary lecleir , ducklohu@lmg.usap.gov LM GOULD Cruise 05-01 Palmer LTER January Cruise 2005 Situation Report LM Gould departed Punta Arenas Chile on 29 December, 2004 bound for Palmer Station Antarctica to commence the 14th consecutive January cruise of the Palmer, Antarctica Long-Term Ecological Research project (PAL). The overall goal of PAL is the understand the linkages between climate and the annual variations and long-term trends in the advance and retreat of sea ice as they affect the dynamics of the Antarctic coastal marine ecosystem. We departed Palmer on 04 January and are currently conducting operations at Station 500.060 near Renaud Island. This cruise should be interesting. The sea ice has persisted longer and more extensively this spring than in the last 10-15 years. Recent ice imagery indicates that about 25% of our sampling grid is still covered by sea ice. We attempted to reach the penguin colony near the southern tip of Renaud to place satellite tags on penguins, but were forced to abort the attempt due to heavy sea ice. Very unusual for January. Many thanks to RPSC, ECO and AGUNSA staff in Punta Arenas, at Palmer Station and aboard LMG for staging our expedition. Individual reports follow: B-013-L PAL LTER Seabird Ecology Principal Investigator: Bill Fraser Field Team: Peter Horne and Brett Pickering Our team's objectives for the cruise are to identify Adelie penguin foraging "hot spots" along the Western Antarctic Peninsula, conduct sea bird census on the LTER grid, and to determine the diets of penguins at Renaud and Avian Islands. We will be deploying satellite transmitters to track the Adelies between their colonies and feeding areas. A five-day field camp will be setup on Avian Island. We would like to thank Palmer Station science support and IT and Comms for assistance with materials for cruise. B-016-L PAL LTER Phytoplankton Ecology Principal Investigator: Maria Vernet Field Team: Karie Sines, Eli Loomis, Austen Thomas, Jessica Spence The goals of our project are to characterize the ecology and physiology of phytoplankton including daily primary production rates and photosynthetic pigments in relation to environmental parameters: nutrients, total particulate carbon and nitrogen, upwelling and downwelling irradiance in the ultraviolet and visible range. Microzooplankton grazing experiments will be performed in a range of phytoplankton biomass to estimate loss by grazing at various conditions. During this week we transit from Punta Arenas to Palmer Station, have moved operations from the station to the ship to start the science. We thank personnel on the ARSV LMG Gould, Palmer Station and Punta Arenas for logistical support of this project. B-045-L PAL LTER Zooplankton and Micronekton Principal Investigators: Robin Ross (on LMG) and Langdon Quetin (at Palmer Station) Field Team: Lyndon Valicenti, Gregory Quetin, Kelly Moore, Stephen Holloway, Katie Davis, Diane Chakos Our focus is on the community composition and abundance of the zooplankton and micronekton in the LTER study region, and the role of specific members in the food dynamics of the region. We use both net tows and bioacoustic transects to quantify the zooplankton community, and to characterize the aggregations of species such as Antarctic krill and the salp, Salpa thompsoni. In situ growth and egg production experiments for Antarctic krill conducted on board yield data on the productivity of this key species on multiple time and space scales. At selected stations we will also measure a grazing activity index for the two major macrozooplanktonic grazers, Antarctic krill and salps. We send a special thank you to both our team members at Palmer Station (Langdon Quetin and Josh Sprague) who helped set up for the cruise during the busy port call at Palmer Station, and to RPSC staff on the LM Gould who were of great help as we tested equipment during the first station. B-045-L PAL LTER Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry Principal Investigator: Hugh Ducklow Field Team: Nicole Middaugh, Elizabeth Waterson, Kristen France, Robert Daniels, William Ducklow The goals of our project are to characterize several key biogeochemical properties (oxygen, dissolved inorganic and organic carbon, lipid biomarkers) microbial standing stocks and production rates (thymidine and leucine incorporation), and particle sedimentation (using a moored sediment trap) in the full depth of the water column across the PAL regional sampling grid. Separate experiments are planned at three 24-hr process stations located near the major penguin breeding sites at Anvers, Renaud and Adelaide Islands. Special thanks to B045-P members Michele Cochran and Taylor Heyl as well as Palmer Station RPSC staff for aiding in staging and set up for our project. B-114 PAL LTER Microbial Ecology and Molecular Microbial Ecology Principal Investigator: James T. Hollibaugh Field Team: Matthew Erickson and Gary LeCleir The goals of our project are to measure the rates of microbial oxidation of ammonium and other nitrogen species. Experiments are conducted using chemical inhibitors that "block" ammonium oxidation at different points in the reaction, enabling us to measure the accumulation of certain species in the incubations. The accumulation of these species will enable us to calculate rates of activity of specific steps in the oxidation of ammonium We will also be extracting DNA from large quantities of water to construct large insert DNA libraries to probe for functional genes involved in the different steps of this pathway. Separate experiments are planned at three 24 hour process stations to look at what size fraction of the microbial assemblage is responsible for the oxidation of ammonium. We will also be investigating effects of UV on the rates of this process during the cruise. Hugh Ducklow Aboard the research vessel LM GOULD Palmer LTER Cruise Jan05 ----------------------------------------------------------- Hugh Ducklow Phone: 804-684-7180 School of Marine Science Fax: 804-684-7293 The College of William and Mary Email: duck@vims.edu Box 1346 Courier: Rte. 1208, Greate Road, Gloucester point, VA 23062-1346 http://www.vims.edu/bio/microbial/ ================================= Andrew Nunn Raytheon Polar Services Company Marine Projects Coordinator R/V LAURENCE M. GOULD email to: mpc@lmg.usap.gov ----------------------------------------------------------