| NSF Org: |
OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 26, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 26, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1355833 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Henrietta Edmonds
hedmonds@nsf.gov (703)292-7427 OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $338,109.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $338,109.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
874 TRADITIONS WAY TALLAHASSEE FL US 32306-0001 (850)644-5260 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
FL US 32306-4320 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Chemical Oceanography, ANS-Arctic Natural Sciences |
| Primary Program Source: |
0100XXXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
In pursuit of its goal "to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions", in 2015 the International GEOTRACES Program will embark on several years of research in the Arctic Ocean. In a region where climate warming and general environmental change are occurring at amazing speed, research such as this is important for understanding the current state of Arctic Ocean geochemistry and for developing predictive capability as the regional ecosystem continues to warm and influence global oceanic and climatic conditions. The three investigators funded on this award, will manage a large team of U.S.scientists who will compete through the regular NSF proposal process to contribute their own unique expertise in marine trace metal, isotopic, and carbon cycle geochemistry to the U.S. effort. The three managers will be responsible for arranging and overseeing at-sea technical services such as hydrographic measurements, nutrient analyses, and around-the-clock management of on-deck sampling activites upon which all participants depend, and for organizing all pre- and post-cruise technical support and scientific meetings. The management team will also lead educational outreach activities for the general public in Nome and Barrow, Alaska, to explain the significance of the study to these communities and to learn from residents' insights on observed changes in the marine system. The project itself will provide for the support and training of a number of pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers. Inasmuch as the Arctic Ocean is an epicenter of global climate change, findings of this study are expected to advance present capability to forecast changes in regional and globlal ecosystem and climate system functioning.
As the United States' contribution to the International GEOTRACES Arctic Ocean initiative, this project will be part of an ongoing multi-national effort to further scientific knowledge about trace elements and isotopes in the world ocean. This U.S. expedition will focus on the western Arctic Ocean in the boreal summer of 2015. The scientific team will consist of the management team funded through this award plus a team of scientists from U.S. academic institutions who will have successfully competed for and received NSF funds for specific science projects in time to participate in the final stages of cruise planning. The cruise track segments will include the Bering Strait, Chukchi shelf, and the deep Canada Basin. Several stations will be designated as so-called super stations for intense study of atmospheric aerosols, sea ice, and sediment chemistry as well as water-column processes. In total, the set of coordinated international expeditions will involve the deployment of ice-capable research ships from 6 nations (US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, UK, and Russia) across different parts of the Arctic Ocean, and application of state-of-the-art methods to unravel the complex dynamics of trace metals and isotopes that are important as oceanographic and biogeochemical tracers in the sea.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The mission of the GEOTRACES Program (www.geotraces.org) is "to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions". This is extremely relevant to the Arctic, where rapid climate change and accompanying biogeochemical responses are occurring. This project provided the core support to carry out the US GEOTRACES transect in the western Arctic, in collaboration with pan-Arctic efforts from a large international community. These expeditions involved the deployment of ice-capable research ships from 3 nations (US, Canada, Germany) across different parts of the Arctic Ocean in 2015, and application of state of the art geochemical tracers to unravel the complex biogeochemical dynamics of the Arctic Ocean and its continental shelves. Scientists from countries without icebreaker capability also participated in this endeavor.
This project provided the essential support for other investigators who were funded through individual science proposals. Support was used to (1) plan and coordinate a 65 day research cruise; (2) obtain samples for a wide variety of TEIs using a conventional CTD/rosette, the contamination-free GEOTRACES CTD/carousel sampling system, and an atmospheric sampling system (for aerosols and precipitation); (3) acquire appropriate hydrographic data including CTD (with transmissometer, fluorometer, and oxygen sensor) and water samples for salinity, dissolved oxygen, plant pigments, and nutrients at micro- and nanomolar levels; (4) acquire TEI samples from the ice environment, (snow, melt pond, and ocean-ice interface); (5) collect surface sediment samples for TEI analyses; (6) ensure proper QA/QC and GEOTRACES inter-laboratory calibration protocols are followed and reported; (7) prepare and deliver all hydrographic data to the GEOTRACES Data Center and US data centers; and (8) coordinate cruise communications among investigators, including preparation of a hydrographic report/publication.
This expedition was historic for two reasons. It marked the first time a US surface ship arrived unaccompanied to the pole. Second, this project involved the deployment of three ice-capable research ships from three nations (the U.S., Canada, and Germany) to sample concurrently across different regions of the Arctic Ocean.
Bill Schmoker, our on-board PolarTREC science teacher, posted over 65 blogs (with descriptive text and photos) to the PolarTREC web site: www.polartrec.com/expeditions/us-arctic-geotraces/ and https://www.youtube.com/user/PolarTRECProgram/
Florida International University produced a very high quality video of the research expedition. Journey to the top of the world http://arctic.fiu.edu/
We engaged hundreds of young students through our Float Your Boat outreach project. Over 1200 small wooden drifter boats were decorated by students from around the US with their names and contact information, then deployed on the ice in the Arctic along with satellite tracking buoys so they could be followed as the ice moves through the Arctic. Eventually, the ice melted and the boats and buoys were released into the water. Two of the buoys ran aground in the high Canadian Arctic. One of the boats was recently recovered from a beach in Iceland. http://www.geotraces.org/news-50/news/116-news/1588-float-your-boat
Last Modified: 03/05/2019
Modified by: William M Landing
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