By Tara Hicks Johnson

Some UH Mānoa oceanographers are currently on an Antarctic cruise studying the consequences of the abrupt collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in the fall of 2002. They’ve set up a cruise blog, and are one month in on a two-month long cruise.

They have been posting some absolutely incredible photos, and it’s a great overview about what life is like for researchers who go to sea. To follow them on this adventure, visit the cruise blog at http://uhmanoa-antarctic-research-larissa.blogspot.com/.

I asked one of our UH Mānoa participants and a Principal Investigator, Craig Smith, about what has happened so far, and the coming month. He reports: 

“We are now entering the second month of the LARISSA cruise, after spending a month on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula because of heavy sea ice on the eastern side in the Weddell Sea.  We have completed much of the terrestrial ice coring and glaciology on the Peninsula, supported by Twin Otter airplanes and helicopters. We also completed a study of the physics and biology of climate sensitive fjord ecosystems on the west Antarctic Peninsula, which have been very poorly study and appear to contain remarkable levels of biomass and biodiversity.  

“We are now breaking our way through the ice back into the Weddell Sea where we hope to undertake the oceanography components of the project, studying seafloor and water-column communities and processes in areas liberated from the ice shelf at different times, ranging from 1-16 years ago.  This will allow us to see how normal Antarctic marine food webs form following release from the very food-poor conditions beneath ice shelves.

“Our work will be very interdisciplinary, involving physical oceanographic moorings to study current regimes and particle flux over the next two years, studies of phytoplankton standing stock and productivity, and sampling of seafloor communities in all size classes to assess patterns of biodiversity and food web structure.  We will also utilize an ROV to search for and sample the first cold seep reported from the Southern Ocean, which occurs in our study area.”

Follow the blog written by Craig and others, and post some comments/questions.  Then stay tuned to UH Mānoa Campus Talk for an update of their findings, when they return to warm, sunny Hawai‘i in March!

Conducting a plankton tow from a zodiac inflatable boat with a Flanders Bay glacier and mountains as backdrop. Photo credit: UH Manoa Oceanography

UH Mānoa Oceanographer Craig Smith uses a Kovacs Ice Corer to take an ocean water sample. The party in the background is collecting additional ice cores and measuring the sea-ice temperature. Photo credit: UH Mānoa Oceanography

 

Tara Hicks Johnson (M.S. 2002, Geology and Geophysics) is the Outreach Specialist for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (www.soest.hawaii.edu) on the UH Mānoa campus.  See http://manoa.hawaii.edu/.

Tags: Antarctic, Craig Smith, LARISSA cruise, UH Manoa Oceanography, Weddell Sea

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.