Northern Bering
and Chukchi
Seas 2007
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Researchers Jackie Grebmeier and Lee
Cooper, their science party, and high school science teacher
Betty Carvellas
will continue their 2007 research in the Bering
and Chukchi Seas aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Service
icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier in a continuing
multi-national collaboration that is studying the impacts of
climate variability on the Western Arctic circulation and
associated ecosystems. In 2007 and 2008 this program is embedded
in a larger International Polar Year (IPY) effort called C3O:
Canada's Three Oceans. This "time-series" study has a central
goal of better understanding the ecological forces at work in the
water column and the sediments in the Arctic. The sediments in
the Bering and Chukchi Seas are ecological importance because
this system is home to top benthic (seafloor)-feeding predators
such as the spectacled eider (a threatened population of diving
sea ducks), walruses and gray whales, which are responding to a
changing marine environment. A good summary of the results of
this continuing project is included in a paper published in
Science in March 2006. As a public service, Science is making
this paper available without charge through a special link at
this webpage:
http://arctic.bio.utk.edu/#AEO. This summer cruise will
continue a 2007 spring effort in the northern Bering Sea just
completed on the USCGC Healy and further information from this
spring Healy cruise and the current Sir Wilfrid Laurier 1007
cruise are both found at the expedition website
http://arctic.bio.utk.edu
Data collections in the Bering and
Chukchi Seas on the Laurier cruise will include hydrographic
sampling for plant chlorophyll, nutrients and water mass tracers,
as well as studies of benthic organisms that live on the bottom
of the sea and the characteristics of their environment. The core
focus of Grebmeier and Cooper's research is on time-series
measurements of water and sediment parameters in the northern
Bering and Chukchi Seas, supported over the years by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Other scientists from the U.S.
and Canada onboard the ship will collect phytoplankton and
zooplankton samples, use a towed bio-acoustic package to study
zooplankton, continuously measure seawater temperature and
salinity near the surface, and use a lowered camera system to
observe the benthic environment.
Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper are professors of ecology and
evolutionary biology at the University of Tennessee. Over the
last 20 years, Jackie's field research program in both the Arctic
and Antarctic has focused on such topics as understanding
biological productivity in arctic waters and sediments and
documenting longer-term trends in ecosystem health of arctic
continental shelves, including studying the importance of bottom
dwelling organisms to higher levels of the arctic food web, such
as walrus, gray whale, and diving sea ducks. Lee's scientific
focus is the marine biogeochemical cycle using both stable and
radioactive isotopes, along with traditional oceanographic
measurements, such as water column chlorophyll a and nutrients.
Betty Carvellas teaches biology and is serving as co-chair of the
science department at Essex High School in Essex Junction,
Vermont. One of Betty's goals is to bring science alive for her
students and to relate classroom work to real world issues. "It's
a thrill to watch students get excited about science when they
see its relevance to their everyday lives and they begin to
appreciate the complexities of scientific research and
interpretation of evidence." Another goal of Betty's is for all
of her students to understand that science is not just for an
elite few. Her hope is that students will appreciate the nature
of science and the wonder of the natural world around them.
For more information on Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper's Arctic
research projects, please go to:
http://arctic.bio.utk.edu and link to "Arctic Environmental
Observatory" and/or "North Bering Sea". The CCGS Sir Wilfrid
Laurier passes through the Bering Strait region every year in
July while on a navigational aids mission in the Canadian Arctic
from its base in Victoria, British Columbia. Fisheries and Oceans
Canada, the Canadian government ministry that operates the Sir
Wilfrid Laurier (named for the first French Canadian prime
minister of Canada) has been regularly making the ship available
to Canadian and international scientists in conjunction with
researchers from the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, B.C.
who help coordinate the overall international effort.
Main Canadian Coast Guard Page for
CCGS SIR WILFRID
LAURIER
C3O (Canada's Three
Oceans) project
Teacher Betty Carvellas
Journals
Jackie's periodic updates
Laurier 2007 Photo Gallery
********************************************************************************************************************
Dear All,
for those still wondering who the one running
around with the fluffy microphone might be: I am a science
reporter with the German Public Radio and besides the recording I
am posting photos and journals about the journey on our webpage.
It is all in German but you are very welcome to have a look at it
or forward it to any German speaking friends:
http://www.dradio.de/dlf
Thanks for having me on board!
Monika
Page last updated by Kim Harmon 07/13/2007