Report of Activities
on the RVIB N.B. Palmer Cruise 02-02
14 May 2002
On 14 May, the Palmer
was again working for a good portion of the day in the survey grid area off to
the northwest of
The activities on 14 May consisted of completing the last
two CTDs along the transect down the axis of the
Marguerite Trough started on 13 May, re-doing the towyo
section with BIOMAPER-II from station 10 to station 8 on survey line 2, doing a
new BIOMAPER-II run from station 6 into Crystal Sound looking for krill, and
deploying a sonobuoy during the transit between
stations 10 and 8. The first BIOMAPER-II
towyo took place from early morning to early
afternoon. During the transit, a series of XBT's were
dropped in the vicinity of station 9, a place where water of anomalous temperature
indicating offshore origin had previously been seen. The second towyo started in the early evening after steaming over to
station 6 and lasted until mid-evening.
During the second section, large patches of krill were surveyed in the
vicinity of the
CTD Group report (John Klinck, Tim Boyer, Chris Mackay,
Julian Ashford, Andres Sepulveda, Kristin Cobb)
Today the CTD group did two CTD casts and 6 XBT drops. The
two CTD casts completed the line of stations along Marguerite Trough. These
stations showed a similar structure to that at the previous three, with some indication
of offshore water in the bottom 100 m of the water column. However, the signal at these stations was
rather weak. Rob Masserini and Yulia
Serebrennikova reported that bottom silicate
concentrations were 116 uM in the deeper (southern)
parts of the trough confirming that this water was from similar depths in the
Antarctic Circumpolar Current. There was
an indication at station MT5, closest to the shelf edge, that
this water was now spilling onto the shelf.
The 6 XBT (T-4 probes) were dropped in the transit from
station 10 to 8 when we received a report from Peter Wiebe
of 1.8ºC water at depth. XBT's were dropped at 30
minute intervals (approximately 2.5 nm separation) starting a couple of nm NW
of station 9. The deep temperature maximum reached 1.55ºC, but no Upper
Circumpolar Deep Water was detected. During the setup for these measurements,
we noticed that there was no ice cover and the surface temperature was -1.1ºC,
which was well above the typical -1.7ºC that we had been seeing. Once south of station
9, surface temperature returned to -1.7ºC and ice cover was again present.
Station 97 aka
MT4 (cast 105, 598 m). The uniform surface layer extended to 70 m (-1.4ºC,
33.6 psu, 0.15 ug/l
chlorophyll). A weak Winter Water layer
was seen between 85 and 100 m. The pycnocline had
some small-scale temperature and salinity variability. A thin temperature maximum layer (1.5ºC) was
at 330 m. Below 500 m to the bottom was
a layer of slightly higher oxygen and lower temperature.
Station 98 aka
MT5 (cast 106, 606 m). The uniform surface layer extended to 55 m (-1.4ºC,
33.6 psu, 0.15 ug/l
chlorophyll). The pycnocline
extended to 200 m with some thin, but strong temperature layers. A thin (30 m) temperature maximum (1.5ºC)
occurred at 275 m. Below 530 m to the bottom was a layer of slightly higher
oxygen and lower temperature.
Phytoplankton Primary Production (Wendy Kozlowski, Kristy
Aller)
Week four of sampling (4 May-10 May) for the primary
production group brought to a close the water collection on the main sampling
grid. Seven more simulated in situ
(SIS) experiments were completed at stations 72, 75, 78, 82, 85, 88, and 91,
showing continued low production (4.0 to 16.3 mgC/m2/d) in this Southern end of
the grid. FRRF was deployed as part of the CTD rosette in nineteen
more locations, including a second shallow cast at station 91. Unfortunately, the last four of these were
not recorded due to an unknown instrument error (which seems to have since been
resolved).
Chlorophylls continued to be sampled at twelve depths per
CTD cast, and results show a trend matching production, with continued lower chlorophyll
in the south than in the north. There
appears to be an onshore offshore gradient as well on the six southernmost
transects of the grid, with chlorophyll a levels ranging from as low as 8.9
mgC/m2 inshore to as high as 84.1 mgC/m2 (integrated to 100m). Particulate carbon samples were also
preserved at eleven more stations during week four.
Sea ice was sampled at five more locations during this
week. Slush from between large pancakes
(approximately 1m in diameter) was sampled using a bucket over the side of the
ship as we departed station 78, and gray ice (5-7 cm thick) was sampled from
the personnel basket at station 84. At
stations 76, 85 and 92, full cores were taken from multi-year floes, and at
station 92, two additional cores were collected, one for an integrated biology
sample, and one split and melted undiluted for salinity and nutrients. A partial ice thickness transect was
completed (ice thickness measured at two meter intervals for ten meters) at
this ice station as well. Chlorophyll
was measured, samples were collected for particulate carbon, and at least one
production experiment was run per section from all cores and bucket ice
samples, and nutrients and salinities were measured in those samples that were
not diluted.
Marine Mammal report (Debra Glasgow)
Tuesday, 14 May dawned to find the Palmer in open water for a change with
At 1020, two humpbacks surfaced 1.5 nautical miles ahead at
180º, swimming 040º towards us. They were repeatedly diving – raising their
flukes, staying underwater for several minutes, then resurfacing to blow 2-3
times. At no time was any white seen on the flukes. They were swimming towards
the ship, but passed abeam over 1 km away to starboard - too far for photos,
especially as the light was very poor so early on such an overcast day. Ana Sirovic had deployed a sonobuoy
not long before the sighting and some humpback sound was recorded. This was the
only cetacean sighting for the day.
By 1158, we entered the ice edge into 8/10 pancake, grease,
a few growlers, and shuga. It was not long after that fur seal sighting
were made. A total of 19 fur seals were counted for the day, most on very small
ice floes. Two crabeater seals were on an ice floe near the end of the day, and
interestingly we again saw a small grouping of leopard seals - 6 in total, on
separate floes between 1430 (66 41.06ºS;
68 57.22ºW ) and 1547 (66 36.55ºS;
68.40.13ºW). Other seals were visible in the distance using binoculars,
but were too far away to identify. The marine mammal survey ended at 1549 in
poor light not long after the Palmer
began the transit through many icebergs towards
Zooplankton (MOCNESS/BIOMAPER-II) report (Carin Ashjian, Peter Wiebe)
There were two towyo sections completed with BIOMAPER-II during 14 May. The first was along survey line 2 from station 10 to station 8. The reason for repeating this line was to look for evidence about the persistence of a striking diatom bloom that had been present in a large area of the outer shelf early in the cruise (e.g. see report for April 16), but was largely absent in the southern portion of the grid. In addition, it provided an opportunity to re-examine the presence of anomalously warm water in this region of the shelf where there had been a number of fish-like targets about 160 m below the surface that seemed to be more abundant than elsewhere along the survey line. On this towyo, the VPR data displayed the presence of diatoms in the mixed layer during the first portion of the run, but the impression was, not in the numbers seen earlier. Relatively high temperature water (~ 1.8ºC) was seen below 200 m, but only on one profile in the vicinity of station 10. There were a number of fish-like targets again present near station 9, starting at about 160 m and going down to about 300 m, as had been seen previously and essentially none were present on either end of the section. For most of the run, there was very light backscattering in the mixed layer and a zone of moderate backscattering starting at the top of the pycnocline that varied between being either diffuse or in the form of thin layers. In water that was about 470 m deep, there was a scattering layer 140 thick above the bottom with a more intense zone about 20 thick right at the bottom.
With information from Meng Zhou
about the scattering layers he encountered while the L.M Gould was steaming north along the Western side of Adelaide
Island and into Crystal Sound on the 12th and 13th of May on their way back to
Palmer Station and then Punta Arenas, we decided to do a BIOMAPER-II transect
from grid station 6 on survey line 1 into Crystal Sound where krill and their
predators (penguins, seals, whales and seabirds) were reported to be in high
numbers - a distance of about 22 nm. Low
to moderate scattering levels were encountered during the first portion of this
run, but on entering Matha Strait, which leads into
Crystal Sound, very large concentrations of krill were encountered in layers
and patches that equaled some of those we observed in the near shore waters off
of the west coast of Alexander Island.
Once through the straits and into the western portion of
Cheers, Peter