HIGHLIGHTS FROMRUSALCA 2009
RUSSIAN-AMERICAN LONG-TERM CENSUS OF THEARCTIC
Kathleen Crane, Arctic Research Program, CPO NOAA, USA U.S. Oversight for RUSALCAAleksey Ostrovskiy, Group Alliance, Russia, Russian Federation Oversight for RUSALCA
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Recent Changes in the Arctic Ocean Sea IceCover, 2009: RUSALCA Region of Study
RUSALCA
Le$mul)yearice(thicknessandagechange)RonKwok(JPL)
Rightseaiceextentreduc)on.NSIDC
Icecoveragethisyearinseptember;
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2009 STATION LOCATIONS
Photos Courtesy of A. Ostrovskiy
Itshowsthehighlightsofthe2009RUSALCAprogram(RussianAmericanLongtermCensusoftheArc)c).Nextyearin2010willcon)nuetousetheR/VKhromovtoservicetheBeringStraitmoorings.
Gotuptothepockmarksthisyear.Noevidenceofmethane.
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Fluxes Through the Bering Strait: Leg 1
• moorings in Bering Strait showdecrease salinity, increasefreshwater flux, and temperature
• revised Bering Strait FW influxupwards from 1989
• Bering Strait is the largestArctic “river” (~40% offreshwater)
• 10% of earth’s freshwater flowsinto the smallest ocean with thehighest proportion of shelf
• currently 7 joint US-Russianmoorings part of RUSALCA
• 2009 Eastern Strait fresher &cooler… waiting for Westerndata
Bering Strait
Rebecca Woodgate, UW, Chief ScientistElena Bondareva, AARI mooring head
Photos courtesy of A.Ostrovskiy and K. Crane
MaintaskismonitoringfluxesthroughStrait;needtodothatw/Russia;servicemooringseveryyear.Tempshavebeenincreasingandsalini)esdecreasinginlastseveralyears.Gateway;an)cipateenhancedcoopera)on.
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Changes in Hydrography: Leg 2R.S. Pickart, H.N. Swartz and D.J. Torres, Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionE. Bondareva, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
134 CTD stations during Leg 2WHOI provided rosette mounted with 21 10-literbottles, Sea-Bird model SBE 911 + CTD profiler, upwardand downward looking RDI Workshorse300 kHz ADCP,and a SeaScan Video Plankton RecorderHigh speed survey of the Herald Canyon was carriedout, investigation of the area around Wrangel Island, inthe East Siberian Sea and above the Chukchi Plateau.Hydrographic conditions were greatly different from2004 (Maybe a seasonal effect).Water masses on the western side of Herald Canyonwere warmer than in 2004. On the eastern side of thecanyon, the summer water reached farther north than in2004The Siberian Coastal Current extended more than 70km offshore in 2009. It was not present during the 2004expedition. Photo courtesy of RAS-NOAA, RUSALCA 2009
WHOIandRussianteam–illustratesphysicalhydrographyconductedin2009mostlyincanyonwaters;tryingtogetahandleonquan)fyingfluxratefromPacifictoArc)cthroughtheBeringstrait.
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Ecosystem-CO2 Variability in the Region ofExtreme Sea Ice Change
• In 2008 NOAA funded thePCO2 sampling in the ArcticOcean using the ChineseVessel Xue Long. Theresults showed: a verylarge CO2 sink < 380 ppmin the entire region,including in the ice
• In 2009 Nick Bates carriedout CO2 studies duringRUSALCA Leg 2 north to77°30’N.
Photo Courtesy of Dan Torres
Startedoceanacidifica)on.FirstputinstrumentsonChinesevessel;discoveredahugeCO2sinkundertheice.Thisyearwe’redoingthesamplingontheRussianship.FirsttwoyearstolookatthechangingCO2inupperoceanofarc)cinareasofseaiceandwhereicejustdisappearedforthefirst)me.Wethinkseaicehasamajorimpactonpreven)ngCO2intotheocean.
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PACIFIC-ARCTIC SEAFLOOR FLUXOBSERVATIONS : Tatiana Matveeva and Liza Logvina P.Is
Objective is to determine themagnitude and distribution of theflux of methane from submarinepermafrost into the Arctic Ocean
Instrumentation is suppliedfrom VNIIOkeangeologia,Russia,: A SONIC deep-waterside-looking sonar 30Khz andsub-bottom profiler were usedfor the investigations.
Investigations took place alongthe Herald Canyon and above apockmark field located on theChukchi Plateau. To date, noevidence of present day methanefluxes have been located
Multibeam sonar map from Healy, 2003, 76.5°N
Bocomright:USmul)beammapfromHealyin2003.w/SidescanfromRussia.Topis30Khzsonarw/onav.Illustratessonarimagery.Lookingforven)ngbutfoundnonebuttookcores.Nothingfoundinthewatercolumn.
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Climate Change Impacts On Benthic LifeZoological Institute of RAS S. Denisenko, P. Strelkov, D. Petrova,UAF S. MIncks J. Weems (Iken and Bluhm), UMD, J. Grebmeier, L. Cooper
INITIAL RESULTS:29 Van Veen Grabs; 270 Tissue Samples from Trawl
•Genetic Relational Studies to be carried out between Atlantic and Pacific Arctic Species.•Zoobenthic biomass to NW of Wrangel is much higher in 2009 than in previous years. High density oflarge isopods.
•Highest infaunal biomass at the head of Herald Valley: hotspot of Macoma bivalves
•Pockmark site lowest observed biomass
•Oxygen uptake highest under Anadyr water and East Siberian Sea and Long Strait. Large isopods
•Video imagery illustrated that benthic biomass is heavily underestimated by Van Veen sampling.
Photos RAS-NOAARUSALCA 2009
TeamofzoologistsfromST.PtandUS(largeteam);goalstorevisitsitesthataresen)nelsitesinRussiaandUStolookforbenthicchangesrelatedtophysicalchanges;mostlyshallowwaters(50‐100m).Wereabletotakesomesta)onsindeeperwaters.
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Photos courtesy of Dan Torres
Surveys west to the East Siberian Seaand North to 77°30
14 additional Species werecollected during RUSALCA 2009
Impacts: Probable Migration of FishNorthward
Natalia Chernova, Daria Petrova,Catherine Mecklenburg, Brenda Holladay,Christine Gleason, Morgan Busby, Brenda Norcross
25 stations.The most northerly trawl ever taken inthe Pacific Arctic region.22 species were collected; manyspecies are rare to science.
Principal Investigators
IFASKED:Anyvesselcangoandsampleatapar)cularplace.
Showstrackingmigra)onoffishnorth.MixtureofCPOandOERtolookforwhatspeciesarethere,whicharenew,rangeextensions,tryingtotrackmigra)onwithchangesincurrentandtemps.Thesespeciesaresharedallovertheworld.Tookthemostnortherlyfishingtrawlevertaken(arrow)PacificArc)cregion.Mid‐watertrawl.Foundmanyraretosciencespecies.
CiteNOAAArc)cplan
KnowalotaboutsouthernBS,butnotnorthernBS,Chukchi,Beaufort
Deciphering Biodiversity Changes in theWater Column: Zooplankton
Principal Investigators:
Ksenia Kosobokova, Shirshov, Russ Hopcroft UAF
• 63 stations for species identification
• To assess the health of the zooplankton
• Population egg production experiments were carried out.
• Strong across-shelf differences occurred in the northern domain and strong east-westgradients in the southern Chukchi Sea.
• Small jelly fish were common in the NW region near Wrangle Island
• Alaska Coastal Current pteropods were common.
• Compared to 2004, meroplankton and larvacean were less abundant. in the region.
Photo courtesy of RAS-NOAA,RUSALCA 2009
Zooplankton:canreachfullwaterdepth.Russians,AlaskanandGermanteam–biodiversity;OERco‐funded.Trytotrackgene)csacrossthearc)c;e.g.,invasionsfromspeciesfromAtlan)ctoPacific.Lookingatevolu)onofspeciesacrossthearc)c.
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Fate of Ice and Non-ice Dependent MarineMammals
RUSALCA Point of Contact, Sue Moore, NMFS, NOAA
Locations Vs Ice edgeand regions of high
productivity
Photos Courtesy ofRAS-NOAA,RUSALCA, 2009
•Rare opportunity to search for marine mammals inEast Siberian Sea and Far north
•7 species of marine mammals were observed;bowhead, gray and humpback whales, walrus, ringedand bearded seals and polar bears
•>100 gray whales spotted over the benthic hot spot•67-67.5°N and 169.33-169.666 W
•Gray whales spotted north of Wrangel Island- may bea northern range record for this species.
•Probably bowheads observed in Herald Canyon.
•80 walrus hauled out on narrow sliver of ice north ofWrangel Island.
Hadpeopleonboardtryingtotrackmarinemammals.Greatoppformmfolksb/cmammalsmoveallaroundthisarea;spendmostoftheiryearlycycleontheRussianside.Poli)calissuewithnothavingpeopleonvessels;spocedgraysnorthofWrangelisland(newtoAmericanscien)sts).Happytoexpandacrosspoli)calborder.Nopassiveacous)cs.
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Changes in Nutrients andProductivity
Quantify the range of nutrients, phytoplankton biomass andproductivity in water masses
Establish physical and chemical factors that are conducive tolarge rates of primary production
Compare contemporary rates under warm conditions withthose from the previous decade
8 productivity bottle experiments
49 stations
P.I.’s Terry Whitledge, Sang Lee, HyoungMin Joo and Mike Kong
Photo courtesy of RAS-NOAA, RUSALCA 2009
Threecountry–Russia,US,Korea.Lookatinfofrommoorings(produc)vity)andinsitusamplingover40daysofexpedi)on.RemindthemthatKoreahasanicebreakercomingonlinethisyearandwillbeofferingposi)onstoUSscien)sts;lookingforsuggestedsamplingsiteprograms.Vesselwillhavesidescan.
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Changes in Microbiological and BiogeochemicalAspects of the Carbon and Sulfur CyclesP.I. A.S. Savvichev, E.E. Zakharova, Vinogradsky Institute of Microbiology, RAS
Major investigation took placein the Herald Canyon and onthe Chukchi Plateau at thePockmark site.
Photo courtesy of RAS-NOAA, RUSALCA 2009
Microbiology–showingchemicalcarboncycles;Russanstakingleadonmethane.Lookingatvariabilityacroswholeregion.Oilcompanieshavebiginterestsinthesegroups(eastsiberiansea).
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Future Opportunity for PAG Participation:Suggested Stations
Critical hydrographicStations
Latitude Longitude W71.305 -157.4171.457 -157.71470.908 -174.31170.893 -175.47471.42 -152.0473.5 -166
Critical fish stationsLatitutde Longitude
70.283333 ‐176.66666769.683333 ‐174.83333369.836667 178.01666771.666667 179.50000071.400000 ‐174.78000068.949867 ‐166.91211769.006200 ‐168.89476768.522417 ‐171.46186767.870283 ‐172.55090067.408217 ‐173.60281766.934600 ‐170.99015067.432250 ‐169.59728367.875467 ‐168.31360068.299583 ‐167.04833365.862000 ‐169.14150065.624667 ‐168.177167
SitessuggestedforPAG(PacificArc)cGroup)sitesforpeopletogotoforopportunis)csamplingandsharingwithotherscien)stsdoingsimilarwork.Sen)nelmonitoring.ReallydifficulttogetintotheRussiansidew/oRussianpar)cipa)on.Toberevised.ChineseandKoreanshavebothstatedtheywillputthisintotheirsamplinglogs.Moremonitoringthanexplora)onofinteresttoclimategroups(changes).
Anotherprogram:PolarSeatolookaticeridges(OER)–Johnmayhavesomeslides.Divingunderice.Don’tknowresults.HopefullyJohnhassomeinfob/citisaUSicebreaker.
ARPreliesonArc)cIceCenter.
NSF
FUTUREGOALS/OBJECTIVES:Haveplansinpastandhopeinfuture,wouldliketodoamul)planormexpedi)ontoexpandRUSALCAwithothervessels,US,Canadian,etc.(PAG)todoamuchlargersetofcoordinatedexpedi)onsinpacificArc)c.Rightnowonly1vessel.Wouldrequireaddi)onalcoordina)on.Goalistosampleatthesame)methestateofthearc)cinmul)plegeographiestoseewhatishappeningoveramonth.Op)mis)c.HavetalkedwithRussiarecentlyaboutdoingjointbathymetryfurthernorth.CraigMcLeanwasdiscussingwithRussianAdmiral(RussianHydroSurveyoffice)northofChukchi.Theydon’thavethemul)beam.Interestedinworkingwithmul)pleagencies.
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