Award: OCE-2023237

The South Pacific Ocean and Southern Oceans represent important regions for the impact of ocean productivity and global climate by ocean processes. In particular, these areas have extremely low levels of trace metal nutrients such as iron, manganese, and zinc, which are needed to support the growth of phytoplankton, the base of the ocean food web. Phytoplankton perform photosynthesis, converting carbon dioxide to organic matter, some of which sinks to the ocean interior, removing that carbon from the atmosphere for years to even centuries. This can affect global carbon dioxide concentrations. This project organized and supported a major US oceanographic research expedition that sampled the South Pacific and Southern Oceans for a range of trace metals that play important roles as nutrients, toxic elements (such as mercury), and also tracers of ocean circulation and other processes. This project successfully executed a 55-day research cruise on the R/V Roger Revelle, supporting the sampling needs of nearly 20 other NSF-funded research projects and 35 shipboard scientists. Project scientists collected hydrographic data (such as ocean temperature, salinity, and nutrient concentrations) that have been used to characterize the ocean currents and water masses that were sampled. Additionally, project scientists created several virtual reality outreach projects that are publicly available for students and the general audience to understand what it is like to work in the open ocean and collect metal samples without introducing contamination from the ship or sampling equipment. Data from this project have been contributed to global datasets that are publicly available for all to understand the structure and function of the ocean in this remote region that plays a key role in supporting productivity in other ocean areas.

Last Modified: 01/21/2026
Modified by: Benjamin S Twining