Award: ANT-2023363

This project (award) was designed exclusively to provide salary support for a super tech to sail aboard the icebreaker Nathaniel B Palmer during cruise NBP24-01, designated as GP17-ANT within the GEOTRACES program. This was one of a series of research expeditions supporting the GEOTRACES program. A super tech is an individual who samples for several different projects, because there is not sufficient space aboard U.S. research vessels to accommodate all funded projects. The original plan was that Martin Fleisher would help with loading and mobilization of the vessel in port (Punta Arenas, Chile), prior to the expedition, but he learned while he was loading the ship that the person who was supposed to sail as a super tech did not pass medical clearance. Fortunately, for the research program, Martin graciously agreed to sail aboard NBP 24-01 as a super tech. He had served previously as a super tech aboard GEOTRACES expeditions, so he knew well how to perform all of the required duties.  

 

In total, the GP17-ANT cruise sampled 21 stations over the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, 3 stations over the continental slope, and 3 off-shelf stations, including one deep-ocean station that provides a crossover with the preceding GP17-OCE cruise aboard the R/V Roger Revelle, a year earlier.  Although most of the GP17-ANT science goals were achieved, large expanses of heavy sea ice surrounding the Amundsen Sea Polynya prevented access to several planned sampling locations, including stations near the Thwaites Ice Shelf, in Pine Island Bay, and over the eastern portion of the outer Amundsen Sea shelf.  Nevertheless, the cruise provided exciting opportunities to collect samples from stations adjacent to the Dotson and Getz Ice Shelves, as well as on- and off-shelf stations that were impacted by melting sea ice, polynya stations where phytoplankton biomass was extraordinarily high, and a station adjacent to fast ice with near-zero chlorophyll fluorescence (phytoplankton  biomass) in the water column.  The 23 NSF-funded projects involved in this expedition address a range of topics aligned with the scientific mission of the GEOTRACES program, including the sources, fate and biological impacts of bioactive trace elements; the distribution and transport of glacial meltwater; the compositional evolution of Circumpolar Deep Water as it upwells and circulates on the shelf; the rates and elemental stoichiometry of biological and biogeochemical processes; the veracity of paleoenvironmental proxies; and the fidelity of numerical model simulations.

 

 

Last Modified: 03/26/2025
Modified by: Robert F Anderson