RRS James Clark Ross Bridge-cam
Setting the scene
On 5th October after the force 9 storm, we started the science proper. There are 21 scientists from 7 institutes on board who make a broad spectrum of measurements that helps improve our understanding of the biological, chemical and physical dynamics of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Meridional Transect programme is hosted by Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) and is a national UK capability for long term multi-disciplinary oceanographic observations and marine research in the Atlantic. It has been running for 12 years; the first phase served as a platform for validating NASA satellite observations, the second, to study the microbial dynamics in the ocean deserts and this new and third phase is funded by the UK government under the programme Oceans 2025* as a time series of sustained observations in the Atlantic on the structure and biogeochemical properties of plankton ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean. In a nutshell, to assess ‘the health and state of the Atlantic Ocean’.
There are six scientists from the PML (Chris Gallienne, Carolyn Harris, Vasilis kitidis, Glen Tarran, Gavin Tilstone, Malcolm Woodward) who are measure everything from the optical properties, nutrients, photochemistry, phytoplankton community structure, phytoplankton respiration and carbon fixation and macro-zooplankton abundance to enhance our understanding of the biological, optical and chemical properties of the Atlantic Ocean. Paul Mann, a PhD student from the University of Newcastle is working alongside the PML nutrient and photo-chemistry teams. Mario Vera, a POGO fellow from Columbia, also works alongside the PML team on phytoplankton respiration.
There are five scientists from National Oceanography Centre (NOC) who also cover a wide spectrum of measurements studying the biology and physics of the Atlantic Ocean; Mike Zubkov’s team Ros Holland and Manuela Hartmann measure the abundance of marine bacteria, pico and nano-plankton (very small phytoplankton 0.2 to 2 microns) and micro-zooplankton and their uptake of nutrients. Stuart Painter and Jo Hopkins measure the physical properties (temperature and salinity) of Atlantic Seawater.
One scientist (Bruce Bowler) is from Bigelow Laboratory in the US. Bruce is a one man band measuring everything from the reflectance of the sea surface to absorption and backscatter, the biomass, calcium and carbon content of the microscopic calcareous, marine plants known as the Coccolithophores. Martin Ostrowski and John Pearman from the University of Warwick work alongside Mike’s team studying the genetic diversity of the phytoplankton and bacterial communities. Jeremy Young and Martine Couapel, from the Natural History Museum, study the abundance and genetic diversity of Coccolithophores.
All of this work is underpinned by Terry Edwards and Dave Teare from National Marine Facilities, Southampton who operate all of the overside instruments, Ben Tullis from the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge who provides IT support and of course the crew and officers of the James Clark Ross who do everything from deploying our instruments, steering our course and turning out 3 course sumptuous meals three times a day.
* Oceans 2025 is a multi-disciplinary research program looking at changes in marine systems in a high CO2 world.