Collecting amphipodsKatrin Iken collects amphipods (sand-fleas) in the Beaufort Sea.

RUSALCA 2009 stationsThe RUSALCA 2009 stations where biological samples were collected.

News Archive

Workshops

News

October 2010

The Census of Marine Life will be celebrating "A Decade of Discovery" in London 4-6 Oct 2010. Invited Census
researchers, media and agency representatives will present synthetic results and demonstrate a variety of products during a news conference and a two-day science symposium.

Census synthesis products include books such as "World Ocean Census", "Discoveries of the Census of Marine Life", "Citizens of the Sea" and "Life in the World's Oceans". Products of the
Arctic Census include special journal issues (Polar Biology, Deep-Sea Research II, Marine Biodiversity), invertebrate identification keys , stories in the Census Google Earth layer, and contributions to Arctic books (e.g. Field Techniques in Sea Ice Research)

January 27, 2010

ArcOD spearheads biodiversity session at Arctic Frontiers meeting in Tromso Norway. The session includes 47 talks, many by invited experts, and approximately 70 posters on the theme of Arctic Biodiversity. Many presentations will form the core of ArcOD's 2010 synthesis, including 2 special issues in the Springer journal, Marine Biodiversity. Meeting website. Program

October 15, 2009

ArcOD researchers dive under the ice of the frigid Beaufort Sea. Equipped with SCUBA gear, under-water imaging tools and ice corers, ArcOD’s sea ice team embarked on an expedition to tackle the unknowns of Arctic sea ice pressure ridges.

Pressure ridges are structures made from compressed and piled up sea ice floes and can comprise as much as 50% of the Arctic sea ice volume. Yet, very little is known about their associated biota. ArcOD researchers suspect ridges may have an important role to play as a refugium in an ever-shrinking Arctic sea ice cover.

A University of Alaska Fairbanks team is currently onboard the USCGC Polar Sea in the Beaufort Sea, funded by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and hosted by chief scientist and polar bear researcher Dr. Merav Ben-David from University of Wyoming. Reports team leader Dr. Katrin Iken, “We are seeing a lot of rotten mushy sea ice out here. Animal densities are lower than we have seen in summer months. Yet, we have documented the typical under-ice amphipods and Arctic cod as well as small fauna within the sea ice brine channel system.”

Arctic CodArctic cod sneak within the crevices of the rotten sea ice.

September 2, 2009

ArcOD teams survey the Chukchi Sea for Russian-American Long-Term of the Arctic (RUSALCA). ArcOD has international zooplankton, benthos and fish teams out in the Arctic Chukchi Sea, surveying biological communities under the Russian-American Long-Term of the Arctic (RUSALCA) program.

The Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait are thought to be particularly sensitive to global climate change. Establishing benchmark information about the distribution patterns of the fauna in these seas is a critical piece of information needed in preparation for a climate-monitoring network in this region.

The program is only possible because NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences, the funding bodies of the study, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for World Ocean and Polar Regions Studies in 2003, facilitating access to Russian waters for the non-Russian scientists onboard. Science teams consist of collaborating Russian and American-based teams.

Read more at http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov and http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/.

September 1, 2009

Articles for an ArcOD special issue of Deep-Sea Research II on the 2005 Hidden Ocean and 2004 RUSALCA expeditions go online as articles in press.

 


Total view statistics