PML scientists study changing Atlantic
11 October 2010
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) scientists are leading a
mission to Chile in a bid to collect data on how the oceans are
changing. This is the latest research cruise in a 15 year study,
funded through the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC)
Oceans 2025 Programme, investigating the biological, chemical and
physical conditions of the Atlantic Ocean.
The scientists will set sail from Southampton tomorrow (Tuesday 12
October) on the twentieth crossing in the series and will spend
over six weeks at sea to arrive in Punta Arenas, Chile on the
southernmost tip of South America on 25th November. The Atlantic
Meridional Transect (AMT) is focusing on discovering more about how
the oceans function, how they are changing and what this might mean
for future human needs.
The team of
eight PML scientists will be joined by colleagues from the National
Oceanography Centre in Southampton and other marine institutes in
Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Canada and the United States on
board the specially equipped research vessel, the RRS James
Cook. Samples will also be collected and brought back for
other scientists in the UK, USA and Portugal.
This year’s journey south will cover over 8000 miles and with a
cruising speed averaging 10 knots the ship will only be able to
stop for a few hours each day, usually before dawn each morning,
for the scientists to take their samples and readings. Between
stops it’s back to the on-board laboratories to analyse the data
and prepare for the next sampling station - so it’s no pleasure
cruise but hard work and long, unsociable hours, often in some of
the world’s roughest seas.
Andy Rees, PML biogeochemist and co-ordinating
scientist for the cruise, commented: “The AMT provides an
exceptional opportunity for nationally and internationally driven
collaborative research and is an excellent platform for
multi-disciplinary oceanographic studies. PML has led this
programme from the beginning and we are delighted to be working
with our colleagues within the UK and from further afield.
Rees continues “During this expedition, the PML team will be
looking at the workings of the ocean, far from land, amongst some
of the most remote stretches of sea on the planet. We’ll be
investigating plankton communities and how they work – important
for the world’s fisheries and for humans who breathe the oxygen the
plankton generates and eat the fish that feed upon it. We’ll be
looking at how increasing carbon dioxide is affecting that plankton
and trying to understand more about ocean chemistry and its affect
on oceanic organisms.”
We’ve been planning this mission for months
and the whole AMT team are very excited about getting this cruise
underway”.
Ella Darlington will be the Education and
Outreach Officer on-board the ship, she said: “This is going to be
a very exciting cruise and there will be a variety of highly
interactive ways to keep track of the cruise goings on; the AMT
blog http://www.amtblog.org.uk/ and an
‘expedition project hub’ at http://www.etelive.org/. There will
be a blog, videos, podcasts as well as giving students the
opportunity to e-mail me questions at ella@etelive.org which I can answer
from sea.”
You can also follow progress from the cruise
by signing up to the RSS feed at: www.amtblog.org.uk/index.php/category/amt20/feed