PML scientists leave on major research cruise
8th October 2008
6 PML scientists have this week departed on one of the UK’s most
prominent research cruise to the Falkland Islands – the
Atlantic Meridional Transect
(AMT).
The AMT programme began in 1995 as a means to observe long-term
changes in the Atlantic Ocean and through funding from the Natural
Environment Research Council’s Oceans 2025 initiative, is about to
engage on its 18th crossing. During this research transect of the
Atlantic Ocean scientists onboard will be undertaking biological,
chemical and physical oceanographic research across a range of
ecosystems from the sub-polar to the tropical ocean. Over the last
13 years participants from over 11 countries have joined the
cruise, which has resulted in 174 refereed publications and 3
special editions of leading journals.
Andy Rees, Biogeochemist at PML and leader of the AMT programme,
commented: “The AMT provides an exceptional opportunity for
nationally and internationally driven collaborative research and is
an excellent platform for multi-disciplinary oceanographic
research. During this expedition, the PML team will be
collaborating closely with colleagues from North and South America,
and from throughout the UK. The whole AMT team are very excited
about getting this cruise underway”.
PML staff will be joined aboard the Royal Research Ship James
Clark Ross on this 6 week venture by scientists from the National
Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Warwick, Bigelow
Laboratory of Ocean Sciences (USA), University of Newcastle, the
Natural History Museum and the Partnership for Observation of the
Global Oceans.
The objective of AMT is to provide a sustained open ocean, in
situ observing system to enable early warning of any fundamental
change in ecosystem functioning and to better forecast the marine
environment for society’s needs. In particular, AMT provides a
means to assess biodiversity trends in relation to environmental
change ― improving understanding of the structure and functioning
of marine ecosystems, the interactions between physical and
ecological processes, and the impact of climate change on the
ocean. Since the first cruise, the AMT programme has built up the
most coherent set of repeated biogeochemical observations and has
served to identify oceanic provinces, validated satellite ocean
colour algorithms and has identified source and sink areas of
several greenhouse gases.
Once the cruise has reached the Falklands, the ship will
continue on its voyage to Antarctica with scientist from the
British Antarctic Survey and will eventually return to the UK in
the Spring.