Leg 2 underway!

Conrad Luecke

CTD watch stander

Finally, after one false start and a short delay waiting for a replacement part to fix the ship incinerator, leg two of the GO-SHIP P-18 cruise has begun!

The NOAA ship Ron Brown is now steaming back to our line to pick up where leg 1 left off.  During our two day transit, the crew and scientists are taking time to prepare for our various tasks, get on our respective watch schedules, and reflect on an amazing time during our port call in the tiny but beautiful island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island).  During our stay, we swapped out about half our scientific team (including me) and those of us that are new have been very busy catching up to speed and preparing for our first station.

Over the next 6 weeks we will continue south along 103E to the Antarctic Shelf (~70S), extending the hydrography transect Leg 1 began. Many of us on board are eager to get out of the oligotrophic subtropical gyre and into the Southern Ocean!  The Southern Ocean is an extremely unique and (arguably) the most exciting part of this transect. As we cross the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), we will observe the deep, carbon-rich (read: old) waters of the interior North Pacific upwell towards the surface, driven by wind-forced divergence. This process brings up nutrients and carbon from the deep ocean, driving biological productivity, and also fuels the global meridional overturning circulation. However, the same wind energy that drives this circulation will be beating down on our boat as we travel south so we are all preparing for a rougher ride here on out.

On leg two, I will be one of two CTD watch standers. I am excited to be contributing to our understanding of the ocean and climate and to be at sea for the first time on a research vessel!  The CTD is an instrument that measures conductivity (for salinity), temperature, and depth from the surface to the seafloor (~3000–5000 meters).  In addition to the CTD, our instrument package is busy with many other sensors, as well as Niskin bottles to collect water samples.  The purpose of these instrument casts will be to construct a cross-sectional database of the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the ocean.  Data from this cruise, part of an international, global scale effort will be used by thousands of scientists from all over the world.

For now here is a photo of the R/V Ron Brown anchored off shore of one of Rapa Nui’s famous carved rock Moai.

We started a cruise hashtag! To find more updates (including pictures!) from the cruise, search #P18DataMachine on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The 10 Best Things about Working Night Shift

By Alexandra Fine

Even though we always miss bingo nights and haven’t had a fresh dinner in weeks, there are some things that make night shift pretty great:

10)    Wi-Fi all night

It’s faster with fewer people using it and stays on all night… enough said!

9)     No waiting for laundry machines

If you like to throw your laundry in while you’re on shift (which means extra time for sleeping and working out when you’re off), good news – in the wee hours of the night you never have to wait for a washer or dryer to open up or worry about someone moving your clothes if you forget to take them out on time. 

8)     Ice cream for dinner

…or middle-of-the-night snack. Seriously, who hasn’t dreamed of this as a child?

7)     The reflection of the moon on the ocean

One of my personal favorites – it makes a great backdrop behind the CTD while we’re sampling, especially when there’s a ‘Super Moon’ that lights up the whole sky or a bright orange crescent just above the horizon.

6)     Fancy cheese and grape juice parties

Thanks to Laura and Co-chief Annie, Leg 1 was blessed with a wide selection of fancy cheeses. What better way to cheer up during the ever-chaotic high-resolution stations (or anytime) than with a late night fancy cheese party?

5)     Visits from Josh

One of the friendliest and most energetic people on the Ronald H. Brown, Senior Survey Tech Josh makes rounds to visit all the scientists every couple hours to give us updates, alert us when there is a sunrise we can’t miss, and keep the good vibes going strong all night long.

4)     We *rarely* miss breakfast

Who doesn’t love fresh eggs however-you-want-them and all the bacon you can dream of? Unless the CTD comes up right at 7 and then it’s shovel, shovel, shovel whatever you can grab until it’s time to start sampling.

3)     Hammock under the stars

On the rare occasion that you finish running all of your samples before the next CTD comes up, or randomly find yourself with time to kill mid-shift, there’s nothing better than kicking up your feet and relaxing in the hammock under a sky full of stars. Trust me!

2)     We never miss a sunrise

…and there have been some spectacular ones! As a photographer, this is one of my favorite things about working night shift. Just yesterday the sky was blended like watercolors, and everyone took a moment to stand on deck and appreciate its beauty 

1)     The people

Though I can’t speak for day shift, no matter how sleep-deprived and delirious we are, the night shift crew always manages to make 3 AM CTD sampling fun. We’ve got great music (thanks Bob!), a fearless leader who samples everything and still makes time to laugh with us (we love you Annie!), and a great group of scientists who keep things lively even when most of the ship is sleeping.

So even though we lose sleep to Monday drills, live off of leftovers and PB&J, and can never remember what day it is, it’s not all bad! 

The Monthly Brown - The trusted name in news

By Josh Gunter - Ship Survey Technician Team

A CTD Frenzy

It has been done. After a very long week, the scientists of GOSHIP P 18 have just finished a grueling set of CTD stations that would make any persons head turn. The miraculous and the remarkable feat that has just been accomplished is truly a sight to behold. Station after station water samples were taken from different depths and different elements such as oxygen were measured all in an effort to better understand our World’s oceans. Even though leg 1 of P18 is not yet complete it is great to see the work the scientists have accomplished so far. When asked what he thought of the work being done the Senior Survey Technician just simply said “Wow”. The entire crew of the Ronald H Brown look forward to what is next and everyone hopes that the rest of leg 1 and all of leg 2 will be just as successful and fulfilling for science.

Annie Bourbonnais (forward), Fen Huang (middle), and
Alexandra (back) collect various water samples from the rosette.

Dock Afloat

The first stop for the Ronald H brown is Easter Island, Chile. This is a great island except for one small little problem there is no port or dock. Since this is the case the ship counts on a water taxi to take people to and from the island. How do you get a boat big enough for 9 up to a ship like the  Brown? The answer is easy you build a floating dock for people to load and unload from. Well Chief Bosun Bruce and the deck department have done that.

You can anticipate that this may be a floating dock in the next week or so.

Just Keep Swimming

Well times have changed and it seems that we have entered the Twilight Zone or something. Is that a pool in December? We have crossed south of the equator which means that we are now back into summer time once again. Acting Bosun Group Leader Mike Lastinger has graciously supplied us with a little back deck entertainment in the form of a swimming pool. Be careful though the deep end can be a bit tricky. When asked about having the opportunity to swim in a swimming pool while on-board most were pretty excited for the chance to bask in the sun while sitting back slurping a nice fresh cold soda. It is a chance to cool off after a long hot day in the South Pacific. This pool even comes with an assortment of pool toys for everyone's entertainment pleasure. There is one downside to this pool and that is there is no tiki bar to go with it. 

Everyone seems to enjoy the pool very much including Lobster Horse who was the first one to take a dip in the cool refreshing oasis of the deck. The Ronald H Brown is a ship that is constantly looking for was to improve morale and welfare on the ship and this is just one of the many things that is done that helps boost peoples moods and ability to do a great and outstanding job. Kudos for Mike Lastinger for making this happen for the scientist and crew. The man really knows how party.

Our aft deck oasis.

Microbiology on P18

By Alyse Larkin

Bonjour from the Ronald H. Brown!

As we pass by the Isle de Clipperton, a French territory, I am going to write a little bit about what I do here on the ship. My name is Alyse Larkin, I am a postdoctoral researcher at UC Irvine in Dr. Adam Martiny’s lab, and I am one of the few microbiologists on P18.

Traditionally, GO-SHIP cruises do not include biological measurements, so I am particularly excited to be adding microbiology to the P18 scientific roster. It is critically important to understand both how environmental variability influences the marine microbial community and, in turn, to understand how the microbial community influences biogeochemical cycling. The P18 transect will cover a large range of oceanographic provinces, and therefore represents an excellent opportunity to better characterize the function of marine microbes in the environment and their response to environmental
change.

While on the ship I will be sampling microbial DNA and particulate organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Every latitudinal degree I take surface water from the CTD, filter it, and preserve the DNA for metagenomic analysis. Additionally, I use a huge filtration array to sample the ship’s “underway system,” which pipes surface water from the bow through the ship, for particulate organic matter.

To accomplish a thorough understanding of both microbial community and C:N:P patterns, I am usually filtering water in the ship’s bioanalytics lab for about -16- 18 hours a day. But I don’t mind! I get to see lots of beautiful sunrises and sunsets from my little window, depending on the direction the ship is pointing while on station.

Smooth Sailing

By Laura Whitmore

Smooth Sailing

After departing the first time, we got turned around due to mechanical problems. We set sail again on November 19^th. We journeyed south along the coast toward the Baja Peninsula. Before entering Mexican waters, we did a test cast. The test was used to ensure equipment was working properly and it was an opportunity for the scientists to familiarize themselves with the process. With success we continued south, our transect started at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, in view of Cabo San Lucas.

This region is noted for its biodiversity and abundance of wildlife – attributed to nutrient rich waters. As we continued south along  longitude -110°, we crossed the continental slope and made our way into the open basin. An interesting feature in this region is the ODZ, the “oxygen deficient zone”, which is generally in the surface 200 - 1000 m. There is a great development in the study of ODZ as “oceanic deoxygenation” becomes a discussion. It is speculated that as climate warms, oxygen in the water column will decrease; additionally, that in this region of the world the impacts of climate driven deoxygenation may already be observed. This transect, repeated a decade ago, and a decade before that will begin to fill in the answers to questions arising about this subject.

In non-scientific news: sunrises and sunsets are beautiful, the seas are calm, we’ve seen dolphins, small fish by the CTD at night, and even a small shark. Not to mention, anytime we feel a need for birds, we can walk to the bow where an assemblage of seabirds are taking the bus south relaxing on the forward mast.

Sunrise & Moon - Nov. 27

Sampling Bay - Nov. 27 

Finally Underway

By Laura Whitmore

Our departure date was delayed due to necessary repairs to the R/V Ronald H. Brown. On Saturday, we finally left port sailed into the sunset, ready for the seas and science that have been waiting for us. All scientists aboard the ship were eager to leave port and are thankful we are on our way. After being reminded of shipboard protocols and emergency procedures, we all pooled to the bow for a group photo during our first full day at-sea (check it out below). 

Torrey Pines Natural Reserve

By Laura Whitmore

When scientists work we play.

And when work demands we take a break, we play some more.

Here in San Diego, CA the 27 scientists aboard the NOAA R/V Ronald H. Brown eagerly await departure. In the meantime, we are filling our days with the adventure San Diego has to offer – from city blocks to nature walks.

Today six of us took a rental car to Torrey Pines Nature Reserve. The beach here is marbled with light and dark sand and littered or laden with cobblestones, depending on where you walk. The darker color in the sand is actually a magnetic mineral aptly named magnetite! The cliffs nearby are a sandstone formation, so as we hiked through the area we found ourselves exploring several different geologic formations, comprised of different mineral features. Not only is the beach a beautiful place to enjoy an afternoon, but the Nature Reserve offers several short trails that show off geological and biological highlights. The trails lead you up to a bluff that at a maximum is about 300 feet above the beach below. I suppose the park is most well-known for the Torrey Pines on the bluffs, which are unique to the area and are an endangered species. But, I enjoyed the bluffs the most, which boast rich geological features. You can see concretions, which are created as rainwater dissolves minerals in the sandstone. The minerals are deposited again and form a rock that is harder than the surrounding sandstone. As the sandstone erodes, these concretions eventually will fall out of the cliffs and onto the beach below. Additionally, there were fissure features (pictures below). Fissured cliffs like these are created also by rainwater eroding the sandstone. For more information, check out the Torrey Pines Nature Reserve website: torreypine.org – which is where I got a lot of information about the local geology. 

Welcome to the P18, leg 1 blog!