What's New Archive
A ruggedized CTD attached to the bottom trawl net. Photo credit: Ned Cokelet/NOAA
The North Pacific Research Board’s multi-year Bering Sea Project strives to understand the effects of climate change and dynamic ice cover on the eastern Bering Sea ecosystem. Project Headlines make scientific results available to the general public. A recent PMEL contribution entitled Circulation on the Bering Sea Shelf Revealed by Temperature and Salinity Measurements summarizes research in which PMEL scientists augmented NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center bottom trawl surveys with instruments to measure ocean temperature and salinity profiles at over 350 sites in the Bering Sea. From those measurements, scientists inferred the ocean currents in this ecologically and economically rich region during the summers of 2008-2010. Those observations help us to understand the ecosystem, measure its variability, and calibrate predictive computer models that estimate future conditions under different climate scenarios. More Bering Sea Project Headlines are available here.
Eruption of Hades vent, West Mata seamount, taken by Jason remotely operated vehicle in 2009.
A 30-year history of the NOAA Vents program was published in Oceanography. In 1983, a small team of NOAA PMEL scientists, subsequently joined by colleagues at Oregon State University (CIMRS) and the University of Washington (JISAO), exploited new seafloor and water column mapping technologies to understand the impact of hydrothermal systems on ocean chemistry and seafloor ecosystems. The first decade featured fundamental discoveries about physical, biological, chemical, and oceanographic consequences of deep submarine eruptions. Partnering with international researchers, Vents made the first ever time-series studies of active submarine eruptions. Vents research set global standards for an observation-driven understanding of the transfer of heat, chemicals, and organisms from Earth’s hot interior into the ocean.
In 2013, the Vents Program was restructured into two new programs, Earth-Ocean Interactions and Acoustics, continuing the Vents legacy while focusing directly on NOAA strategic goals in ocean processes and ecosystems.
PMEL Director Chris Sabine will speak at Sound Conversations 2015. Photo: NOAA
On Thursday, April 2nd, NOAA/PMEL Director Chris Sabine will discuss NOAA’s role in detecting ocean acidification and measuring community vulnerability to understand risk during Sound Conversations at the Seattle Aquarium. The Seattle Aquarium hosted the 3rd phase of the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE aimed at developing affordable and accurate pH sensors. As a leader in ocean acidification research and detection, NOAA/PMEL scientists are providing validation measurements for the XPRIZE contest. By developing breakthrough ocean pH sensors, researchers, fisheries and resource managers, and environmental groups throughout the world will be able to measure ocean acidification in more places and with better resolution to increase the understanding of the risk ocean acidification poses to shellfish, coral reefs, and fisheries. This event is aimed at bringing the ocean acidification community together to learn about new innovative approaches to addressing ocean acidification from leaders in research, policy, and public engagement.
Visit the PMEL Carbon Group page to learn more about research on ocean acidification.
XPRIZE contestants downloading pH data for analysis and submission to the judges. Photo credit: NOAA/PMEL
Philippe Cousteau joined researchers from PMEL and UW/JISAO at the Seattle Aquarium, where Phase 3 of the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE contest was wrapping up this weekend. Following one month of data collection, the 14 teams' pH sensors were removed from a flow tank filled with Puget Sound seawater, and the data were downloaded.
The $2M Ocean Health XPRIZE is a competition to create accurate and affordable pH sensors that can be used around the globe. The development of this technology, which will help scientists map and characterize ocean chemistry globally, is of utmost importance as ocean acidification (a change in seawater chemistry resulting from CO2 absorption) is expected to impact the health of a number of vulnerable ecosystems around the world including coral reefs, shellfish, and fisheries.
Read more about the PMEL Carbon Program, the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE, UW/JISAO, the Seattle Aquarium and EarthEcho International.
The age of Arctic sea ice can be determined using satellite observations and drifting buoy records to track the movement of ice floes, and can be a rough indicator for ice thickness.
This NOAA PMEL animation shows the age of the ice at the end of each winter since 1987. Paler colors indicate older ice, with light blue indicating 4-year ice to white indicating very old ice.
In the 1980’s, 26% of the Arctic winter ice pack consisted of thick ice built up over multiple years. After 2007, older ice diminishes rapidly and is replaced by younger ice. Starting in 2011, very old ice remains only along the Canadian coast.
At the end of winter 2014, only 10% of the ice pack was old ice, less than half the amount in the early 1980’s, and very old ice has become more rare. Learn more about Arctic Sea ice in 2014 in the Sea Ice article in the 2014 Arctic Report Card and visit PMEL's Arctic Research Page.
The Submarine Ring of Fire ’14 cruise is completed and PMEL scientists are back in the lab analyzing the data. While underway, 19 short videos were created by Saskia Madlener with music by Charlie Brooks. Take a look at the videos to get a sense of what life on the ship was like and how the scientists dealt with successes and challenges at sea. Despite problematic weather, the scientists were able to get biological, chemical, geological and acoustic data over the duration of the cruise, using hydrographic instruments and the remotely operated vehicle Jason.
For the complete story, visit the Ocean Explorer website and see all the videos on YouTube.
The NOAA-led Arctic Report Card was released today. The annual assessment of change in the Arctic shows the region continues to outpace the rest of the globe in response to climate change, warming at twice the rate of anywhere else on earth.
The report documents changes in air temperature, sea surface temperature, snow cover, sea ice extent, the Greenland ice sheet, ocean productivity, and vegetation over the tundra. A special addition this year includes an assessment of polar bear population dynamics in several different regions of the Arctic.
Read the NOAA press release and visit the Arctic Report Card: Update for 2014.
The Champagne vent field at NW Eifuku seamount. Image courtesy of Submarine Ring of Fire 2014 - Ironman, NOAA/PMEL, NSF.
On November 29th, 2014, 11 PMEL, JISAO, and CIMRS scientists embarked on an exciting journey aboard the R/V Roger Revelle to revisit the Submarine Ring of Fire. Located west of the Mariana trench, the mission will visit NW Eifuku and NW Rota, two active hydrothermal systems where scientists will examine the emission of carbon dioxide as it provides a natural laboratory to observe and measure how ocean acidification can affect marine ecosystems. The cruise is funded by NSF and NOAA's Ocean Exploration and Research program.
Follow along with the scientists on the Ocean Explorer website where mission logs will be updated regularly.
Deep Sea Research Part II just published a special issue on research in the Bering Sea. Ten PMEL and Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Ocean scientists contributed to this issue. The Bering Sea Project: Volume III documents the findings of six years of research and the partnership of two ecosystem programs.
The NSF-funded Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST) and the NPRB-funded Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (BSIERP), with in-kind contributions from NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, have shed light on ecosystem dynamics and how the region may respond to climate change. In particular, researchers found that when and where the sea ice extends are major factors that determine productivity and impact the entire ecosystem of the Bering Sea. To find out more information about these exciting programs, visit the EcoFOCI and BEST-BSIERP websites.
3D image of Axial Seamount bathymetry
PMEL’s Earth-Ocean Interactions program led by Oregon State University Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies scientist, Dr. Bill Chadwick, has just launched a new blog aimed at analyzing and forecasting when the next eruption at Axial Seamount might occur. Axial Seamount is the most active submarine volcano in the NE Pacific. Located on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of Oregon, it was chosen as the site of the world's first underwater volcano observatory called NeMO and is now a node on the new Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) cabled observatory. Axial erupted most recently in 1998 and 2011.
Scientists from PMEL, Oregon State University, and University of North Carolina at Wilmington will be monitoring Axial closely. Watch the blog for forecast updates.