Bering Sea Ecosystem Expedition : 2009 Annual Report

1. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy steams north out of Dutch Harbor, a port in the Aleutian Islands of southwestern Alaska, heading toward the ice of the Bering Sea. The ship—the Coast Guard’s largest and newest icebreaker—is carrying 40 scientists, including WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, to the frozen ocean to learn about sea ice and how climate change could be affecting the Bering Sea ecosystem. Their expedition is being chronicled on the Polar Discovery Web site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

2. A multi-institutional team of researchers, led by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, are in the Arctic’s Bering Sea to study sea ice and how climate change could be affecting the region’s ecosystem. The team makes their way to the ice by going down a ramp that hangs from a crane. So not only is the ramp very steep, it bounces at the bottom end. Follow daily dispatches from the team aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy on the Polar Discovery Web site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

3. Twelve hours out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the scientists and crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, Healy, encountered the first patches of sea ice on their 40-day expedition. The research team aboard the vessel is studying the impacts of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem, and includes bird surveyors, who spend the days high up on the ship’s bridge looking for birds and marine mammals. The expedition is chronicled on Polar Discovery, a WHOI Web site sponsored by NSF to document several Arctic and Antarctic research voyages. (Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

4. Scientific instruments go into the water off the back of the ship, from an area called the fantail. Here, a pair of bongo nets— they look like a pair of drums—is going over to collect krill in the Bering Sea. The time to catch krill is nighttime, when they swim up toward the surface to look for food. A motor makes a loud throbbing, humming sound as the giant A-frame tilts out over the water. The research team aboard the vessel — the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy — is studying the impacts of climate change on the Bering Sea ecosystem. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

5. Hundreds of thick-billed murres — medium-sized seabirds that resemble penguins — skitter in every direction along the icy waters of the Bering Sea as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy approaches. The research team on board is studying fish, seabirds, marine mammals and even humans to learn more about the impacts of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem. The expedition, led by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, is being chronicled on the Polar Discovery Web site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

6. A group of walruses pop out of the icy waters of the Bering Sea to investigate a large and curious newcomer to the neighborhood — the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy. A multi-institutional research team on board is there to learn about sea ice and how climate change could be affecting the Bering Sea ecosystem. Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) are bottom feeders, using their whiskers to find clams and other bivalves in shallow waters. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

7. On board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Bering Sea, marine science technician chief Mark Rieg (at left) and WHOI researcher Phil Alatalo (right) prepare to deploy a video plankton recorder — an underwater video microscope system — during an April 2009 cruise to study the Arctic ocean ecosystem. “This particular instrument is very good at capturing the very tiny things,” Alatalo said. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

8. The Van Veen grab collects sediment from the ocean floor. The instrument is lowered on a cable until it hits the bottom. When it closes, it scoops up sediment — and animals living in the sediment —between its two halves. During this April/May 2009 cruise in the Bering Sea, researchers were studying how climate change is affecting the Arctic Ocean ecosystem. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

9. Photographer Chris Linder and writer Helen Fields accompanied scientists studying the Bering Sea ecosystem in April and May 2009. Together they chronicled the cruise aboard U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, for the online expedition feature Polar Discovery, highlighting WHOI polar research. Fields wrote, "This bearded seal pup’s mother slipped into the water when we came along. In a 420-foot diesel-powered ship, we are not exactly stealthy. Adult seals see us and take off with a galumphing, bouncing wriggle. They move like inchworms. Extremely overweight inchworms. They may be trying to draw our attention from the babies, which are often pretty well hidden in the rough ice." (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

10. In the middle of an expanse of ice, the U.S. icebreaker Healy came upon an unusual feature—open water, next to a large chunk of ice. Science writer Helen Fields and photographer Chris Linder, along to chronicle the research expedition headed by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, asked some of the scientists aboard how they thought it had formed. "Here’s the consensus," wrote Fields: "the big piece of ice, which is several feet thick and has pressure ridges, was blown by the wind from lower right to upper left. In the process, it pushed ice in front of it – you can see a bit of newer ice crinkled and piled up to the left of the big piece – and left open water behind." Read more about the just-finished spring voyage to study the Bering Sea ecosystem on WHOI's Polar Discovery site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

11. The zooplankton team aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy put their vertical net over the back of the boat during an April 2009 cruise in the Bering Sea to study how the changing sea ice affects the plankton food web. They were looking mainly for copepods — little crustaceans that are even smaller than krill, but still visible to the naked eye. “Look at all those big juicy copepods,” says Phil Alatalo, a marine biologist at WHOI. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

12. On an expanse of ice-covered ocean, Gigi Engel, a graduate student at the University of Washington, slips an ice core out the core. She took the core to find and collect algae growing on the bottom surface of the ice, to feed to shrimplike krill—a key part of polar ocean ecosystems. Engel was part of a spring 2009 research cruise, led by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, to study the Bering Sea ecosystem at a time of changing climate. The cruise was featured as a "Live From the Poles" expedition on the WHOI Polar Discovery site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

13. Working out on the ice in the reassuring presence of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, scientist Katrin Iken (left, from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks)—assisted by technician Pat Kelly (right, University of Rhode Island) and science writer Helen Fields (center)— prepares a cylindrical sediment trap to hang below the ice and catch particles falling down through the ice-covered ocean. The three participated in a spring 2009 research cruise led by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, to study the productive ecosystem of the Bering Sea in a time of changing climate. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

14. Sediment traps are containers that scientists place in the ocean to collect tiny sediment or larger accumulations called “marine snow” —bits of organic matter, dead sea creatures, shells, dust and minerals— falling toward the sea floor. Analyzing the samples helps scientists understand how fast nutrients and trace elements move from the ocean surface to the deep ocean. During this April/May 2009 cruise in the Bering Sea, researchers were measuring thorium levels in the water itself and also on the particles that fall into the sediment traps. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

15. Copepods are teeny crustaceans that play a big role in the food chain; they float around eating algae and in turn get eaten by bigger animals. This type of copepod, called Metridia, emits a glow similar to a firefly. “The thought is that they emit this blue light to scare off a predator," said WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian during an April 2009 cruise to study the Arctic ocean ecosystem. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

16. Zooplankton come in a wide range of sizes, for comparison, here's a Calanus copepod next to a krill. The krill or euphausiid is about one and one-half centimeter long while copepods are usually three millimeters or just over from tip to tail. The other two tiny copepods —one at the bottom and one at left— are Pseudocalanus, which are only one millimeter long. Imagine an animal as big as a 60-foot bowhead whale can support itself on animals this teeny. But then, these animals are pulling off a similar trick, eating microzooplankton 1/1000th their size. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

17. Tiny species like this Euphausid photographed in a drop of water are prey to larger organisms in the oceanic food chain. About the size of a fingernail, the shrimp-like creature was collected in Barrow Canyon in the Arctic Ocean.
(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

18. These Basket stars were collected in Barrow Canyon, Alaska, using a Tucker Trawl during a research cruise led by biologist Carin Ashjian in 2009. Basket stars are a type of brittle star that have a series of complexly branched arms which are used to catch plankton. (Photo courtesy of Carin Ashjian, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

19. Krill are very small crustaceans of the sea that eat even smaller creatures called phytoplankton. Krill play a major role in the food chain because they provide food for a huge number of larger animals. From Antarctica to the Arctic, many animals — baleen whales, manta rays, whale sharks, many species of seals, fish, and seabirds — depend on krill as one of their main food sources. A team of researchers spent 38 days in the Arctic to learn about the ecosystem there and the possible effects of climate change. (Photo courtesy of Carin Ashjian, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

20. Researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy spotted these two ribbon seals — a mother and her fat pup — during an April 2009 cruise to study how climate change is affecting the delicately balanced ecosystem in the Bering Sea. Ribbon seals are often seen closer to Russia, which is on the western edge of the Bering Sea.
(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

21. WHOI Researcher Philip Alatalo, left, and Guest Investigator Robert Campbell from the University of Rhode Island deploy a Tucker Trawl in an effort to catch krill during a recent cruise to the Beaufort Sea. The research is part of a program designed to understand the transport of krill and other zooplankton onto the extensive shallow shelf in Northern Alaska. The scientists' goal is to understand what controls the distribution of whale food—krill and copepods—off the coast of Barrow, Alaska in the fall. The project is part of a larger effort to part of a larger effort to understand the coastal ecosystem and the whaling communities in this Arctic region. The Tucker Trawl is a net designed to fish close to the bottom and at higher speeds than regular plankton nets. (Photo courtesy of Carin Ashjian, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Last updated: February 12, 2010