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Testing the Waters

November 25, 2014

Scientists and crew led by WHOI oceanographer Robert Pickart traveled to the Beaufort Sea in 2011 aboard the U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker Healy. They were carrying out part of a five-year study to assess the state of the Pacific water boundary current in the western Arctic Ocean and its impact on the region’s ecosystem that is itself part of the Arctic Observing Network. During the cruise, the team made measurements (such as this one in the M’Clure Strait) of dissolved organic carbon, total carbon, alkalinity, oxygen, nutrients, and chlorophyll in the ice-covered water.(Photo by Donglai Gong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)