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Arctic, Top to Bottom

September 25, 2017

This oceanographic tool— a Van Veen grab sampler—collects seafloor sediments. It’s probably not the first thing you might expect to find on a research cruise led by a physical oceanographer. But WHOI’s Bob Pickart knows that rapid changes in the Arctic Ocean are having affects that resonate throughout the natural system. That is why he helped organize a NOAA-funded cruise on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy that investigated not only his research area—water circulation—but also included scientists studying everything from marine mammals to zooplankton to seabirds to seafloor life, and even aerosols in the atmosphere. (Peigen Lin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)