Polar Research
Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Morphological Approaches to Understanding Antarctic Sea Ice Thickness
M. Jeffrey Mei, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office This will be held virtually. To register, please visit:…
Read MoreWill melting glaciers cool the climate?
As glaciers melt at unprecedented rates, WHOI’s Simon Pendleton is looking back to historical records to predict whether this new cool runoff will slow ocean circulation and cool the northern hemisphere––findings which could mean adjustments to some climate predictions.
Read MorePhysical Oceanography Department Virtual Seminar: Potential Vorticity Dynamics of the Arctic Halocline
Michael Spall, WHOI Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84827620172?pwd=QVd3VlF0Tlp0ZjRpY3UzSmZIRjJoUT09 Meeting ID: 848…
Read MorePhysical Oceanography Virtual Seminar: Inferring Mixing from Acoustic Observations of Double-Diffusive Staircases in the Arctic Ocean
Nicole Shibley, Yale Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83756315793?pwd=amt3TitUdW5wb3pwSEpmZEdOR1RwQT09 Meeting ID: 837…
Read MoreGeodynamics Virtual Seminar: The Elusive Arctic Carbon Budget: Bridging Gaps Between Observations and Models
Jennifer Watts, Woods Hole Research Center Zoom Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89217068485 Meeting ID: 892 1706 8485 Password: 009874
Read MoreCovid-19 Forces Spring Science Field Work to Go Fallow
Carin Ashjian, a senior scientist at WHOI, was one of 97 scientists and crew members aboard a German oceanographic research vessel that has been deliberately stranded in Arctic Sea ice as part of the year-long MOSAIC experiment.
Study Finds New Source of Trace Elements Could Rapidly Change Arctic Ecosystems
A new study by WHOI and their international colleagues found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean via the Transpolar Drift—a major surface current that moves water from Siberia across the North Pole to the North Atlantic Ocean.
Imagining Home: scientist’s stay in the Arctic extended by coronavirus
WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian is aboard the icebreaker Polarstern in the Arctic as part of the year-long MOSAiC research expedition. She should be almost home by now. Instead, her stay has been extended by COVID19.
Read MoreA rapidly changing Arctic
A new study by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and their international colleagues found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean via the Transpolar Drift—a major surface current that moves water from Siberia across the North Pole to the North Atlantic Ocean.
Read MorePolar bear sighting aboard USCGC Healy
A polar bear sighting off the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy during the 2015 Arctic GEOTRACES expedition. The Arctic has experienced the highest degree of warming on the planet, causing sea ice to thin and recede. The region’s iconic polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt, travel and mate.
Read MoreA sea of ancient ice
WHOI scientist dusts off historical accounts to tackle the long-standing mystery of just how thick Arctic sea ice was in the early 19th century.
Read MoreObservations of Coupled Air-Sea Submesoscale Processes in the Antarctic MIZ
Sebastiaan Swart, University of Gothenburg Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department
Read MoreOases in Sea Ice Are Essential to Life in Antarctica
This video explains the key physical, biological and ecological processes in oases on the Antarctic icy coast — polynyas. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Delaware are trying to unveil crucial connections among the physical and biological components in the polynyas and to understand how the Antarctic ecosystem responds to changes in the large-scale environment.
Read MoreA transient iceberg kingdom meanders through the Southern Ocean
Icebergs drift by the Rothera Station in Antarctica during the final cruise of of the Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean (DIMES) project aboard the British icebreaker RRS James Clark Ross
Read MoreMarch of the Penguins
Emperor penguins are some of the most striking and charismatic animals on Earth, but a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that a warming climate may render them extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, published Nov. 7, 2019, in the journal Global Change Biology.
The fate of the penguins is largely tied to the fate of sea ice, which the animals use as a home base for breeding, feeding and molting, she notes. Emperor penguins tend to build their colonies on ice with extremely specific conditions—it must be locked into the shoreline of the Antarctic continent, but close enough to open seawater to give the birds access to food for themselves and their young. As climate warms, however, that sea ice will gradually disappear, robbing the birds of their habitat, food sources, and ability to raise their chicks.
Jenouvrier and her team conducted the study by combining two existing computer models. The first, a global climate model created by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), offered projections of where and when sea ice would form under different climate scenarios. The second, a model of the penguin population itself, calculated how colonies might react to changes in that ice habitat.
Read MoreWhale Blow Microbiome
Researchers from WHOI, NOAA Fisheries Southwest Science Center, SR3 Sealife, and the Vancouver Aquarium analyzed whale blow samples collected via drone to identify a core group of bacteria in the respiratory tract of healthy whales.
Read MoreWhale Biopsy Collection
A team gathers skin samples from healthy humpback whales in waters off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers obtain samples by releasing a biopsy-collecting dart, which bounces off the whales’ skin and into the water. The team then retrieves the floating dart and brings it back to a lab for analysis.
Read MoreWhy is the Greenland Ice Sheet melting faster than ever?
Senior scientist Claudia Cenedese has been studying how glaciers melt for the last 15 years in her fluids laboratory. In 2018 she was a principal investigator on a research cruise in Greenland for the first time. She wants to understand why the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than ever and what happens to the fresh water released into the ocean.
Read MoreAn icebreaker pauses
WHOI senior engineer Jeff O’Brien offloads an ice-tethered profiler buoy and winch from the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, during the 2019 expedition (17th year) of WHOI’s Beaufort Gyre Expedition Exploration Project
Read MoreA tipping point
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) are the largest species of penguin and one of the most charismatic animals on Earth. Their…
Read MoreMarch of the penguins
If current warming trends continue, emperor penguins will be marching toward an 86 per cent population decline by the end of the century, at which point, “it is very unlikely for them to bounce back,” says study author Stephanie Jenouvrier, a seabird ecologist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Nereid Under Ice explores Aurora hydrothermal vent field
The newly upgraded Nereid Under Ice, a hybrid remotely operated vehicle, is deployed from the Norwegian Icebreaker KronPrins Haakon to conduct its first deep ocean dives to 4,000 meters (over 13,000 feet) along the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean.
Read MoreUnless warming is slowed, emperor penguins will be marching towards extinction
Emperor penguins are some of the most striking and charismatic animals on Earth, but a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has found that a warming climate may render them extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, published Nov. 7, 2019, in the journal Global Change Biology.
Read MoreScientists in Antarctica train to endure its brutal environment
It’s the coldest environment on Earth, with a mean temperature of minus-76 in winter and minus-18 in summer, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
