Ocean Acidification

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Arctic Cruise 2011

Track of the August 2011 cruise. [larger version]

On August 15, 2011, a team of scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center and the University of South Florida (USF) boarded the USCGC Healy in Barrow, Alaska, for a seven-week journey in the Arctic Ocean. The team measured baseline seawater chemistry of the Arctic Ocean in order to improve understanding of ocean acidification in polar regions. The scientists worked side-by-side with other scientists aboard who were gathering data about the Extended Continental Shelf (ECS, Law of the Sea), the primary mission of the Healy cruise.

USGS Senior Scientist Lisa Robbins and her team members on board the ice cutter Healy took seawater samples using:

• Multi-parameter Inorganic Carbon Analyzer (MICA) produced about 9,000 records of data
  
  
• discrete water samples to analyze for pH, carbon and oxygen isotopes, total dissolved inorganic carbon, particulate organic carbon, total alkalinity, carbonate, microbes, and nutrients,
  
  
• AFT pH and pCO2 systems (Sunburst, LLC) were tested in this extreme environment,
  
  
• Rosette water sampling from 8 stations.

These data, along with the underway data the Healy provides (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence, CDOM, depth, wind speed, etc.), allow scientists to obtain a better understanding of the regional ocean chemistry. The cruise track for the 2011 expedition is seen on the right.

USGS Fact Sheet - Studying Ocean Acidification in the Arctic Ocean

Read more about ocean acidification and data collected during the 2010 and 2011 Arctic cruises in USGS Fact Sheet 2012-3058 - Studying Ocean Acidification in the Arctic Ocean.

Video compilation - Healy Aloftcon Webcam Photos

Publications:

Studying Ocean Acidification in the Arctic Ocean
USGS

Monitoring and Assessment of Ocean Acidification in the Arctic Ocean: A Scoping Paper
USGS

CO2calc: A User-Friendly Seawater Carbon Calculator for Windows, Mac OS X, and iOS (iPhone)
USGS

Related Links:

USCGC Healy
U.S. Coast Guard

Ocean Acidification: Research on Top of the World
Sound Waves

Scientists Set Sail to Map the Arctic Seafloor
Sound Waves

CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent Blog
UNCLOS