I participated on behalf of Drs. Jackie Grebmeier and Lee Cooper (UTK). Our objectives in this study were:
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Arianne Balsom Photo: B. Bluhm |
1. The determination of species composition, biomass, and abundance of infaunal marine benthic communities.
2. The analysis of sediment chemistry parameters important to these benthic communities (sediment chlorophyll a content, total organic carbon content, sediment grain size, high performance liquid chromatography, and sedimentation rates using 7Be and 137Cs as indicators of particle settling rate).
3. The analysis of 18O stable oxygen isotope composition in the overlying water column, indicative of water mass variation and freshwater input.
4. The comparison of RUSALCA 2004 marine community analyses undertaken on previous Russian-U.S. cruises in this same region, particularly the BERPAC sponsored cruises that involved Russian and U.S. scientists in 1989 (Akademik Koralev), 1993 (Okean), and 1995 (Alpha Helix).
Van Veen benthic grabs (0.1m2) were taken for the University of Tennessee at eleven stations (five grabs per station) for benthic community structure analysis. Four of these grabs are used for quantitative analysis of infaunal communities, and the fifth grab was used to obtain surface sediment measurements. Three grabs for Drs. Boris Sirenko and Sergey Gagaev were taken at these eleven stations, and also at three additional stations. Other samples taken from the van Veen benthic grabs included surface sediment for the Russian microbiologists, surface sediment for trace metal studies by Dr. Nate Bickford, Brenda Norcross’ post-doc, and surface sediment for isotopic analysis by Drs. Bodil Bluhm and Katrin Iken. Drs. Bluhm and Iken also obtained infaunal samples from the van Veen grabs for isotopic analysis. Sirenko and Gagaev also took Benthic dredges at three stations in the Bering Strait. All sediment samples were frozen for shipment back to UTK for processing, and infaunal samples were preserved in formalin for analysis back at the UTK laboratory.
Cruise Report:
- Principal Investigators and their Projects
- Participant List
- Cruise Objectives
- Marine Infaunal Benthic Community Structure
- Arctic Epibenthic Community Structure and Benthic Food Web Structure
- A Census of Arctic Zooplankton Communities
- Adult Fish Sampling: Preliminary Summary of Accomplishments
- Larval Fisheries Ecology of the Bering and Chukchi Seas
- Hydrochemical Nutrient Distributions and Dynamics
- Productivity, Chlorophyll and Phytoplankton in Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea
- CTD/Rosette Water Sampler Profiles
- Mooring in Western Bering Strait
- Remotely Operated Video Operations
- Methane Concentration in the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea