In August, 2021, the University of Alaska’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Science is offering a short course in oceanographic fieldwork for subarctic environments.
UAF’s AUGUSTmester courses are intense, three-credit courses that meet for only ten weekdays.
All students must be in good academic standing to take an AUGUSTmester course.
The Northern Gulf of Alaska Long Term Ecological Research (NGA LTER) project invites Alaska Native undergraduate students to participate in our interdisciplinary project during 2021.
Timing options for student involvement:
Any of the first three options include an opportunity to participate in a research expedition (dates to be determined as sea activities may be subject to quarantines, personnel reductions, and other restrictions due to COVID-19).
NGA LTER is one site within the national LTER network. Our research team investigates the features, mechanisms, and processes that drive NGA ecosystem production and foster its resilience. Scientists conduct ship-based observations and experiments, do research in land-based laboratories, run computer models of the ocean, and communicate findings to students and the public through education and outreach partners.
We seek a Alaska Native undergraduate student with interest in the Northern Gulf of Alaska to work with our University of Alaska Fairbanks team. Student research will integrate with work currently being done on the NGA LTER ecosystem. The time period of this REU position could includes our summer expedition aboard R/V Sikuliaq, so participation in ship-board research activities is possible, as is work that fosters partnerships with other disciplines. Research themes include biogeochemical cycling, microplankton ecology, physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, zooplankton ecology and molecular studies.
This REU opportunity is not limited strictly to oceanographic research, but can be a project that promotes partnership between marine science and other disciplines. Projects can be related to fields including but not limited to visual arts, music, education, engineering, communication. Participation could include joining a research expedition to the Northern Gulf of Alaska onboard R/V Sikuliaq, or it could be carried out fully at the UAF campus. The student will present their work to the UAF LTER community when the project is completed.
Salary
Qualifications
Required:
Preference will be given to applicants whose resume indicate:
Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. and its possessions and must be enrolled in a 2- or 4-year institution of higher education. Students who have received a bachelor’s degree before the start date of the program are ineligible.
To apply, email each of the following:
Make sure your resume includes:
Unofficial transcripts are acceptable.
Questions? Please contact projectmanager.ngalter@gmail.com
The Northern Gulf of Alaska Long Term Ecological Research (NGA LTER) project invites undergraduate students to participate in our interdisciplinary oceanographic research this summer. This cohort of REU students will join our team from June 15 to August 20, 2021. The application period closes February 15, 2021; applicants will be notified in mid-March.
The NGA LTER is one site within the national LTER network. Our research team investigates the features, mechanisms, and processes that support NGA ecosystem production and foster its resilience. Scientists conduct field work, including ship-based experiments, run computer models of the ocean, and communicate findings to students and the public through education and outreach partners.
We seek highly motivated undergraduates with interest in marine science, biology, chemistry, and/or physics to work with scientists through the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Student research will integrate with work currently being done on the NGA LTER ecosystem. The time period of this REU position may include our summer cruise aboard R/V Sikuliaq, so participation in ship-board research activities is possible, as is historical time series or retroactive data analysis. Oceanographic research themes include biogeochemical cycling, microplankton ecology, physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, zooplankton ecology and molecular studies.
Details
Salary
Qualifications
Required:
Desired:
How to Apply
Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. and its possessions and must be enrolled in a 2- or 4-year institution of higher education. Students who have received a bachelor’s degree before the start date of the program are ineligible. Members of groups under-represented in earth and environmental science are strongly encouraged to apply.
To apply, submit each of the following:
Make sure your resume includes:
Unofficial transcripts are acceptable.
Questions? Please contact projectmanager.ngalter@gmail.com
Kira is a master’s student in the Marine Biology Graduate Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her thesis is titled “Characterization of Cell Division in the Tissues of the Calanoid Copepod, Neocalanus flemingeri from Diapause through Early Oogenesis.”
During the summer and fall 2019 NGA LTER cruises, Kira collected diapausing female copepods. She examined lipid content and cell division within the reproductive structures. Through Kira’s work, she discovered that Neocalanus flemingeri can stop diapause and begin creating egg cells within just twenty-four hours after being collected.
Annie Kandel is a master’s student through the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. For Annie’s thesis, titled “Spatial and temporal variability of dissolved aluminum and manganese in surface waters of the northern Gulf of Alaska,” Annie investigated the seasonal variability of dissolved aluminum and dissolved manganese in our study area. Annie derived data from the spring, summer, and fall NGA LTER cruises in 2018 and 2019.
Annie’s work showed that dissolved aluminum and manganese are trace metals that can be used as tracers of freshwater input in the NGA. This is because in this region, their main source is from rivers. Values for both metals are highest inshore, closer to the mouth of the Copper River, and decrease moving offshore.
The Oceanography Department in UAF’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences is seeking a post doctoral scholar to work with Gulf Watch Alaska. The postdoc will contribute to existing data synthesis efforts and lead new analyses.
Gulf Watch Alaska (GWA) is the long-term ecosystem monitoring program of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. GWA partners with the Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Research (NGA LTER) project to monitor the northern Gulf of Alaska ecosystem. In fact, NGA LTER is an example of an GWA project that has existed for multiple decades with resulting long-term physical and biological time series for the Gulf of Alaska.
GWA investigates three main ecosystem components:
GWA supports annual field sampling efforts. However, it is also conducting cross-component science syntheses that focus on the effects of the recent northeast Pacific marine heatwave.
The postdoctoral scholar for this project will contribute as lead author and as co-author to GWA program synthesis products. They will collaborate with their UAF faculty advisor, GWA investigators, and the GWA Science Coordinator and ecosystem component leads. Together, they will design and conduct studies related to the phenology, magnitude, spatial variability, and recovery time of biological responses to and physical drivers of the marine heatwave. Additionally, other biophysical mechanisms of population regulation in the Gulf of Alaska may also be addressed.
These synthesis activities will support management actions by informing the ecosystem-based fisheries management of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. For instance, the postdoctoral scholar will work with the GWA Science Coordinator to update existing and develop new ecosystem indicators to be used in NOAA’s Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Status reports and Ecosystem and Socioeconomic Profiles.
In addition, the post-doctoral scholar will also provide technical review and editing of manuscripts, reports, and work plans for the GWA Program Management Team. They will also present results of their research at GWA meetings, scientific conferences, and to the public.
To learn more about this position and to apply, please visit Careers at UA. The deadline is November 30, 2020.
Despite challenges and restrictions due to COVID-19, the NGA LTER was able to complete their 2020 field operations. These operations included four planned research cruises, and redeployment of several moorings.
To enable this, we shortened cruise lengths, reduced the number of participating scientist, and transferred on cruise to a different vessel. In the end, the NGA team pulled off the core Gulf of Alaska sampling and so maintained the long-term time series datasets.
During the first 9 days in September, twelve scientists from the University of Alaska (UAF), Western Washington University (WWU) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) sailed aboard the R/V Sikuliaq. Originally, the fall cruise was scheduled to take place on the USFWS vessel R/V Tiglax. Unfortunately, the pandemic forced the cancellation of all 2020 Tiglax sailings. Postponement of other research cruises on the Sikuliaq schedule and a slight shift of fall LTER sailing dates opened a window of availability for a fall expedition.
Fall sampling occurred in Prince William Sound and along the Seward Line. This marks the 100th occupation of the Seward Line using a (nearly) modern suite of vertically profiling sondes! The Seward Line is a 150 nautical mile transect that starts at the mouth of Resurrection Bay and extends offshore into oceanic waters. The first occupation of the Seward Line was in December, 1970. Over the first few years, samples were taken only at discrete depth levels using Nansen bottles and reversing thermometers.
More details and information on the history of our site – https://nga.lternet.edu/about-us/site-history/
Despite only having three scientists aboard and working around 2 gales, the Spring 2020 cruise succeeded! That means all the cruise objectives were met during the May 4 – 10, 2020 cruise, thanks to the efforts of the entire team, including marine technicians and the whole crew of the R/V Sikuliaq. Successful elements of our cruise include:
As discussed before, this cruise shows how science can adapt during the time of COVID-19. Since that last post, several more stories have been published.
Before the cruise departed, Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove spoke to LTER Lead PI Russ Hopcroft. Dr Hopcroft explained why sampling this spring was necessary to understand measurements that might be more easily made later in the year, and how springtime measurements enable connections to be made between years:
Then after the cruise, EOS, the weekly magazine of the American Geophysical Union published an article about the cruise. It describes how measurements were taken while scientists and crew followed the required social distancing.
Citation: Duncombe, J. (2020), What it’s like to social distance at sea, Eos, 101, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO144098. Published on 12 May 2020.
Like everyone, scientists world-wide want to reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, for their work, they also need to continue research projects that rely in part on uninterrupted data records. Fortunately, with the support of NSF and University of Alaska, NGA LTER scientists will be able to do both by reducing spring field operations.
A press release by the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks outlines our plans for the spring cruise: Sikuliaq to embark on limited research cruise in May.
Like other research programs, our research plans shifted rapidly in response to the changing situation. Several articles trace this evolution by featuring NGA LTER PIs and research activities.
Multi-disciplinary monitoring of the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem has occurred every May since 1998. Fisheries managers and research scientists can make informed assessments of Alaska marine ecosystem health and status because of these measurements. This long-term sampling happens along the Seward Line – a set of stations stretching 150 miles across the shelf – and within Prince William Sound. Regular samples at these consistent stations insure the integrity of this time series. Therefore, preserving core physical, nutrient chemistry, phytoplankton and zooplankton data at these stations is a high priority for NGA LTER scientists.
The North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS), and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOS) via the Gulf Watch Alaska program all provide additional funding that make this time series possible.
Our planned field work aims to continue the valuable Seward Line time series while keeping personnel safe. Before the cruise, R/V Sikuliaq remained in Seward, AK, staffed by her crew. They have been under quarantine on board since their arrival at the start of April. Three of our Principle Investigators (PIs), Seth Danielson, Ana Aguilar-Islas, and Russ Hopcroft, quarantined at home for 2 weeks. They will join R/V Sikuliaq for the 7 day cruise, May 4-10, 2020. Before the cruise, crew and science party members logged body temperatures twice daily and maintained strict adherence to social isolation protocols in order to ensure a virus-free voyage.
The cruise plan includes sampling of the entire Seward Line with additional stations in western Prince William Sound. Planned measurements include water temperature and salinity using the conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instrument; water collections from deep waters to the surface for chlorophyll, nutrient, phytoplankton, and microzooplankton analysis; and net tows for zooplankton.
Other common NGA LTER activities will not be possible due to the short cruise length and limited personnel. Postponed activities include shipboard experiments, seabird and mammal surveys, jellyfish sampling, dissolved iron and other trace metal sampling, carbonate chemistry sampling, and optical measurements. NGA LTER’s other cross-shelf sampling lines will not be visited.
Despite these restrictions, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to continue our work and to contribute to the goal of understanding the Northern Gulf of Alaska ecosystem.
We are seeking new partners for the newly installed Northern Gulf of Alaska shelf moored ecosystem observatory (GEO).
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Current GEOThe M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust funded the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to construct a moored Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Observatory (GEO) in late 2017. Consequently, in 2018-2019, investigators designed the system, purchased components, assembled the moorings, and finally deployed the moorings in July 2019. Now, an array of one sub-surface and two surface moorings collects high-resolution biological, physical, and chemical data year-round. Some sensors report data in real-time. OpportunityThis year, the Murdock Trust is making $42,600 in “seed” funds available to bring new partners into the observatory consortium. As a result, we seek short proposals by UAF-based researchers for innovative new observing technologies that can be integrated into the upcoming May 2020 GEO deployment. In other words, this effort aims to encourage new partnerships and technology developments that can be applied to ocean observing via moorings in Alaska’s marine environment.
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Interested investigators should e-mail a project description (2-page limit, exclusive of references and budget) and itemized budget to sldanielson@alaska.edu prior to Friday, October 4th, 2019. After notification of proposal success (by November 1st), funds will be available immediately and need to be spent before the end of FY20. In all, we anticipate funding 1-3 proposals. However, by stipulation of the Trust, all seed funds must go to UAF-based researchers.
For a full description of the project background and scope, please refer to the Gulf of Alaska Seed Funding Opportunity announcement.
Further information on the GEO can also be found at:
In the deep water south of the NGA LTER study area lies an abyssal plain punctuated by volcanic seamounts – mountains that rise from the sea floor. The seamounts provide rocky, hard substrate that makes a good habitat for cold-water corals and sponges. Above the seamounts, ocean currents upwell nutrients to the surface where they feed planktonic organisms. This productivity attracts fish and seabirds to create relative hot-spots of biodiversity in the open ocean.
Immediately following the NGA LTER’s RV Sikuliaq cruise, summer 2019, several of our team members are setting out to extended our knowledge of the Gulf of Alaska. Dr. Russ Hopcroft, Dr. Petra Lenz, Dr. Vittoria Roncalli, Heidi Mendoza Islas, Callie Gesmundo, and Caitlin Smoot are joining our collaborators from Microcosm and other expedition members aboard R/V Sikuliaq to investigate seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska from an ecological perspective.
The ROV Global Explorer is a critical tool of this expedition. Operated by Oceaneering International, the ROV will take video and still images of organisms on the sea floor; this is the least-invasive method of sampling communities that could be damaged by bottom trawls and other collection methods. ROV Global Explorer will also collect fragile jellyfish by gently enclosing them in a sampler. This avoids the bias of previous sampling towards hard-shelled organisms that survive net tows.
Expedition Gulf of Alaska Seamounts 2019 will even be employing DNA sequencing to identify microbes. Previously, a NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research expedition to the Gulf of Alaska seamounts in 2002 found that the corals there were distinct habitats for microbes.
The NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research has created a website where visitors can follow the Mission Logs. Additionally, educators can also learn more about the expedition purpose and find videos and other classroom materials.
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research funds this project, with additional ship support by the National Science Foundation and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Science partners during this mission include scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Manitoba Canada, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the University of Hawaii, University of Barcelona Spain, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a Microcosm film team from Montrose Pictures. The partner for the ROV is Oceaneering.
