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Gulf of Alaska Research Opportunity: Murdock Trust Seed Funding (GEO)

We are seeking new partners for the newly installed Northern Gulf of Alaska shelf moored ecosystem observatory (GEO).

CEO mooring deployment
Sister mooring of GEO: the Chukchi Ecosystem Observatory (CEO) being deployed [credit: Seth Danielson]

Current GEO

The 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.

Opportunity

This 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.

Deployment of GEO sediment trap
Deployment of GEO sediment trap, R/V Sikuliaq July 2019 [credit: Seth Danielson]

Proposal Guidelines

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:

Murdock Trust logo

R/V Sikuliaq Cruise, Summer 2019

2019 NGA REU students
satellite chlorophyll
Satellite observed Chlorophyll in the Gulf of Alaska with NGA station locations. [credit: Rachel Potter]

The Summer 2019 cruise aboard R/V Sikuliaq has begun. 2019 is the 50th consecutive year of samples taken at oceanographic station GAK1 (begun December 1970) and the 23nd consecutive year of Seward Line physical-chemical-phytoplankton-zooplankton-seabird sampling. However, many new things are happening too.

Special Studies

Deploying GEO mooring
Deployment of a Gulf Ecosystem Observatory (GEO) mooring aboard R/V Sikuliaq [credit: Seth Danielson]

One of our special studies involves several days of high-resolution sampling of the Copper River discharge plume. We suspect this plume is a source of iron (and other nutrients), therefore driving some of the high productivity in the Gulf of Alaska. To investigate this, we’ll be deploying drifters, making maps of data along the plume edge, and performing incubation growth experiment using both shelf and offshore water.

In addition, the Gulf of Alaska Ecosystem Observatory (GEO) is being deployed this week. During the next year, it will report oceanographic conditions in real-time. The GEO moorings will provide the NGA LTER program with year-long data about conditions in the Gulf, so we can know what is happening even when we can’t be there. Two of the three moorings in the array report real-time data on ocean surface conditions. You can view data from these moorings in the Ocean Data Explorer system provided by AOOS and Axiom Data Science:

Special Communication

2019 NGA REU students
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) students Ayanda, Kelsie, Adrianna, Kate, and Delphina on the deck of R/V Sikuliaq on the 4th of July following safety training for bear guards, compressed air grapnel hook cannon demonstrations, and deployment of satellite-tracked drifters. [credit: Seth Danielson]

Five Research Experience for Undergraduate students are also aboard. Most of their time is spent in the labs at UAF and WWU, but for a few weeks, they are experiencing life at sea. They are:

  • Adrianna, working with Russ Hopcroft (UAF),
  • Kate, working with Russ Hopcroft (UAF),
  • Ayanda, working with Seth Danielson (UAF),
  • Delphina, working with Suzanne Strom (WWU), and
  • Kelsie, working with Ana Aguilar-Islas (UAF).

Participants are also updating several blogs about their work.

Internet communication with ships in the Gulf of Alaska is spotty, but these blogs will be updated as often as possible. Katie Gavenus’s completed blog from the Spring cruise gives even more insight into our work.