USAP-DC

Marine communities along the western Antarctic Peninsula are highly productive ecosystems which support a diverse assemblage of charismatic animals such as penguins, seals, and whales as well as commercial fisheries such as that on Antarctic krill. Fjords (long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea between high cliffs) along the central coast of the Peninsula appear to be intense, potentially climate sensitive, hotspots of biological production and biodiversity, yet the structure and dynamics of these fjord ecosystems are very poorly understood. Because of this intense biological activity and the charismatic fauna it supports, these fjords are also major destinations for a large Antarctic tourism industry. This project is an integrated field and modeling program to evaluate physical oceanographic processes, glacial inputs, water column community dynamics, and seafloor bottom community structure and function in these important yet little understood fjord systems. These Antarctic fjords have characteristics that are substantially different from well-studied Arctic fjords, likely yielding much different responses to climate warming. This project will provide major new insights into the dynamics and climate sensitivity of Antarctic fjord ecosystems, highlighting contrasts with Arctic sub-polar fjords, and potentially transforming our understanding of the ecological role of fjords in the rapidly warming west Antarctic coastal marine landscape. The project will also further the NSF goal of training new generations of scientists, providing scientific training for undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. This includes the unique educational opportunity for undergraduates to participate in research cruises in Antarctica and the development of a novel summer graduate course on fjord ecosystems. Internet based outreach activities will be enhanced and extended by the participation of a professional photographer who will produce magazine articles, websites, radio broadcasts, and other forms of public outreach on the fascinating Antarctic ecosystem.

This project will involve a 15-month field program to test mechanistic hypotheses concerning oceanographic and glaciological forcing, and phytoplankton and benthic community response in the Antarctic fjords. Those efforts will be followed by a coupled physical/biological modeling effort to evaluate the drivers of biogeochemical cycles in the fjords and to explore their potential sensitivity to enhanced meltwater and sediment inputs. Fieldwork over two oceanographic cruises will utilize moorings, weather stations, and glacial, sea-ice and seafloor time-lapse cameras to obtain an integrated view of fjord ecosystem processes. The field team will also make multiple shipboard measurements and will use towed and autonomous underwater vehicles to intensively evaluate fjord ecosystem structure and function during spring/summer and autumn seasons. These integrated field and modeling studies are expected to elucidate fundamental properties of water column and sea bottom ecosystem structure and function in the fjords, and to identify key physical-chemical-glaciological forcing in these rapidly warming ecosystems.

Person	Role
Winsor, Peter	Investigator
Truffer, Martin	Co-Investigator
Smith, Craig	Investigator and contact
Powell, Brian	Co-Investigator
Merrifield, Mark	Co-Investigator
Pan, B. Jack	Researcher
Manck, Lauren	Researcher
Forsch, Kiefer	Researcher
Vernet, Maria	Investigator
Kohut, Josh	Investigator

Antarctic Integrated System Science	Award # 1443733
Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems	Award # 1443733
Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems	Award # 1443705
Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems	Award # 1443680

USAP-1443680_1
LMG1702
USAP-1443733_1

Deployment	Type
LMG1510	ship expedition
LMG1702	ship expedition
NBP1603	ship expedition

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
R2R	Expedition data of LMG1702	None	exists
USAP-DC	Sediment macrofaunal abundance and family richness from inner Andvord Bay to the open continental shelf	None	exists
USAP-DC	Andvord Bay Glacier Timelapse	None	exist
R2R	NBP1603 Expedition data	None	exists
R2R	LMG1510 Expedition data	None	exists
USAP-DC	Fjord-Eco Sediment OrgC OrgN Data - Craig Smith	None	exists
USAP-DC	FjordEco Phytoplankton Ecology Dataset in Andvord Bay	None	exists
USAP-DC	Andvord Bay sediment core data collected during the FjordEco project (LMG1510 and NBP1603)	None	exists
R2R	Expedition Data	None	exist
R2R	Expedition Data	None	exist

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12. Mascioni, M., Almandoz, G. O., Cefarelli, A. O., Cusick, A., Ferrario, M. E., & Vernet, M. (2019). Phytoplankton composition and bloom formation in unexplored nearshore waters of the western Antarctic Peninsula. Polar Biology, 42(10), 1859–1872. (doi:10.1007/s00300-019-02564-7)
13. Mascioni, M., Almandoz, G. O., Ekern, L., Pan, B. J., & Vernet, M. (2021). Microplanktonic diatom assemblages dominated the primary production but not the biomass in an Antarctic fjord. Journal of Marine Systems, 224, 103624. (doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2021.103624)
14. Cárdenas, P., Lange, C. B., Vernet, M., Esper, O., Srain, B., Vorrath, M.-E., … Lamy, F. (2019). Biogeochemical proxies and diatoms in surface sediments across the Drake Passage reflect oceanic domains and frontal systems in the region. Progress in Oceanography, 174, 72–88. (doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2018.10.004)
15. Lundesgaard, Ø., Powell, B., Merrifield, M., Hahn-Woernle, L., & Winsor, P. (2019). Response of an Antarctic Peninsula Fjord to Summer Katabatic Wind Events. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 49(6), 1485–1502. (doi:10.1175/jpo-d-18-0119.1)
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