2005 K2 Cruise<\/a><\/p>\n\t VERTIGO has been supported primarily by the U.S. National Science Foundation in collaboration with the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, the U.S. Department of Energy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders (Belgium) and other national and international sponsors.<\/p>\n VER<\/strong>tical T<\/strong>ransport I<\/strong>n the G<\/strong>lobal O<\/strong>cean- aka VERTIGO<\/strong>– is currently one of our largest and most exciting projects. As its name implies, this study looks at how materials get from the surface to the deep ocean. In fact, there are really only two ways to get there\u2014either with ocean currents that sink to the deep ocean, but that takes place only in a few regions near the Arctic and Antarctic, or hitching a ride on sinking particles, and it\u2019s the sinking particle story that VERTIGO is all about.<\/p>\n Many basic questions such as these will be addressed by this international, interdisciplinary team of ocean scientists. More detailed description of this project is also available on the Project page HERE.<\/p>\n Neutrally buoyant sediment trap (NBST)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\tThe Ship – R\/V Kilo Moana\n The R\/V Kilo Moana <\/em>which is Hawaiian for “Oceanographer” is designed to operate in coastal and deep ocean areas and perform general-purpose research including: physical, chemical and biological oceanography; multi-discipline environmental investigations; ocean engineering; marine acoustics; marine geology and geophysics; survey tasks. Typical missions and operations include the following:<\/p>\n The ship is operated by the University of Hawaii, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> under a charter agreement with Office of Naval Research (ONR).<\/a><\/p>\n \u00bb More about R\/V Kilo Moana<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\tScience Gear\n Neutrally Buoyant Sediment Trap (NBST)<\/strong><\/p>\n CTD<\/strong><\/p>\n MOCNESS Plankton nets<\/strong><\/p>\nOn This Page<\/h3>\n
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Funding Agencies<\/h3>\n
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\n\t\t\tOverview\n\n
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\nR\/V Kilo Moana\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/cafethorium\/wp-content\/plugins\/bb-plugin\/img\/pixel.png\"){kind=tracking}
\n\t\t\tLocation\n\t\tCruise
\nJune 20 \u2013 July 11, 2004 <\/strong> <\/h4>\nThe site we went to north of the island of Oahu, is one of the most intensively studied pieces of ocean real estate. It is the location of the U.S. <\/strong>H<\/strong>awaii O<\/strong>cean T<\/strong>ime-series (HOT<\/strong>) program where for the past 16 years marine scientists have been studying the ocean and the seasonal cycles of marine plants and animals, and how they impact the chemistry of the waters they live in.
\n\u00bb View U.S. Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) Program Web site<\/a>\n\t\t\tParticipants\n\t\tKen Buesseler – <\/strong>Senior Scientist
\n<\/em>Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
\nkbuesseler@whoi.edu\nClaudia Benitez-Nelson<\/strong> – Distinguished Professor
\n<\/em>University of South Carolina
\nbenitezn@mailbox.sc.edu\nJim Bishop<\/strong> – Faculty Senior Scientist
\n<\/em>University of California Berkeley
\njkbishop@berkeley.edu\nPhil Boyd<\/strong> – Professor
\n<\/em>University of Tasmania
\nphilip.boyd@utas.edu.au\nKaren Casciotti<\/strong> – Associate Professor
\n<\/em>Stanford University
\nkcasciotti@stanford.edu\nFrank Dehairs<\/strong>
\nUniversity of Brussels, Belgium\nDave Siegel <\/strong>– Professor<\/em>
\nUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
\ndavey@eri.ucsb.edu\nSei-ichi Saitoh<\/strong>
\nHokkaido University \nNianzhi Jiao<\/strong>
\nXiamen University \nNianzhi Jiao<\/strong>
\nXiamen University \nDebbie Steinberg<\/strong> – Associate Professor of Marine Science<\/em>
\nVirginia Institute of Marine Science\nManmohan Sarin<\/strong>
\nPhysical Research Laboratory
\nAhmedabad, India\nMary Wilcox Silver <\/strong>– Professor of Ocean Sciences<\/em>
\nUniversity of California, Santa Cruz\nTom Trull<\/strong>
\nUniversity of Tasmania, Hobart Australia
\n\nBen Van Mooy <\/strong>– Senior Scientist<\/em>
\nWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution \nJim Valdes <\/strong>– <\/em>(Emeritus) Senior Engineer<\/em>
\nWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/01\/gear_nbst.jpg\")
These devices were developed at WHOI by engineer Jim Valdes and scientific collaborators Drs. Jim Price, Ken Buesseler and Debbie Steinberg (VIMS). Their mission is to sink to a preprogrammed depth, catch sinking particles in the 5 attached clear tubes and then float back to the surface after 3-5 days. It may sound simple, but it is quite a balancing act to get these to sink to the exact depth we need. If we are off in our calculations by the weight of even a few quarters, the whole package can sink too deep and never return, or never sink at all! During VERTIGO, we’ll have up to seven of these devices floating below and days later popping back up to the surface where they relay their position back to us on the ship via satellite.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/cafethorium\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/05\/gear_ctd.jpg\")
CTD is an acronym for the parameters that this device measures: \u201cConductivity, Temperature, and Depth.\u201d The CTD itself is a set of small probes attached to a large metal rosette wheel (see image). The rosette is lowered on a cable down to the seafloor, and scientists observe the water properties in real time via a conducting cable connecting the CTD to a computer on the ship. The water temperature and salt content, or salinity (which is computed from the conductivity), is important to oceanographers because it tells us about the types of water masses present, and how they are moving in the ocean.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/cafethorium\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/05\/gear_mocness.jpg\")
A series of opening and closing nets are lowered to depths of up to 1000m as part of the VERTIGO program. These MOCNESS tows provide samples of the mid to large marine zooplankton and other animals too slow to move out of the way. In fact on VERTIGO, we will be using not only the MOCNESS nets, but other styles of plankton nets that are lowered to depth and raised or towed slowly to collect an abundance of marine samples for biological identification and experiments on board with live animals.<\/p>\n
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MULVFS is a multiply unit large volume filtration system developed by Dr. Jim Bishop and colleagues. A large winch is used to lower a power cable into the ocean to depths up to 1000m and up to 12 pumps are attached that filter 10,000 liters of seawater through filters of various sizes.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/cafethorium\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/05\/gear_claptrap.jpg\")
Our Clap traps are sediment trap moorings designed to collect sinking particles using simple collection tubes suspended in the ocean at a single depth. We use three to collect particles at depths of 150, 300 and 500 meters. They are so named because most upper ocean traps are open tubes of some design, but ours \u201cclap\u201d shut when the 3-5 day mission is over. They are also unique in that we use a pair of \u201choley sock\u201d drogues (guess how they got their name) as a sea anchor, so that the tubes travel at a speed that is close to the water they are sitting in at depth (which is much slower than the surface ocean currents where the buoy floats).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/website.whoi.edu\/cafethorium\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/05\/gear_splitter.jpg\")
This may look like a simple device, but it\u2019s the Cadillac of sample \u201csplitters\u201d. The idea is that each scientist wants to be analyzing chemical and biological properties of the exact same material that is caught in our sediment trap. On a rocking and rolling ship, that means we want to combine material from each of the 5 collection tubes from one depth (there is not enough material in one tube, and sometimes, tube to tube variability in flux complicates the story). This mix of water and particles from the sediment trap tubes is shaken and gently gravity fed into the top of the splitter. The clear plastic top spins rapidly over the openings of 8 plastic bottles below, and thus delivers within a few tenths of a percent, the same amount of particles in solution to each container. The next step is filtration and processing of the samples in as many as 7 different ways. We use three different filter types, some of which are dried and some frozen in liquid nitrogen to preserve them for analyses on shore. The 8th sample is left in solution with preservative as a library of sorts from each collection. All of this work is conducted inside of a clean air bench, a space on a regularly dirty ship, where filtered air alone passes over the bench space where we are handling our precious sediment trap samples.<\/p>\n