The Chukchi Borderlands Unexplored Seafloor Communities

Project Description

In the Chukchi Borderlands area north of the Arctic Chukchi Sea, water masses from the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet and interact over tremendously complex bottom topography, creating intricate currents and sea ice drifts. It is also the region of the most dramatic summer sea ice meltdown in the last decades. in a multi-disciplinary setting, we explore the benthic invertebrate and fish communities and the marine mammals in this from poorly known region. We combine traditional sampling techniques with state-of-the-art photographic mapping using ROV to assess the diversity of this region.

Project Funding

NOAA Ocean Exploration
Amount: $2,308,991
Start Date: 2015-08-00
End Date: 2017-07-00

 

Research Team

Katrin Iken

Katrin Iken

Principal Investigator

Professor

Specialties:

  • Trophic interactions and food web analysis
  • Benthic diversity and communities
  • Stable isotope analysis
  • Phycology and invertebrate ecology
  • Shallow water ecology and deep-sea biology
  • Polar marine biology

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Brenda Norcross

Brenda Norcross

Co-Principal Investigator

Professor

Specialties:

  • fisheries oceanography
  • fisheries ecology
  • fish habitats
  • early life history of marine fish
  • Arctic fishes

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Sarah Mincks

Sarah Mincks

Co-Principal Investigator

Associate Professor

Specialties:

  • Benthic-pelagic coupling
  • Polar marine ecology
  • Reproduction and life-history strategies of marine invertebrates
  • Trophic interactions
  • Lipid and stable isotope analysis
  • Ecology of soft-sediment habitats

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Co-Principal Investigators

Kate Stafford
Applied Physics Lab
University of Washington
stafford@apl.washington.edu