U.S. and Russian scientists launch Arctic marine expedition
U.S. and Russian scientists launch Arctic marine expedition
Submitted by Doug Schneider
Phone: (907) 474-7449
08/05/04
Oceanographers and marine biologists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences will join their Russian counterparts in Nome, Alaska, this week for the start of the first joint U.S.-Russian census of the Arctic Ocean.
The scientists, some 15 Americans and 20 Russians, as well as Canadian and German researchers, will depart Nome on August 8, 2004, on a three-week collaborative journey of exploration and research in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea. The scientists will conduct an array of studies on the region’s physical, chemical and biological oceanography.
The expedition is the first in the Russian-American Long Term Census of the Arctic, and is sponsored by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
UAF researchers, led by oceanographer Terry Whitledge from the Institute of Marine Science, will examine fish distribution, water column and benthic biological exploration, nutrient and current fluxes, methane distribution, and seafloor processes. Researchers will travel and live aboard the 71.6-meter (235-foot) research vessel Professor Khromov, operated by the Far East Hydrometeorological Institute in Vladivostok, Russia.
The expedition is the result of a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding for World Ocean and Polar Regions Studies between NOAA and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Participating SFOS researchers, graduate students, and technicians include Russ Hopcroft, Katrin Iken, Bodil Bluhm, Brenda Holladay, Sang Heon Lee and Sarah Thornton.
Contact: Doug Schneider, SFOS information officer, at (907) 474-7449 or fndgs@uaf.edu.
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