Upcoming Cruises :

June 2007, Gulf Of Mexico,WHOI ROV Jason II

 

Recent Research Cruises:

This cruise was a follow-up expedition to the 2005 Lau Basin cruise that studied the ecology, physiology and chemistry of the vents and fauna found here. Again, the chief scientist was Dr. Chuck Fisher. Our research group composition changed a little from the 2005 cruise and included researchers from Dr. Fisher’s lab at Penn State (K. Zelnio, L. Podoski, E. Becker), University of Delaware, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory (in California), Harvard University, Station Biologique Roscoff (in France), University of the South Pacific, and the Fijian and Tongan Governments. The Fisher Lab’s role was to continue the studies and sampling started during the 2005 cruise including photo-mosaics, quantitative snail and mussel community collections, collecting specimens for systematic and stable isotope food web studies, recover last year’s data loggers and deploy new ones and explore more of the seafloor as time permits. Other research groups goals included continuing reproductive studies of vent fauna, further studies on the communities peripheral to the vents, characterizing mussel chemoautotrophic symbiont’s population and phylogenetic structure, continued sampling of vent water for chemistry, temperature and in situ chemical measurements of vent communities, seafloor bathymetric mapping and systematic study of polynoid and siboglinid polychaetes. Another very successful cruise, despite the loss of some research equipment everyone seemed to accomplish their goals and get what they needed for their research projects.

This was the 5th and last cruise or series of expeditions, between 2004-2005, aimed at taking a multidisciplinary approach at studying the geology, chemistry and biology of hydrothermal vents at the Ridge2000 designated Integrated Study Site, the East Lau Basin Back Arc Spreading Center. Our cruise was led by chief scientist Dr. Chuck Fisher and consisted of a collaboration between researchers at Penn State in Dr. Fisher’s lab (K. Zelnio, L. Podowski, G. Telesnicki), University of Delaware, University of California at Santa Barbara, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory (in California), Station Biologique Roscoff and Centre de Brest de l’Ifremer (both in France). We also had an observer from the Kingdom of Tonga on board since we were working in their waters. This expedition had several goals. In particular, the Fisher Lab’s role was to take high-resolution images of the seafloor for creating photo-mosaics and GIS databases, quantitative collection of chemoautotrophic snail and mussel communities, collect stable isotope sample for a quantitative food web study, collect organisms for systematic study, deploy temperature data loggers on the seafloor for recovery next year and find and map new vent sites for future study. Other research group’s goals included taking in-situ chemistry and temperature measurements, processing water samples from hydrothermal vents for chemical analyses, investigating the reproductive biology of vent fauna, studying the communities of organisms living on the periphery of the vent communities using photo-mosaics and selective sampling for stable isotope and systematic study, conducting physiological experiments of vent fauna in pressure chambers and other physiological biochemical studies of chemoautotrophic fauna. Though these goals were ambitious, we managed to have a very successful cruise and get most everything done that each research group had hoped for. There will be a follow-up cruise in 2006 to these sites.

This cruise encompassed two different research programs. One program was led by chief scientist Dr. Janet Voight of the Field Museum, whose primary goal was to make collections of the deep-sea fauna along the East Pacific Rise from 8- 13∞ N. The other program was to continue time-critical studies at 9∞50’ N. Dr. Karen Von Damm (University of New Hampshire) and graduate student Breea Govenar, from the Fisher lab, shared 6 Alvin dives to sample fluids from high-temperature chimneys (Von Damm’s group) and to recover an ecological experiment that was deployed in December 2002 (Fisher group). Kevin Zelnio was an undergraduate research assistant from UC Davis on this cruise and is now a graduate student in the Fisher lab at PSU.

This cruise was led by Dr. Robert Carney at Louisiana State University in conjunction with Dr. Fisher and Dr. Roger Sassen from Texas A&M University. The goals of this cruise were to revisit two known seep sites in the deep Gulf of Mexico and to investigate some potential new sites in between. The known sites were Florida Escarpment at a depth of 3300m at the base of the Florida continental shelf, and Alaminos Canyon at 2200m off the coast of Texas. We successfully made 3 Bushmaster collections and 5 collections of mussel communities at these two sites. There were 5 dives at these two sites and 4 more dives at 4 different sites. Three of these dives recovered very little in the way of chemosynthetic communities, but gave us a better feel for the overall ecology of the deep Gulf – very few large organisms, and a lot of mud. The other dive was near a known site in Atwater Valley. We did encounter a seep community on this dive and obtained a mussel collection as well as a few samples of a new species of lamellibrachid tube worm. The relationship of this species to the other described species of tube worms is still unknown and is currently being investigated.

There were two main objectives on this cruise. The first was to explore a number of sites which had only seldom been visited in the past and had few or no biological samples taken from them. The second was to fully characterize the geochemistry of deeper (>30cm) sediments at the well-studied central sites. The first goal was accomplished beyond our expectations. We made a total of 10 dives at 4 new sites. On these dives, we collected 5 Bushmaster Jr. samples. Many of these contained similar species to the central sites, but there were some new discoveries. A few of the aggregations were made up of a relatively rare and still undescribed species of tube worm. At one of these sites, we found extensive areas of the deep-sea coral Lophelia pertusa, as well as other gorgonian and antipatharian corals. In 2004, we will begin to study these corals in more detail. In addition to the exploratory Bushamster samples, we also stained 6 more aggregations and collected the 4 bushes stained in 2002 and measured the growth of the tube worms. These data lend more confidence to our previous finding that Lamellibrachia luymesi is the longest lived solitary animal on the planet. To accomplish the second goal, we designed pore water “peepers” for deployment by the submersible. The peepers provided additional information on the sulfide and sulfate levels in the sediments around tube worm aggregations. These data will be used in investigations of the sulfur cycle at seeps and the physiological processes of the tube worms.

This was the third and final cruise supported through a grant from NOAA's West Coast National Undersea Research Program. We combined efforts this year with scientists from the University of Washington, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the University of Victoria (CA) and Dalhousie University (CA). John Delaney and Deb Kelly served as Co- Chief Scientsits for this cruise. Again we were assisted by the excellent pilots and crew of the Canadian ROV ROPOS as we sampled tubeworms at the Main Endeavour Field of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Two PSU graduate students, Jason Flores and Sue Carney participated in all three cruises (2001-2003) as they continue to work on the blood physiology and population genetics of the different morphotypes of the tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae.

This was the second cruise of our NSF award to study the productivity and biomass of the EPR vent communities with Jim Childress' group from UC Santa Barbara. Again, this was a two-ship expedition, and Dr. Fisher was chief scientist on the R/V Atlantis and oversaw the in situ work while Dr. Childress was the chief scientist on the R/V New Horizon. Our group’s main goals were to collect temperature recorders that had been deployed in the mussel and tubeworm habitats for one year and to make quantitative collections of the different community types. We also worked with chemist, Nadine Le Bris from Ifremer (France) to measure sulfide, iron, and pH of the hydrothermal fluids in the different community types. Five countries were represented by the members of the scientific party aboard the R/V Atlantis (USA, France, Canada, Austria, and Germany). Also from PSU were graduate students, Breea Govenar, Erik Cordes, and Jason Flores, an undergraduate lab member, Julie Barsic, a post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Stephane Hourdez, and a visiting student from Germany, Peter Dienes. In addition to our group and Dr. Childress's group, this expedition included scientists from Ifremer (France), The Field Museum, Harvard University, University of California at San Diego, University of Vienna (Austria), and University of Victoria (Canada).

This was the second cruise supported through a grant from NOAA's West Coast National Undersea Research Program. Like the cruise the previous year, we combined efforts with a Canadian research team lead by Dr. Kim Juniper of the University of Quebec at Montreal, and used the Canadian ROV ROPOS to visit and sample tubeworms on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Two PSU graduate students, Jason Flores and Sue Carney participated in both cruises to obtain the fresh material they need for their studies of blood physiology and population genetics of the different morphotypes of the tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae.  

 

This was the first cruise of our NSF and NOAA awards to study the Gulf of Mexico tubeworms and the animals that live with them. Our NSF studies center around how the tubeworms obtain their sulfide and the subsurface extent of their roots in different environments, while the NOAA studies center on the biogeography and community ecology of the animals that live in and among the tubeworm "bushes". This was graduate student Erik Cordes' first cruise for his thesis research and he took the lead on the community collections for this cruise. The tubeworm community collections went extremely well and our new tubeworm root excavator ("big suck") and whole bush stainer also worked perfectly. Also participating from PSU were Dr. Fisher, graduate students Breea Govenar, Kristine Neilson, and Sharmishtha Dattagupta, Dr. Stephane Hourdez, and undergraduates Chris Jones and Emily Smail. All got to dive and see the sites first hand. Also on board were collaborators from Texas A & M, Lousiana State, the American University of Washington, the University of Virginia, and the University of Oregon.
 

This was the first cruise of our NSF award to study the productivity and biomass of the EPR vent communities with Jim Childress' group from UC Santa Barbara. This was a two-ship expedition and Dr. Fisher was chief scientist on the RV Atlantis and oversaw the in situ work while Dr. Childress was the chief scientist on the RV New Horizon. This was graduate student Breea Govenar's first cruise for her thesis research and she took the lead with the quantitative collections. Our groups main goals were to characterize the habitats of the major community types and make quantitative collection of the different community types with our "new toys". Two other graduate students, Sue Carney and Sharmishtha Dattagupta, Undergraduate lab member, Therese Waltz and Dr. Stéphane Hourdez, rounded out the PSU contingent on the RV Atlantis, while PSU Graduate student Jason Flores sailed on the New Horizon. In addition to our group and Dr. Childress' group, this two-ship expedition included scientists from the College of William and Mary, the University of Vienna (Austria), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Alaska, the University of Southampton (UK), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Western Washington University, Georgia Tech., and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
 

This was the first cruise supported through our most recent grant from NOAA's West Coast National Undersea Research Program. Working with a Canadian research team lead by Dr. Kim Juniper of the University of Quebec at Montreal, and using the Canadian ROV ROPOS to visit and sample tubeworms on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Two PSU graduate students, Jason Flores and Sue Carney participated in this first cruise to obtain the fresh material they need for their studies of blood physiology and population genetics of the different morphotypes of the tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae.


 

Earlier Cruises: