EAGER: Filling a Crucial Oceanographic Observation Gap in the Southern Ocean with Animal-borne Instruments

Part 1: Non-technical description

Many processes that dominate coastal waters in the Southern Ocean are poorly studied due to the occurrence of sea ice and land glaciers/ice sheets that prevent access to study areas. Coastal ice prevents use of traditional moorings and glider-based research approaches that are common tools to evaluate the structure and dynamics of coastal systems in lower latitudes.

During the past two decades there has been an explosive increase in the use of Animal-Borne instruments (ABI) on Southern Oceans marine mammals to collect data on aspects such as patterns of habitat usage, migratory routes, foraging and reproductive hot-spots, and impacts of human activities near marine predators. ABI sensors have been collecting data on aspects such as temperature, salinity, light, fluorescence and other aspects that could supplement sparse traditional ocean measurements from ship-based and offshore mooring-based observations.

This study will assemble many datasets collected by a diverse community of instrumented marine mammals inhabiting the regions near the Southern Shetlands Islands and Kerguelen Island. ABI data will be quality controlled and evaluated for use to explore oceanographic aspects such as variability in mixed layer depth, fresh (melt) water intrusions, light penetration and surface temperature variability in coastal areas that will supplement other datasets.

The project involves international collaborators and will train a graduate student in data analysis. Broader impacts will also be accomplished through the development of learning modules for use in elementary and high-school classrooms. Part II: Technical description:

This study will evaluate the potential of 30-years of archival Animal-Borne Instrument (ABI) datasets from a variety of marine predators for oceanographic studies in two regions of the Southern Ocean. Animal tracking data will be quality controlled and processed to obtain location-based measurements of depth, temperature, light, and salinity in near-shore and under ice regions.

Nearshore and under ice collected datasets will be analyzed to determine the feasibility of ABI data to explore features such as coastal mixed layer depth, melt water intrusions and light penetration that could supplement more traditional, but further from shore, ocean observing system data. Data from poorly studied hotspot regions where predators feed could be of particular importance.

Results will be shared using collaborations among U.S. and international organizations such as Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the Southern Ocean Observing Systems (SOOS), among others. Data will be made available using public databases for the benefit of the scientific community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.