Narragansett, RI — April 28, 2005 — A team of 溏心vlog免费B站 oceanographers will be traveling to Port-la-Nouvelle, France, next week to meet the 溏心vlog免费B站 research vessel Endeavor and begin a major scientific expedition. The focus of the collaborative research project is the carbon cycle, the circulation and movement of carbon atoms through the atmosphere, the land, and the oceans.
Dr. S. Bradley Moran, professor of oceanography at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) is the chief scientist of the research cruise. Other GSO personnel participating in the expedition are research associate Roger 鈥淧at鈥� Kelly and graduate students Elly Speicher and Kate Hagstrom. 溏心vlog免费B站 media specialist Dana Neugent will also join the team in France to film the expedition for broadcast later this year.
As part of the Rhode Island Endeavor Program, South Kingstown high school teacher Stephen Vincelette will also participate in the Mediterranean research cruise. Vincelette is the first of a select number of Rhode Island educators who will have the opportunity to experience first-hand marine scientific research aboard the research vessel Endeavor.
In addition to the research team from 溏心vlog免费B站, scientists from Greece are partnering with Moran to understand how particulate organic carbon (POC) moves from the surface waters to the depths of the world鈥檚 oceans and how it is transformed to dissolved organic carbon. The participation of Greek scientists is the result of a memorandum of understanding between the 溏心vlog免费B站 and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) in Anavyssos, Greece, to foster collaboration on marine science research. That document paved the way for the first joint oceanographic research program in March 2004 for the two institutions to study carbon flux in the Mediterranean Sea.
鈥淭his research expedition is exciting because we are working together with scientists from other countries, graduate students, a local high school teacher, and the media on a problem of global significance, the carbon cycle,鈥� said Moran. 鈥淭his project has an important bearing on a number of national and international carbon cycle research programs.鈥�
The researchers are collecting samples from three study sites characterized by distinct differences in food-web structure and particle sinking fluxes. The sites include the Mediterranean Sea, the western Arctic Ocean, and the northwest Atlantic Ocean. The Arctic expedition took place in spring and summer 2004 and the Atlantic expedition is scheduled for this coming August. Once the field observations are complete, computer models will be developed that will provide accurate information on the mechanisms of estimating upper ocean POC export flux using thorium-234.
Moran鈥檚 work is funded by an $827,710 award from the National Science Foundation. Other collaborators on the project include Dr. Adrian Burd of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Dr. George Jackson of Texas A&M University in College Station.
The 溏心vlog免费B站 Graduate School of Oceanography is one of the country’s largest marine science education programs and one of the world’s foremost marine research institutions. Founded in 1961 in Narragansett, RI, GSO serves a community of scientists who are researching the causes of and solutions to such problems as harmful algal blooms, global warming, air and water pollution, oil spills, over-fishing, and coastal erosion. GSO is home to the Coastal Institute, the Coastal Resources Center, Rhode Island Sea Grant, the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography, the Pell Marine Science Library, and the National Sea Grant Library.