Upcoming and Previous Expeditions

37 days

December 2023 - January 2024

New Perspectives on Ocean Photosynthesis

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  20/1315

Amsterdam, Netherlands > Southampton, Hampshire 

NLAMS > GBSOU

4 days

August 2023

Passage

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1809

Principal Investigator
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

English Channel
Atlantic Ocean

10 Days

August 2023

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) Trial - NOC Marine Carbon Project

The NOC Marine Carbon Project is a collaborative endeavour between NERC and NOC.

The project will support the delivery of the NZOC Programme and the UK Government, UKRI, and NERC’s ambitions of achieving their agreed net zero targets.

The Marine Carbon Project currently has three key deliverables, HVO Fuel Trials, Ship Modifications (Hybrid Propulsion), and Shore Power.

NERC have provided £1M of funding to initiate these three projects.

As part of the NZOC process to reduce carbon emissions for the NERC research ships in the short to medium timeframe, NMF has been instructed to carry out an evaluation of the use of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) as an alternative low carbon emission fuel option.

Application Form Reference:  22/1857

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
Atlantic Ocean

31 days

August - September 2023

Quantifying evolution of magmatism and serpentinisation during the onset of seafloor spreading

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  19/1084

Principal Investigator
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

English Channel
Atlantic Ocean

5 days

October 2023

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) Trial

Application Form Reference:  23/1970

3 days

October 2023

Alongside

Alongside Application Form Reference:    22/1816

Southampton, United Kingdom > Ponta Delgada, Portugal

GBSOU > PTPDL

6 days

October 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1811

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Bramley Murton
National Oceanography Centre

36 days

October - December 2023

Ultramafic-hosted mineral Resource Assessment (ULTRA)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  18/755

37 days

December 2023 - January 2024

New Perspectives on Ocean Photosynthesis

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  20/1315

37 days

February - March 2024

Congo

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  21/1659

Mindelo, Cape Verde > Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

CVMIN > ESSCT

5 days

March - April 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/1957

Principal Investigator
Dr. Eleanor Frajka-Williams
Universität Hamburg

Chief Scientist
Dr. Ben Moat
National Oceanography Centre

12 days

March 2024

Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) - East

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  20/1413

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain > Southampton, United Kingdom

ESSCT > GBSOU

8 days

April 2024

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2030

Southampton, United Kingdom > Rosyth, United Kingdom

GBSOU > GBROY

4 days 

April 2024

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2031

Principal Investigator
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

North Sea
Atlantic Ocean

9 days 

May 2024

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) Trial

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2032

38 days

May & June 2024

Biological Influence on Future Ocean Storage of Carbon (BIO-Carbon) 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   22/1849

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Kristin Burmeister
National Oceanography Centre

26 days

July 2024

Ellett Array Moorings and Iceland to Scotland CTD section

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/1868

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Kristin Burmeister
National Oceanography Centre

26 days

August 2024

Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) - Mid Atlantic Ridge arrays

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/1919

Reykjavik, Iceland > Halifax, Canada

ISREY > CAHAL

10 days

August & September 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2100

Principal Investigator
Mr Marc Delisle
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Chief Scientist
Mr Calvin Campbell
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

66 days

September & October 2024

Eastern Canadian Oceanographic, Geologic, Hydrographic and Ecosystem Fall Surveys

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/1991

Halifax, Canada > Bridgetown, Barbados

CAHAL > BBBGI

8 days

November & December 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2046

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Ben Moat
National Oceanography Centre

9 days

December 2024

Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) - West

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   20/1414

Port Everglades, United States > Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe 

USPEF > GPPTP

8 days

December 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2090

25 days

January 2025

Seafields: Deep sea environmental impact assessment of sinking seaweed

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/1958

Point-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe > Piraeus, Greece

GPPTP > GRPIR

25 days

February 2025

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:   23/2091

26 days

March & April 2025

Hydrothermal modulation of caldera explosivity

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1750

Bridgetown, Barbados > Caldera, Costa Rica

BBBGI > CRCAL

10 days

January 2024

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1827

Clarion-Clipperton Zone
Pacific Ocean

45 days

February - March 2024

Deep-Sea Mining

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  19/992

Caldera, Costa Rica > Southampton, United Kingdom

CRCAL > GBSOU

7 days

March - April 2024

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2033

Principal Investigator
Mrs Helen Oldridge
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Dean Cheeseman
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

April - May 2024

Seismic GI suite equipment trial

Trials Application Form Reference:  22/1831

Principal Investigator
Dr. Andrew Gates
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

24 days

June 2024

Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/1900

11 days

June 2024

Met Buoy Network Servicing (South)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   22/1856

Southampton, United Kingdom > Rosyth, United Kingdom

GBSOU > GBROY

3 days

July 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2045

Rosyth, United Kingdom > Southampton, United Kingdom

GBROY > GBSOU

10 days 

August 2024

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/2053

Principal Investigator
Dr. Sarah Lou Carolin Giering
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Filipa Carvalho
National Oceanography Centre

14 days 

August 2024

ReBELS-1

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   20/1312

38 days

September - October 2024

The Biological Influence on Future Ocean Storage of Carbon (BIO-Carbon)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:    22/1850

Cardiff
United Kingdom

6 days 

October 2024

Cardiff, United Kingdom > Southampton, United Kingdom

GBCDF > GBSOU

4 days 

October 2024

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:   23/2094

34 days 

November - December 2024

The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   23/2069

Argentinian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters

Argentine Sea

26 days

January 2025

Capturing Oceanic Stirring and Mixing with Sound (COSMoS)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:   21/1672

Buenos Aires, Argentina > Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ARBUE > BRRIO

7 days

February 2025

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:   23/2103
 

47 days

February - March 2025

Enhanced carbon export driven by internal tides over the mid-Atlantic ridge (CarTRidge)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 22/1755

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

39 days

April & May 2023

Special survey docking

Refit Application Form Reference:  21/1503

JC246

Project Lead
Dr. Eleanor Darlington
National Oceanography Centre

27 days

April 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1804

Project Lead
Dr. Eleanor Darlington
National Oceanography Centre

Southampton 

83 days

November 2021 - February 2022

Alongside  

Alongside Application Form Reference: 21/1670

Principal Investigator
Dr. Ben Moat
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Dafydd Gwyn Evans
University of Southampton

28 days

February – March 2022

RAPID

The RAPID-AMOC 26°N project makes observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in collaboration with colleagues from University of Miami and NOAA in the USA. The UK component of this project is an array of moorings in the subtropical Atlantic. There are two main sub-arrays: the first is on the western boundary close to the Bahamas, and, the second is on the Eastern boundary close to the Canary Islands. The project has continuously measured the AMOC at 26N since 2004 and is one of the most important long-term measurements of ocean circulation available to climate scientists. 

This expedition will service the six eastern boundary moorings. In addition to temperature, conductivity and oxygen sensors, this expedition will add biogeochemical sensors to measure nutrients, Carbon, pH and alkalinity.

The moorings to be serviced were deployed on JC192 in March 2020.

Further information can be found:  

on the projects website

on Twitter: @RAPID_AMOC

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1411

Principal Investigator
Dr. Maaten Furlong
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Prof. C Mark Moore
University of Southampton

18 days

March 2022

Oceanids Sensors Final Demonstration Mission: Iberian Upwelling

Research Programme Summary and Objectives 

In 2017, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) invested approximately £15 million as part of Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) in the Oceanids programme to develop Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS) and associated sensor development. 

As part of this investment, a large autonomous underwater vehicle (A2KUI) has also been developed in addition to the following five sensors:

(i) AutoNutS - automated nutrient analyser;
(ii) CaPASOS - calibrated pCO2 in air and surface ocean sensor for USVs;
(iii) CarCASS - carbonate chemistry autonomous sensor system;
(iv) STAFES-APP - single-turnover active fluorometry of enclosed samples for autonomous phytoplankton productivity; 
(v) BioCam – image mapping of benthic biology, geology and ecology

The objective of this expedition is to trial these systems and fulfil the following objectives:

• To demonstrate the AutoNutS, CaPASOS, CarCASS, & STAFES-APP sensors integrated into both an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and an Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) in a representative field environment;
• To use the above sensors to mount a coherent science programme to obtain a comprehensive description of a marine setting of high scientific interest;
• To demonstrate the BioCAM integration into an Autosub Long Range AUV and demonstrate its performance in a representative field environment;
• To undertake the first ship trial of the A2KUI autonomous underwater vehicle to demonstrate operations in a representative field environment and to trial the vehicles sensors.

Scientific Programme Rationale

Although considerable work has been carried out on naturally Fe fertilised blooms over the last 10-15 years, there remain considerable uncertainties on the precise source(s) of Fe over the full range of spatio-temporal scales which characterise these blooms and the corresponding dynamic and spatially variable biogeochemical consequences of these limiting nutrient inputs. 

In particular, deployment of in situ sensors capable of measuring gradients in Fe, macronutrients (N, P), inorganic carbon chemistry and primary production would have the potential to facilitate detailed studies of these dynamic and spatially heterogenous systems over previously unobservable scales, enabling a transformative understanding of the biogeochemistry of these systems. 

We thus plan to facilitate the technical scientific demonstrations of the Oceanids ‘pelagic’ sensor systems (AutoNuts, CarCASS, CaPASOS and STAFES) within an ambitious series of deployments studying the naturally Fe fertilised bloom in the Iberian upwelling.

Outline Plan

Using near real time satellite data we plan to study the scales of spatio-temporal variability within the naturally iron fertilised Iberian upwelling. These dynamic spatial and time varying system generates strong gradients in carbon, nutrients and productivity. 

In order to demonstrate Oceanids ‘pelagic’ sensor performance alongside generation of high value scientific data the observation campaign will involve the deployment of an Autosub Long Range (ALR) AUV performing water column profiling (utilising AutoNutS, CarCASS and STAFES sensors) and a Waveglider USV providing surface measurements (utilising AutoNuts, and alternately CaPASOS and CarCASS sensors). 

The ALR AUV will also be guided to follow the CaPASOS equipped Waveglider to obtain comparator data using the CarCASS sensor.  We plan to deploy these autonomous platforms from the RRS James Cook to monitor the vehicles and to provide essential co-sampling for sensor validation. The co-sampling will allow performance comparison against more standard shipboard measurements in a challenging yet high scientific value open ocean environment.

Alongside this study of the naturally iron fertilised blooms, the ship will be utilised to trial the BioCAM system installed on a second Autosub Long Range AUV, and perform the sea trials of the A2KUI AUV. The exact operational areas for these trials will be dictated by the bloom locations identified via satellite.

Collaboration with other Research Programmes & Project Partners

The projects and PIs involved are:

AutoNutS
Matt Mowlem – National Oceanography Centre 

CarCASS
Matt Mowlem – National Oceanography Centre

CaPASOS
Calibrated pCO2 in air and surface ocean Sensor
Andrew Watson - Exeter University

STAFES-APP 
Single Turnover Active Fluorometry of Enclosed Samples for Autonomous Phytoplankton Productivity
Professor Mark Moore – University of Southampton NE/P020844/1

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 19/985

Principal Investigator
Prof. James Scourse
University of Exeter

Chief Scientist
Dr. Sev Kender
University of Exeter

29 days

April 2022

SEACHANGE: Quantifying the Impact of Major Cultural Transitions on Marine Ecosystem Functioning and Biodiversity

Ocean conservation is a global concern, but researchers say we don’t currently know what the oceans were like before major impacts caused by humans. Using sediments, shells and bones, and a host of cutting-edge analysis techniques, the SEACHANGE project aims to find out.

The project will test the scale and rate of biodiversity loss as a result of fishing and habitat destruction over the last 2,000 years in the North Sea and around Iceland, eastern Australia and the west Antarctic Peninsula, as well as the earlier transition from hunter-gatherer to farming communities in Northern Europe around 6,000 years ago.

Jointly led by the University of Exeter, Johannes Gutenberg, University Mainz (Germany) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and with the expertise from other project partners, the project will discover how depleted the current marine environment is, what measures are needed to help biodiversity to recover and how long this might take.

Further information can be found on the SEACHANGE website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 18/941

Chief Scientist
Prof. Zongbo Shi
University of Birmingham

40 days

May – June 2022

SEANA - Shipping Emissions in the Arctic and North Atlantic Atmosphere

Global shipping is undergoing significant changes. In January 2020 the maximum sulphur emission by ships in international waters will reduce from 3.5% to 0.5% by mass, as a result of new International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations. Superimposed on that, changes in Arctic sea ice are opening up new seaways enabling shorter sea passages between key markets. As a result, significant growth in shipping via the North West Passage is anticipated in the coming years.

Ships are major emitters of pollutant gases and particles that affect air quality and climate. A key challenge for assessing the climate impact is knowing the status of the natural/baseline aerosol system. There exists a short window of opportunity to define current atmospheric conditions, against which the impact of these changes must be determined.

SEANA is a NERC-funded project (NE/S00579X/1), led by Dr Zongbo Shi (University of Birmingham) that aims to define the baseline atmosphere and model potential future changes.

Multiple atmospheric measurements will be made from multiple platforms, to understand the sources of natural aerosol particles in addition to detecting the present-day impact of shipping. Indeed, a key role for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is to carry out novel atmospheric measurements during an expedition to the west of the North West Passage. Together, these new observations will be used in conjunction with a global aerosol microphysics model to predict the future impact of shipping on air quality, clouds and radiative forcing under multiple sea-ice and shipping scenarios.

Research Objectives

The research objectives of SEANA are:

• To elucidate aerosol sources and processes, particularly along the Northwest passage ship route before and after the implementation of IMO fuel regulations;
• To combine the new observations with recent / ongoing network measurements into an integrated benchmark dataset on the present-day aerosol baseline;
• To evaluate and update a global aerosol model against our baseline dataset and observed aerosol response to emission reductions to faithfully represent aerosol sources and processes (including shipping emissions) observed;
• To use our constrained model to predict how the 2020 IMO regulations and future ship traffic along the Northwest Passage will impact aerosol, CCN and the climate in ANAA.

Further information can be found on the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) website here and on the University of Birmingham project website here  

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 18/785

Principal Investigator
Dr. Maaten Furlong
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Alex Phillips
Head of Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems Development Group

20 days 

July 2022

NMEP MARS Trials Cruise for Autosub5 and ALR3/BioCAM

Commission Autosub5 for ship based operations
Undertake science relevant missions to commission Autosub5 science payloads
Trials of the University of Southampton BioCAM sensor integrated into ALR3 

Reference Expeditions:
JC237 – Huvenne – 21/1546
ADF 19/1109 – Jones - INSITE Autonomous Techniques for anthropogenic Structure Ecological Assessment

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 21/1580

40 days

August – September 2022

BLT Recipes - Bottom Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes

A long-standing problem in physical oceanography has been balancing the sinking of cold dense waters at high latitude with deep-ocean upwelling at lower latitudes. BLT Recipes seeks to test an emergent new paradigm of ocean mixing, whereby deep-ocean upwelling is primarily driven by bottom boundary layer turbulence instead of by breaking internal waves in the ocean interior.

The project will do this by:

• (i) measuring the net mixing and upwelling in a deep-ocean basin through the release of a chemical tracer;
• (ii) measuring the contribution of interior processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with ship-deployed turbulence profilers;
• (iii) measuring the contribution of bottom boundary layer processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with specialised moorings and the release of a chemical dye (fluorescein); and
• (iv) evaluating the relative roles of interior and boundary processes in determining basin-scale mixing and upwelling with a high-resolution numerical model grounded on the observations from (i)-(iii).

On DY153, we will continue to map the tracer evolution across the RT, repeat the dye experiment, recover the U.S. moorings, and occupy approximately 100 CTD / LADCP / microstructure stations.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/648

5 days

September 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference: 21/1617

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr. Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr. Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

September – October 2022

Refit

Annual recertification for the vessel’s certification and scheduled maintenance period.

Work to include overhaul of one main generator, annual service of vessel cranes, annual service of LSA and Firefighting equipment.

Rectifying vessel defects and modifications as required.

Refit Application Form Reference: 21/1499

5 days

October 2022

Passage & Winch Trials 

Passage Application Form Reference: 21/1618

Principal Investigator
Dr. James Bell
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

Chief Scientist
Dr. Paul Whomersley
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

51 days

October - December 2022

Blue Belt Big Ocean Survey

Over the past three years four research surveys have been undertaken onboard RRS James Clark Ross, FPV Pharos and RRS Discovery which have explored oceanic deep-water and seamount habitats within the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of several of the UK Overseas Territories (UK OTs) currently included within the Blue Belt (BB) Programme. While this has improved our knowledge of these relatively unexplored and unknown habitats, further information is still required to enable the development of evidence-based management and protection strategies and the setting of ecological baselines which can be used to measure the effectiveness of managed and protected areas.

This Cefas Blue Belt lead research survey will acquire a 2nd and in some cases a 3rd data point from oceanic deep-water habitats from around key UK OTs. Acquiring this additional information is crucial to increasing our understanding of these environments and the development of ecological baselines on which any future monitoring and management strategies can be based. These baselines (once developed) would provide an essential means of assessing the effectiveness of management/protection strategies associated with marine protected areas.

Many of the key fisheries species (blue nose, bigeye tuna, yellow fin tuna, and numerous shark and marlin species) that are being considered for future management and protection under the auspices of the current BB Programme are associated with deep-water habitats such as seamounts and ocean ridges. However, there is still a lack of understanding of how these key species utilise these habitats throughout their life cycles. It has been demonstrated that these offshore habitats also support a comparable level of diversity to that observed from inshore habitats, although there is also a lack of understanding of how these oceanic deep-water habitats are connected and therefore influence the inshore habitats of oceanic islands.

In addition to the core objectives of the BB programme, collecting both biological and physical data from these oceanic deep-water systems will provide us with the opportunity to contribute to existing and new initiatives that are aiming to address global issues such as climate change, ocean acidification, carbon sequestration, marine litter and the exploitation of high-seas fish stocks.

Therefore, surveys such as this one is essential if we are to increase our understanding of how these oceanic deep-water systems function and influence inshore habitats. A commitment to undertake and resource such a survey in partnership with the UK OTs and other organisations would also send a strong political message that any newly or currently designated areas will be managed and monitored to demonstrate that they are being effective in protecting and conserving the species and habitats that exist within them.

Aims and objectives:

1. To establish monitoring stations around key oceanic deep-water habitats within the Exclusive Economic Zones and managed areas of UK OTs;
2. To assess potential impacts of ongoing activities within impacts of known activities;
3. To increase our understanding of the functionality of oceanic deep-water systems and how these habitats are utilised by key species;
4. To augment existing timeseries data that already exist;
5. To create an evidence-base which can be used to develop effective management and protection strategies;
6. To collect data and information that can be used to assess the effectiveness of implemented management and protection strategies;
7. To increase our understanding of the connectivity between oceanic deep-water and inshore habitats;
8. To collect data and information from oceanic deep-water environments that can contribute to addressing global issues such as climate change, ocean acidification, carbon sequestration, marine litter and the exploitation of high-seas fish stocks;
9. To increase OT engagement and support, provide passenger transits and the opportunity for BB staff to have an on-island presence;
10. To align and ground truth OT IUU risk profiles;
11. To take the opportunity to further develop proof of concept of remote sensing and new technologies linked to enforcement and compliance.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 22/1722

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Susan Hartman
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

21 days

March - April 2021

Porcupine Abyssal Plain     

The purpose of the RRS Discovery expedition DY130 to the PAP-SO is to maintain and extend our time series which has now been running for over thirty years. During this time, we’ve continued to develop the parameters measured and the samples taken, supporting novel technologies alongside well-established methods. On this expedition, we deployed a Met Office Mobilis buoy which hosts weather and climate measuring instruments and telemeters this data back to the met office. In our collaboration we have instrumented the buoy too and suspended a suite of instruments at 30m to measure other atmospheric and oceanic properties including the Essential Ocean Variables: temperature, salinity, oxygen, CO2, nitrate, chlorophyll.

The times series continues down the water column with sediment traps and on to the sea floor at 4850m, where photographic surveys using a remotely operated vehicle, HyBIS are used alongside sampling with megacorers to monitor the flux of organic material through the water column to the sea floor and the benthic organisms living above, on and in it.

The expedition also continued long-term measurements of sedimentation events and water currents within a major submarine canyon system, the Whittard Canyon – a geological feature that hosts the UK’s only deep-sea marine protected area.

In addition, DY130 is linked to the US NASA-led EXPORTS programme, that will send three ships to the region in May 2021. On DY130 we deployed one UK underwater glider (funded by EU projects GOCART and IFADO, provided by the Marine Autonomous and Robotic Systems (MARS) at the National Oceanography Centre) and two US underwater gliders (funded by EXPORTS/NASA) that will continue to monitor the area when RRS Discovery returns to Southampton. These gliders will profile to 1000m and measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton pigments and particle abundance. Oceanographic data from the gliders, the PAP-SO mooring, and that held by the British Oceanographic Data Centre, will assist the US team in refining the planning of their major field campaign.

Further information can be found:

on the projects website

Snapshots on twitter: @PAP_observatory

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/471

Principal Investigator 
Prof. David Siegel
UC Santa Barbara

Chief Scientist
Dr. Craig Lee
University of Washington

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

32 days

May - June 2021

EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) - 2021 North Atlantic Deployment Survey Cruise

Research Programme Summary and Objectives:

Ocean ecosystems play a critical role in the Earth’s carbon cycle and the quantification of their impacts for both present conditions and for predictions into the future remains one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. 

The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) programme is to develop a predictive understanding of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production (NPP) and its implications for present and future climates. 

The achievement of this goal requires a quantification of the mechanisms that control the export of carbon from the euphotic zone as well as its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” where some fraction of exported carbon will be sequestered in the ocean’s interior on time scales of months to millennia.

In particular, EXPORTS will advance satellite diagnostic and numerical prognostic models by comparing relationships among the ecological, biogeochemical and physical oceanographic processes that control carbon cycling across a range of ecosystem and carbon cycling states. 

EXPORTS will achieve this through a combination of ship and robotic field sampling, satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling. Through a coordinated, process-oriented approach, EXPORTS will foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of U.S. and International research agency goals and will be a key step towards our understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.

Science Questions:

EXPORTS will focus on three science questions:

1. How do upper ocean ecosystem characteristics determine the vertical transfer of organic matter from the well-lit surface ocean?
2. What controls the efficiency of vertical transfer of organic matter below the well-lit surface ocean?
3. How can the knowledge gained be used to reduce uncertainties in contemporary & future estimates of the export and fates of NPP?

Aims and Objectives of expedition

The mission of the RRS Discovery during the EXPORTS 2021 North Atlantic deployment is to: 

1. conduct spatial CTD and UW surveys collecting optical, biogeochemical, microscopic particle imagery, carbon export (from 234Th), net community production and physical oceanographic observations around the process ship’s location, 
2. deploy high-volume pumps to sample vertical profiles of size-fractionated particles, 
3. deploy and process samples from the TMC CTD/rosette, 
4. conduct deck incubations of biological grow up experiments and 
5. provide a means to intercalibrate the three ships and the many AUV sensor data sets. 

Collaboration with other Research Programmes

EXPORTS is being conducted in collaboration with several UK research programs, including the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observing System (PAP, Dr. Richard Lampitt), Gauging Ocean Organic Carbon Fluxes using Autonomous Robotic Technologies (GOCART, Dr. Stephanie Henson) and Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in the Antarctic Remineralization Depth (CUSTARD. Dr. Adrian Martin). 

Further information can be found here:

on the projects website

within our blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:19/1167

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Alberto Garabato
University of Southampton

Rockall Trough
North East Atlantic

41 days

June – July 2021

BLT-Recipes - Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes

A long-standing problem in physical oceanography has been balancing the sinking of cold dense waters at high latitude with deep-ocean upwelling at lower latitudes. BLT Recipes seeks to test an emergent new paradigm of ocean mixing, whereby deep-ocean upwelling is primarily driven by bottom boundary layer turbulence instead of by breaking internal waves in the ocean interior. The project will do this by: (i) measuring the net mixing and upwelling in a deep-ocean basin through the release of a chemical tracer; (ii) measuring the contribution of interior processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with ship-deployed turbulence profilers; (iii) measuring the contribution of bottom boundary layer processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with specialised moorings and the release of a chemical dye (fluorescein); and (iv) evaluating the relative roles of interior and boundary processes in determining basin-scale mixing and upwelling with a high-resolution numerical model grounded on the observations from (i)-(iii).

On DY132, we will begin the observational component of this project in the Rockall Trough (RT), in the North East Atlantic. These activities include: releasing the tracer and dye near the seafloor at a site at ~1,500 m depth on the eastern slope of the RT and mapping their subsequent evolution; deploying an array of 5 moorings to measure turbulent mixing across the bottom boundary layer; and performing CTD / LADCP / microstructure profile stations. 

This work will be followed by two subsequent expeditions to continue mapping to the tracer spread, turn around / recover the moorings, and perform additional CTD / LADCP / microstructure observations.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1422

DY135

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

25 days

August - September 2021

Refit

The RRS Discovery is required under the schedule of the 5 yearly certificated cycle to have an annual survey before the anniversary date.

Work to include overhaul of one main generator, annual service of vessel cranes, annual service of Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) and Firefighting equipment.

Rectifying vessel defects and modifications as required.

Refit Application Form Reference: 19/1196

Principal Investigator
Dr. Marie-Jose Messias
University of Exeter

Chief Scientist
Prof. Alberto Garabato
University of Southampton

Rockall Trough
North Atlantic

40 days

September - November 2021

BLT-Recipes - Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes

A long-standing problem in physical oceanography has been balancing the sinking of cold dense waters at high latitude with deep-ocean upwelling at lower latitudes. BLT Recipes seeks to test an emergent new paradigm of ocean mixing, whereby deep-ocean upwelling is primarily driven by bottom boundary layer turbulence instead of by breaking internal waves in the ocean interior.

The project will do this by: (i) measuring the net mixing and upwelling in a deep-ocean basin through the release of a chemical tracer; (ii) measuring the contribution of interior processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with ship-deployed turbulence profilers; (iii) measuring the contribution of bottom boundary layer processes to mixing and upwelling in the basin with specialised moorings and the release of a chemical dye (fluorescein); and (iv) evaluating the relative roles of interior and boundary processes in determining basin-scale mixing and upwelling with a high-resolution numerical model grounded on the observations from (i)-(iii).

On DY138, we will continue mapping to the tracer spread, turn around / recover the moorings, and perform additional CTD / LADCP / microstructure observations.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/652

Principal Investigator
Mrs Helen Oldridge
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Juan Ward
National Oceanography Centre

9 days

November 2021

SBP Commissioning and EK80 Trials

The sub-bottom profiler (SBP) fitted to RRS James Cook and RRS Discovery will no longer be supported after 2021, therefore this system must be replaced with the latest SBP27 to ensure this capability is retained beyond 2021.

2 x SPB27 systems were purchased in 2018/19 to do this, but were not installed or commissioned due to programme availability.

The first purpose of this expedition is to commission the SBP27 on board RRS Discovery. This must be completed before the next scheduled requirement for an SBP. The EK60 on the RRS Discovery was upgraded to the EK80 in August 2020 and requires trialling by means of carrying out a calibration.

The second purpose of this expedition is to carry out an EK80 calibration and familiarise the crew and technicians with the new equipment and procedure. This must be completed before the Blue Belt Big Ocean Survey DY143 expedition.

Trials Application Form Reference: 21/1496

Principal Investigator 
Dr. Yvonne Firing
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Povl Abrahamsen
British Antarctic Survey

39 days

February - March 2020

Hydrographic Measurements in Drake Passage

DY113 will be the 28th UK cruise since 1993/94 to occupy Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) repeat hydrographic line SR1b across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in Drake Passage.

We will conduct CTD/lowered ADCP casts at 30 stations across Drake Passage, from Burdwood Bank to Elephant Island, collecting and analysing water samples to calibrate the CTD measurements. The full-depth CTD profiles of temperature and salinity allow us to derive geostrophic baroclinic currents; we will also employ the ship’s underway ADCPs for information on the barotropic reference currents, and collect data from the ship’s standard underway surface ocean and meteorological sampling suite.

The Southern Ocean is a major component of the coupled ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere climate system. As the formation site for intermediate and bottom water masses filling a large proportion of the global ocean, and as the conduit for substantial exchanges between the other major ocean basins, it plays a pivotal role in the global thermohaline (overturning) circulation, which in turn regulates global climate. Not only do ocean-atmosphere heat and carbon fluxes in the Southern Ocean set the properties of widespread water masses, and play an outsize role in the ocean’s net uptake of excess heat and carbon, the Southern Ocean mediates exchanges of heat, freshwater, and nutrients with the Antarctic coastal waters and cryosphere.

By continuing the annual timeseries of hydrographic measurements across the ACC at its narrowest chokepoint, we will continue to monitor changes in ACC transports and in the properties of climatically-important water masses, improving our ability to distinguish and understand variability on timescales from synoptic to seasonal to interannual, and thus to detect long-term trends. The SR1b line is one of a few repeat hydrographic lines designated by the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) for annual repeats as an important part of a sustained ocean observing system, and the measurements here have been funded by a series of NERC strategic programmes, currently LTS-M ORCHESTRA. More information on the Drake Passage repeat hydrography programme, including past and recent results, can be found on the Drake Passage site.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/148

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Prof. Stuart Cunningham
Scottish Association for Marine Science

23 days

October 2020

Ellett Array and UK-OSNAP

This expedition is for a mooring recovery and re-deployment in the Iceland Basin and Rockall Trough, funded through the NC LTSS, the UK-OSNAP-Ext proposal, and a future UK-OSNAP follow-on proposal.

Aims and Objectives:

1. OSNAP: Iceland Basin, 3 moorings recovery and redeployment IB3, IB4, IB5. These moorings were deployed in Sept 2018 on RV Armstrong.
2. The Ellett Array: Rockall Trough, 3 moorings recovery and redeployment (RTWB1, RTWB2, RTEB1) and an ADCP lander (RTADCP1). These moorings were deployed in September 2018 on RV Armstrong.
3. We will complete a CTD section from the IB3 position to the Scottish continental shelf 

The moorings will have a 2-year deployment (serviced in 2022), and the ADCP lander a 1-year deployment (serviced in 2021).  

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/441

Principal Investigator 
Dr. Susan Hartman
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Andrew Gates
National Oceanography Centre

17 days

November 2020

Porcupine Abyssal Plain sustained observatory

PAP-SO is a component of CLASS sustained observations. The primary purpose of this cruise is to continue time-series observations at the PAP-SO including annual sampling and servicing of infrastructure that cannot be achieved autonomously.

The objective of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained observatory is to provide high temporal resolution (hours) of an increasing number of variables which are relevant from the perspective of the biology, physics and chemistry over a relatively small spatial scale (30km). Measurements include near real time reporting of Essential Ocean variables such as temperature, conductivity, nitrate, chlorophyll fluorescence, O2, pCO2, and pH. Research into the abundance and distribution of seafloor life in relation to incoming food flux and topographic features relies on the long time series (since the 1980s) of particle flux, taxonomy and biodiversity measurements.

On annual visits to the PAP-SO we service the infrastructure required for continuous sustained observation using a multi instrument observational approach and combine this with direct sampling. For example, sampling of the abyssal plain seabed and its fauna is done via coring, trawling and baited traps, and a time-lapse camera system for extended (1-year) seafloor observation. The PAP-SO is also a key site to test Emerging technology and techniques.

Further information can be found:

on the projects website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/392

Principal Investigator
Dr. Eleanor Frajka-Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Ben Moat
National Oceanography Centre

50 days

December 2020 - January 2021

RAPID

The purpose of RRS Discovery expedition DY129 was to refurbish the RAPID 26°N array of moorings that span the Atlantic from the Bahamas to the Canary Islands. The expedition starts in Southampton on Tuesday 8th December 2020 and ends in 26th January 2021 at Southampton, UK.

The moorings are part of a purposeful Atlantic wide array that observes the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the associated heat and freshwater transports. The RAPID-MOCHA-WBTS array is a joint UK- US programme.

Moorings were equipped with instruments to measure temperature, conductivity and pressure, and a number of moorings were also equipped with current meters and/or oxygen sensors. The ABC Fluxes project extends the measurements on the RAPID 26°N array to include biological and chemical measurements.

Further information can be found:

on the projects website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1295

JC228

&

JC228B

Principal Investigator
Dr. Ingo Grevemeyer
Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Chief Scientist
Prof. Tim Henstock
University of Southampton

45 days

December 2022 - January 2023

MoHole to Bending Faults

This proposal will deliver key information on the evolution of oceanic lithosphere as well as provide essential site survey information for two IODP Proposals including the flagship MoHole to Mantle initiative (M2M; IODP-805MDP, Umino et al., 2012) and the new Bend Fault Serpentinization experiment (Pre-proposal to be submitted Oct 2014).

Building on previous surveys, this geophysical investigation will complete the seismic characterization of the fast-spreading ocean lithosphere of the northern Cocos Plate from its formation at the East Pacific Rise to subduction in the Mid-America Trench.

We will undertake an MCS and OBS refraction experiment linking with the north-east end of the Site 1256 site surveys extending coverage to the Mid-American Trench on ~25Ma EPR crust. The experiment plan includes a long MCS/OBS profile to investigate how crustal and upper mantle seismic velocities and near vertical to wide-angle reflectivity vary over this interval, and to determine the onset of serpentinisation within the upper mantle approaching the subduction zone. We will use a large (6000-8000cubic inch) airgun array and a 4500-6000m streamer to ensure signals are recorded clearly on the OBS and that whole crustal structures can be imaged. 

Gravity and magnetics data will be collected throughout the experiment. Two candidate MoHole sites sit within grids of MCS lines that will be used to identify and map discrete structures within the crust; perpendicular OBS lines here will be used to determine upper mantle anisotropy. Several short piston cores will be taken and pore waters analysed for evidence of seawater circulation. A further grid of MCS profiles will be collected over the region for the BFS site, where we will test links between the presence of crustal-scale normal faults and upper mantle serpentinisation. Around the BFS site we will additionally collect near-bottom swath bathymetry data using Autosub to identify locations of potential focused fluid pathways; these locations will be further investigated with an Autosub photography mission and measurements of conductive heatflow which will be used to test models of subsurface fluid circulation.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/122 and 21/1599

50 days

February - March 2023

Deep-Sea Mining

Governance of deep-sea mining is underpinned by the legal requirement to avoid serious harm to the marine environment from any activities. The need to avoid serious harm provides the threshold for decisions on whether deep-sea mining should take place and helps determine the scale of activities permitted.

Yet, the scientific community lack much of the basic information to determine the nature, magnitude and ecological importance of harmful environmental effects resulting from deep-sea mining. This information is urgently needed for policy making and governance at the international (ISA) and national level (UK and other governments acting as sponsoring states) and by industry who all want evidence to assess the risks of mining operations.

The NERC SMARTEX (Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact) project aims to provide the scientific evidence base for informed decision making by understanding the long-term environmental impacts of mining and whether this will have serious consequences to the ecosystem.

The aims of SMARTEX are to:

• To understand the background variability in key ecosystem parameters across the Clarion-Clipperton Zone
• To assess the immediate impacts of polymetallic nodule mining disturbance and the resulting changes to the ecosystem (ecological resistance)
• To quantify the resilience of the ecosystem to deep-sea mining (assess the return to baseline conditions on a long-term (decadal) scale)

Highlight topics - Fifth round

Topic C - Impact of experimental deep-sea mining in the Central Pacific: A new inter-disciplinary challenge for UK environmental science        

Project website can be viewed here 

Social Media hashtag: #smartexccz

Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact (NE/T003537/1)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 19/990

27 days

April 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1804

Principal Investigator
Prof. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr Andrew Gates
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

May 2023

Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1696

3 days

May 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1805

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

73 days

May - August 2023

Refit

Refit Application Form Reference:  21/1504

6 days

October 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1811

36 days

October - December 2023

Ultramafic-hosted mineral Resource Assessment Pt2 (ULTRA)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  18/755

DY158

POETS WCB 22/23 + SCOOBIES + ORCHESTRA A23 + Orkney Passage Moorings

POETS WCB

The island of South Georgia is located approximately 1800 km to the east of the South American continental shelf and around 300 km south of the Polar Front (PF). The region is bisected by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), with South Georgia to the north, which transports nutrients and organisms from the Antarctic Peninsula across the Scotia Sea to the South Georgia region.

The near surface waters of South Georgia are some of the fastest warming on the planet with a mean increase of ~0.9°C in January and ~2.3 °C in August determined for the top 100m of the water column over the last 80 years. The role of the Southern Annular Mode in this warming has been strongly indicated via its likely role in the circumpolar warming trend in the Southern Ocean.

South Georgia has been identified as a key source of regional biodiversity, potentially supporting anomalously high levels of endemic and range-edge species. The biota is generally considered Antarctic in character with organisms typically slow growing, long lived and with deferred sexual maturity. The best possibility to monitor biological response to climate change is probably where many species are highly thermally sensitive and at range edges. The pelagic ecosystem of South Georgia is extremely productive and intense phytoplankton blooms support a rich food web that includes zooplankton, in particular large densities of Antarctic krill, and vertebrate predators (penguins, seals and whales).

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) play a central role in the Southern Ocean food web as effective grazers on phytoplankton as well as a key prey item of a wide range of higher trophic predators. Interannual fluctuations in krill abundance at South Georgia were first noted during the whaling period in the early part of the twentieth century. There appear to be 2 to 3 years in each decade where the abundance of krill at South Georgia is low, the predator foraging and breeding performance is reduced, and the krill fishery reports reduced catch levels and rates.

The main deliverable of the WCB is a consistent unique time series of mesoscale distribution and abundance of Antarctic krill and an understanding of the physical environment they are within at South Georgia, South Atlantic (1996 – current). These data are required to understand the long term variability in krill biomass at South Georgia and the influences from climate variability, fishing pressure and predation.

The cruise consists of the following two key projects (POETS-WCB survey and POETS-SCOOBIES)

POETS - WCB survey

Aims and objectives are as follows:

1. Acoustic survey during daylight hours using multi-frequency (38, 70, 120 & 200 kHz) Simrad EK60 echosounder. Two transects to be run each day during a four day period.

2. Regular deployments of XBTs (Expendable bathythermographs) along transects during day.

3. Deployment of the CTD at minimum of two stations per night during survey.

4. Continuous operation of underway data logging system (bathymetry, location, sea surface, temperature, sea currents, etc.).

5. Net sampling (RMT8 and other zooplankton/micronekton nets) at night-time stations plus target fishing during both night and day to ground-truth acoustic data.

6. Acoustic calibration using standard sphere techniques will be undertaken in one of the deep-water harbours on the North coast of South Georgia (Stromness Harbour is the preferred location).

7. Recover WCB mooring. Download data, refurbish and replace batteries. Redeploy mooring.

8. Recover ECB mooring. Download data, refurbish and replace batteries. Redeploy mooring.

POETS – SCOOBIES (SCotia sea Open-Ocean BIological laboratoriES)

Aims and objectives are as follows:

Mooring recovery, refurbishment and redeployment

1. Recover two deep-water moorings (SW and NW of South Georgia). Download data, refurbish and replace batteries. Redeploy moorings during cruise.

2. Net sampling (RMT8, MOCNESS and other zooplankton nets) over 24 hour periods at mooring stations.

ORCHESTRA A23

The densest waters in the Atlantic overturning circulation (Antarctic Bottom Water; AABW) originate in the Weddell Sea. They can circulate within the Weddell Sea (including a boundary current that flows along its northern rim), and some can escape the Weddell Sea and flow into the Scotia Sea, from where they can penetrate into the Atlantic.

These dense waters are changing rapidly. In the Atlantic, AABW is warming rapidly, with the warming having reached the North Atlantic in the space of just a few decades. Significant interannual variability is also present in AABW layers, superposed on the long-term warming trend. This makes clear identification of the warming more difficult in some places, and adds a layer of complexity to the system which needs to be understood. The causes of the warming trend in AABW have so far not been determined, primarily due to a lack of data with which to analyse the problem.

The planned work involves a repeat CTD section that runs from the northern Weddell Sea, northward across the Scotia Sea (including doglegs), up to South Georgia. Previous temporally-sparse occupations of this section have demonstrated it to be in an ideal location for monitoring long-term changes in AABW as it leaves the Weddell Sea, and as it circulates within the Weddell Gyre. Annual occupations of this section are needed to disentangle the interannual variability separately from the long-term warming trend, and hence understand the causes of both.

This work will involve 7 days of CTD work (31 stations), with the CTD unit deployed to within 10 m of the seabed at each station. The section runs between the northern Weddell Sea and South Georgia, at the northern end of the Scotia Sea. Niskin bottles will be closed at various depths on the upcast of each profile, and sampled for various tracers, including salinity and oxygen isotopes on all cruises. Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP) measurements will be made on each profile.

The work is currently funded via NERC LTS-M as part of the ORCHESTRA proposal (NE/N018095/1).  It is a continuation of JR235 (2010 - no SME), SME 450 (2012-2015; JR272A, JR281, JR299, and JR310), SME 795 (2016 & 2017), SME 995 (2018), SME 17/145 (2020), SME 17/146 (2021), and SME 19/1201 (2022). 

ORCHESTRA: OP - 2022-23 - Long-term moorings in Orkney Passage

The moorings in Orkney Passage form part of the BAS Polar Oceans programme's Long-Term Monitoring and Survey workpackage. They are designed to monitor the northward outflow of Weddell Sea Deep Water from the Weddell Sea; this is a major component of Antarctic Bottom Water, the densest water mass in the global overturning circulation, and one that permeates much of the abyssal ocean. Weddell Sea Deep Water circulates clockwise around the Weddell Gyre, along the northern flank of the Weddell Sea, and overflows to the north through gaps in the South Scotia Ridge. Orkney Passage, east of the South Orkney Islands, is an ideal place to monitor the rate of export and properties of this key water mass.

There are currently six moorings in place across Orkney Passage itself. These are fitted with current meters and temperature/conductivity loggers. In addition, two moorings are located on the slope in the northwestern Weddell Sea, monitoring the water masses upstream of the overflow. 

This SME is a continuation of SMEs 454 (2011 & 2013), 714 (2015 & 2017), 17/142 (2019), and 17/143 (2021). The 2017-2021 cruises were funded as part of the ORCHESTRA LTS-M programme. 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 21/1677

39 days

February & April 2023

AMT - The Atlantic Meridional Transect

The Atlantic Meridional Transect programme (AMT) is a part of the NERC NC-funded multi-system long term science programme “Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science” (CLASS). AMT undertakes biological, chemical and physical oceanographic research during an annual voyage between the UK and destinations in the South Atlantic (including the Falkland Islands, South Africa and Chile). 

This transect of >12,000 km crosses a range of ecosystems from sub-polar to tropical, from euphotic shelf seas and upwelling systems, to oligotrophic mid-ocean gyres. AMT provides a contextual logistical and scientific infrastructure for independently funded national and international open ocean biogeochemical and ecological research.

Throughout the lifetime of the AMT, the specific objectives have evolved to enable the maintenance of a continuous set of observations, whilst addressing current concerns to global issues that are raised throughout the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate and UK environmental strategy.

For this phase of the programme the objectives are to:

1. quantify the nature and causes of ecological and biogeochemical variability in planktonic ecosystems;
2. quantify the effects of this variability on nutrient cycling, on biogenic export and on air-sea exchange of climate active gases;
3. construct a multi-decadal, multidisciplinary ocean time-series which is integrated within a wider Pole-to-pole observatory concept;
4. provide essential sea-truth validation for current and next generation satellite missions;
5. provide essential data for global ecosystem model development and validation and;
6. provide a valuable, highly sought-after training arena for the next generation of UK and International oceanographers. 

AMT objectives also align with those of the Integrated Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (SCOR/IGBP); the sponsored international programmes Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER); Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS); and (GEOTRACES) an International Study of the Marine Biogeochemical Cycles of Trace Elements and Isotopes.

Further information can be found on the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) website here 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1469

13 days

April 2023

4 days

April 2023

Passage

Passage to refit yard.

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1821

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

39 days

April & May 2023

Special survey docking

Refit Application Form Reference:  21/1503

20 days 

May & June 2023

Post Refit Trials and Outreach event for Dundee Museum

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1808 and 23/1945 and 23/1876

8 days 

June 2023

Alongside 

Alongside Application Form Reference:  23/1876

Principal Investigator
Dr. Alexander Phillips
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Matthew Kingsland
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

June - July 2023

NMEP Trial

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1814

Principal Investigator
Dr. Claire Mahaffey
University of Liverpool

Chief Scientist
Dr. Joanne Hopkins
National Oceanography Centre

36 days

July - August 2023

Nitrogen fixation in the Arctic Ocean (N-ARC)

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  18/949

13 days

August 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1818

Leg 1: 
Canadian Waters around coastal, NS Canada

Leg 2: 
Newfoundland and Labrador Shelf

57 days

August - October 2023

AZMP 2023 - DFO Canada

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:  22/1852

12 days

October - November 2023

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  23/1890

14 days

November 2023

Alongside

Alongside Application Form Reference:  23/1891

Nuuk, Greenland > Cape Town, South Africa

GLGOH > ZACPT

20 days

November - December 2023

Passage 

Passage Application Form Reference:  22/1819

Project Lead
Dr. Eleanor Darlington
National Oceanography Centre

5 days

January 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference: 20/1447

6 days

February 2022

SBP Commissioning

The purpose of this expedition is to commission the newly installed SBP27 onboard the RRS James Cook.

The SBP120 fitted to RRS James Cook and RRS Discovery will no longer be supported after 2021, therefore this system must be replaced with the latest SBP27 to ensure this capability is retained beyond 2021. 2 x SBP27 systems were purchased in 2018/19 to do this, but were not installed or commissioned due to programme availability. 

Trials Application Form Reference: 20/1244

14 days

February 2022

Alongside

Alongside Application Form Reference: 21/1680

50 days

March - April 2022

ULTRA#1 - Ultramafic-hosted mineral Resource Assessment

Project ULTRA is focused on researching the processes that form and preserve minerals of strategic importance to the transition to low-carbon societies. This four-year research project will deploy a deep-sea drilling rig, robotic underwater vehicles, and seabed instruments to study the three-dimensional structure and composition of hydrothermal mineral deposits and their fluids on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Our plan is to combine novel geophysical techniques (electromagnetic induction and inverted down-hole seismic tomography) with seabed mapping and sub-seafloor drilling (recovering host rocks, sulphides, sediment and fluids) to image the 3D structure and composition of the deposit and its surroundings. Laboratory analyses will reveal the history of the deposits including formation, recrystallisation, metal mobilisation, alteration and penetration by seawater. Hydrothermal fluid samples from the boreholes and nearby hydrothermal vents will reveal the nature of the heat source driving deposit formation and host-rock interactions and, combined with studies of metalliferous sediment, constrain metal mobility during later alteration. Ages of these processes will be constrained by radiometric dating. Our approach involves two ocean-going expeditions to the largest known and best characterised ultramafic-hosted SMS field, at 13° 30" N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We will drill and seal up to 6 boreholes that penetrate in to the SMS deposits sub-seafloor, by up to 50 m. 

Project ULTRA is funded by the NERC Highlight Topic, and involves academic partners from Cardiff, Southampton and Leeds Universities, GEOMAR (Germany’s premier oceanographic institute), the University of Bergen (Norway), Canada (Memorial University) and industry partners (Equinor A/S, and Green Minerals A/S) supporting data collection, PhD students, and providing links with stakeholders.

The first cruise will sail in March 2022 and the second in May 2023.

Further information can be found:

on the projects' website here 

or by contacting Prof. Bramley Murton here 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 18/806

Principal Investigator
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Jennifer Durden
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

April - May 2022

CLASS WP 4 - Porcupine Abyssal Plain

The Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO) is a component of CLASS sustained observations (WP4). PAP-SO is a long running abyssal time-series study site of global importance with observations dating back to 1985. Work at the PAP-SO aims to detect and understand long-term (multi-decadal) change in the ocean from surface to seafloor by monitoring a broad range of biogeochemistry and ecological parameters including GOOS essential ocean variables.

The primary purpose of the 2022 expedition to PAP-SO is to continue time-series observations, including annual sampling and servicing of in situ infrastructure. In recent years, the PAP-SO expedition has also incorporated servicing of the CLASS Whittard Canyon mooring. 

After the 2021 expedition to the PAP-SO the infrastructure comprises:

• The "PAP1" mooring, a full depth mooring that includes a Surface Met Office buoy (wind speed and direction, relative humidity, air temperature, sea temperature, atmospheric pressure, radiance, significant wave height and period); with a NOC atmospheric CO2 sensor, NOC sensors on keel of Met Office buoy (salinity, temperature, pCO2, dissolved O2, pH) and subsurface NOC instrumentation package at 30 m (temperature, salinity, dissolved O2, chlorophyll-a, fluorescence, nitrate, phosphate, irradiance, radiance pH, pCO2). Data from PAP-1 are provided in near real time;
• The "PAP3” sediment trap array (3 × traps; 2 × current meters; 1 × deep water temperature and salinity sensor (microcat); 32 × glass buoyancy spheres; acoustic release; 2000 m ropework),

  The annual service expedition also includes direct sampling for variables that cannot currently be achieved autonomously:

• Water column (CTD, WP2 zooplankton nets)
• Seafloor biological sampling by trawl (Otter Trawl – OTSB14), sediment  coring (Megacorer), and baited trap experiments (Amphipod traps). Further seafloor photography will take place at PAP-SO on the CLASS cruise JC237 later in 2022. 

• In addition to its primary role in delivering the CLASS project (PAP-SO and Whittard Canyon), the data collection facilitated by this expedition supports NOC's commitments to European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs) Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) and the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory (EMSO).

  Further information can be found:

  on the projects website here

  on Twitter here @PAP_observatory

  and by following the cruise blog here

  Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 21/1528

10 days

May - June 2022

Bay of Biscay Buoy Servicing

Met Office buoys help provide meteorological data from data sparse regions to aid forecasting and climate research. 

The Brittany and Gascogne buoys are operated in partnership with Meteo France to observe weather systems moving across the Bay of Biscay.

The Brittany buoy site needs to be serviced.

The buoy must be replaced and the mooring changed.

The existing buoy is a 3m diameter Mobilis DB8000, weighing 4 tonnes. 

The replacement buoy is a 3.6m diameter Mobilis DB14000, weighing 4.5 tonnes.

The mooring is 2300m of nylon and polypropylene and has a 1.2 tonne sub-surface float. There is a two tonne cast iron sinker and 50m of 38mm chain on the seabed.

The Gascogne buoy site needs to be serviced.

The buoy must be replaced and the mooring changed.

The existing buoy is a 3.6m diameter Mobilis DB14000, weighing 4.5 tonnes. The replacement buoy is of the same model.

The mooring is 4500m of nylon and polypropylene. There is a two-tonne cast iron sinker and 50m of 38mm chain on the seabed.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 21/1578

5 days

June 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference: 21/1621

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

June - July 2022

Refit

Annual statutory certification to renew.

To progress defects and outstanding modifications including Capex projects on Crane, AHC on coring winch and plasma scrolling issues if possible.

Also plan to renew upper and lower engine mounts to 1 and 2 engines.

Refit Application Form Reference: 21/1500

6 days

July 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference: 21/1622

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Co-Chief Scientist
Dr. Kristin Burmeister
Scottish Association for Marine Science

Project Lead
Dr. Yvonne Firing
National Oceanography Centre

Project Lead
Mr Darren Rayner
National Oceanography Centre

Iceland Basin

21 days

July 2022

UK-OSNAP - Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program - Iceland Basin Moorings
 
This expedition is for mooring recovery and re-deployment in the Iceland Basin funded through a UK-OSNAP follow-on proposal.

OSNAP: Iceland Basin, 3 moorings IB3, IB4, IB5.  

Mooring operations and CTD survey to be funded by a UK-OSNAP follow-on programme.  

These moorings will have been deployed in Summer 2020 for a 2-year deployment

This moorings work will be a bolt-on to the Ellet Array service cruise (SME: 17/443) funded through NERC NC LTSS, which will service 3 moorings and an ADCP lander in the Rockall Trough.

In addition to the Iceland Basin moorings we will extend the CTD section from IB3 to the Ellet Array section which continues to the Scottish continental shelf.

Grant reference: NE/T00858X/1 (UK-OSNAP-Decade)

Further information can be found:

on the UK-OSNAP website here

on the international website here

on Twitter here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 19/1113

32 days

August - September 2022

Whittard Canyon Fixed Point Observatory

Rationale 

The Whittard Canyon system on the Celtic Margin is a key area to achieve an understanding of the interaction between (UK) coastal & shelf waters and the open ocean (Amaro et al., 2016). The heterogeneous terrain of submarine canyons has a strong influence on oceanographic processes, focusses the transport of sediments, organic matter and nutrients, can create a series of potential geohazards and tends to support an increased diversity in habitats and species. Part of the Whittard Canyon system was declared an MCZ [v1] in 2013, protecting, amongst others, both healthy and heavily impacted cold-water coral reefs from further human impacts.[v2] 

Objective

Whittard Canyon has been studied in a series of single projects, focussing on separate aspects of the system (sediment transport dynamics, benthic biology, and biogeochemistry). However, to obtain a coherent picture of the sedimentary and oceanographic processes and their long-term effect on the canyon ecosystems, a coordinated programme of repeated observations is urgently needed (Amaro et al., 2016).

Approach

We propose a skeleton programme of repeated observations. We will install a (series of) mooring(s) equipped with current meters, ADCPs, sediment traps and turbidity sensors to measure current regimes, water mass structure and particle flux. We plan regular surveys (5yr cycle) to expand on existing survey effort. These surveys will include AUV-based acoustic mapping for seabed morphology and trawl marks, ROV and AUV-based photography or video for benthic habitats and glider observations for water column characteristics (T, S, O2, turbidity).

Impact

The submarine canyon data will be integrated with the work carried out in the international networks International Network for Submarine Canyon Investigation and Scientific Exchange (INCISE) (submarine canyons), S4Slide (landslides) and will support ongoing & new collaborations with UK and international Universities and research centres (e.g. Plymouth University, Heriot-Watt University, National University of Ireland, Galway, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research).

The observations in the Canyons MCZ will influence marine management & conservation policy through collaborations with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs & Joint Nature Conservation Committee, while the geohazards insights will have direct relevance for the Natural Hazards Partnership, for example.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/434

18 days

September 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference:  21/1524

Principal Investigator
Randy King
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Chief Scientists
Lindsay Beazley 
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

&

Stephen Snook
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

41 days

October - November 2022

Atlantic Zonal Monitoring Program Canada

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 22/1727

15 days

November 2022

Passage

Passage Application Form Reference: 21/1623

Principal Investigator 
Einar Povl Abrahamsen
British Antarctic Survey

Chief Scientist
Dr. Yvonne Firing
National Oceanography Centre

34 days

February - March 2021

Joint BAS CoreBox/DP/A23

The joint CoreBox, Drakes Passage, A23 cruise is programmed to carry out the CTD transects and turnaround of equipment still deployed due to the suspension of the 2020/21 MFP, to ensure continued future operation of science activities, whilst first and foremost, managing the risk to personnel based on the current and forecast C19 threat.

It is proposed to carry out a combination of activities of SMEs 17/146 Abrahansen, 17/149 Firing, and 19/1032 Fielding; due to the limited time availabe the cruise will be a subset of the 3 SMEs activities with the Pis of the 3 SMEs agreeing to the prioritisation of activities. The text below is taken from the 3 original SMEs but is not the work planned for this cruise, it is simply for information, this cruise is planned to deliver a reduced sub set of essential activity only.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1339

Principal Investigator 
Dr. Deborah Steinberg
Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Chief Scientist
Dr. Jason Graff
Oregon State University

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

32 days 

May & June 2021

EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) - 2021 North Atlantic Deployment Process Cruise       

Research Programme Summary and Objectives

Ocean ecosystems play a critical role in the Earth’s carbon cycle and the quantification of their impacts for both present conditions and for predictions into the future remains one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. 

The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) programme is to develop a predictive understanding of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production (NPP) and its implications for present and future climates. 

The achievement of this goal requires a quantification of the mechanisms that control the export of carbon from the euphotic zone as well as its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” where some fraction of exported carbon will be sequestered in the ocean’s interior on time scales of months to millennia.

In particular, EXPORTS will advance satellite diagnostic and numerical prognostic models by comparing relationships among the ecological, biogeochemical and physical oceanographic processes that control carbon cycling across a range of ecosystem and carbon cycling states. 

EXPORTS will achieve this through a combination of ship and robotic field sampling, satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling. Through a coordinated, process-oriented approach, EXPORTS will foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of U.S. and International research agency goals and will be a key step towards our understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.

Science Questions

EXPORTS will focus on three science questions:

1. How do upper ocean ecosystem characteristics determine the vertical transfer of organic matter from the well-lit surface ocean?
2. What controls the efficiency of vertical transfer of organic matter below the well-lit surface ocean?
3. How can the knowledge gained be used to reduce uncertainties in contemporary & future estimates of the export and fates of NPP?

Aims and Objectives of expedition: JC214

The mission of the RRS James Cook during the EXPORTS 2021 North Atlantic deployment is to:

1. conduct biological process rate and abundance measurements, sediment trap collections, and other biogeochemical sampling in a lagrangian approach following the subsurface float, 
2. measure optical parameters related to the biogeochemical properties of interest and 
3. characterize the demise of the spring phytoplankton bloom and its relationships with carbon export.  

Collaboration with other Research Programmes

EXPORTS is being conducted in collaboration with several UK research programs, including the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observing System (PAP, Dr. Richard Lampitt), Gauging Ocean Organic Carbon Fluxes using Autonomous Robotic Technologies (GOCART, Dr. Stephanie Henson) and Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in the Antarctic Remineralization Depth (CUSTARD. Dr. Adrian Martin). 

Dr. Henson will operate one of the autonomous gliders in conjunction with EXPORTS sampling, and sampling will coordinate with PAP activities. 

EXPORTS has also engaged in broader exploration of twilight zone science led by Dr. Martin.

Further information can be found here on the projects website

or by reading the blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 20/1420

Principal Investigator 
Mrs Helen Oldridge 
National Oceanography Centre 

Chief Scientist
Mr Dean Cheeseman
National Oceanography Centre 

19 days

June - July 2021

Seismics Airgun Source Commissioning and Training Cruise

The aim of the expedition JC215 is to commission the Bolt-LL 1500 seismic airgun system after an 18 month major refurbishment project to both extend the service life, to improve the stability and reliability of the acoustic source, and improvements to real time data streaming. The expedition is also a key training serial for NMF technicians in preparation for expeditions scheduled in 2022, as well as an opportunity to embark technicians from BAS to observe as they begin the process of bringing a seismic capability to the SDA.

Trials Application Form Reference: 19/1115

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams 
National Oceanography Centre

48 days

September - December 2021

5-year Special Survey

The RRS James Cook is required under the schedule of the 5 yearly certificated cycle to have a Special docking survey before the anniversary date and also a bottom survey in accordance with the scheme.

The proposed plan in addition to the statutory docking requirements is to inspect propulsion shafts and associated equipment which is due for survey and carry out a full underwater overhaul of the hull coatings and a verification of scantlings as required.

Trials Application Form Reference: 19/1195

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Alejandra Sanchez-Franks
National Oceanography Centre

43 days

February 2020

GO-SHIP hydrographic section across 24°N in the Atlantic Ocean

JC191 will complete a full depth hydrographic section in the subtropical North Atlantic as part of the LTSS program, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS), and as a UK contribution to the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP).

The expedition will measure a full suite of physical and biogeochemical parameters as per CLIVAR/GO-SHIP sustained deep-ocean measurements procedure, including the core physical and biogeochemical parameters. Vertical station profiles will have continuous CTDO, 300kHz Lowered ADCP, and a 24-place rosette with 20 litre bottle sampling. Discrete bottle samples will be analysed at sea for salinity, dissolved oxygen, dissolved inorganic nutrients and carbon system (DIC and Total Alkalinity). Underway measurements will include shipboard ADCP (75 kHz and 150kHz) and surface thermosalinograph and meteorology.

This research expedition will set sail from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain and dock in Fort Lauderdale, USA. The expedition will include a closely-spaced section across the Florida Strait, with 145 stations over 3765 miles over 43 days. This section will be complementary to the 26N RAPID moored measurements, which provides trans-basin measurements to underpin the calculation of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Combining the sample measurements from JC191 with the moored measurements provides a time series of the transport of anthropogenic carbon which feeds the North Atlantic accumulation of that parameter.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:17/381

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Ben Moat
National Oceanography Centre

20 days

March 2020

RAPID

The RAPID-AMOC 26N project makes observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in collaboration with colleagues from University of Miami and NOAA in the USA. The UK component of this project is an array of moorings in the subtropical Atlantic. The are three main sub-arrays: the first is on the western boundary close to the Bahamas, the second is over the mid-Atlantic Ridge and the third is on the Eastern boundary close to the Canary Islands.These moorings are scheduled to be serviced once every 18 months. 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 18/745

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Peter Talling
Durham University

50 days

September - October 2020

Congo Canyon OBS Recovery

This project is planned to attempt to recover the OBIF OBSs deployed in 2019 on the RRS James Cook.

Due to the high risk operating area in the Congo canyon region it is planned to mobilise at NOC, passage to the Canary islands, bunker with no staff transfer to or from the ship, than passage to the work area to search and recover the OBSs.

If required the ship would bunker on its return passage north at the Canaries on route to ending the cruise at NOC.

The total duration could be up to 60 days. This would comprise 7 days quarantine, 7 days passage to Canaries, 1 day in Canaries, 45 days cruise duration.

It is planned to take OBIF and NMF technicians to support the OBS recovery. The SME has the basic details, the draft supply agreement will contain the 14 OBS/array details and locations, plus the more detailed planning information required to deliver the recovery cruise

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Sophie Fielding
British Antarctic Survey

43 days

January - February 2019

Polar Ocean Ecosystem Time Series – Western Core Box

Cruise DY098 is the 23rd occupation of the Polar Ocean Ecosystem Time Series Western Core Box (POETS-WCB). The main deliverable of the POETS-WCB is a consistent unique time series of mesoscale distribution and abundance of Antarctic krill and an understanding of their physical environment within the region of South Georgia, South Atlantic (1996 – current). These data are required to understand the long-term variability in krill biomass at South Georgia and the influences from climatic variability, fishing pressure and predation.

South Georgia is an area of high regional biodiversity, supporting large numbers of endemic and range-edge species. The pelagic ecosystem in this region is extremely productive with intense phytoplankton blooms supporting a rich food web that includes zooplankton, in particular large densities of Antarctic krill, and vertebrate predators (penguins, seals and whales).

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have undertaken cruises to monitor krill biomass as part of the ongoing assessment of the status of the marine ecosystem in the south-west Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. In addition to an annual acoustic assessment of krill in an area to the north-west of South Georgia called the Western Core Box (WCB), BAS maintains moorings both on the South Georgia shelf and in the open ocean region of the Scotia Sea. The open ocean sustained observations in the area are carried out as part of the SCOOBIES (SCotia sea Open-Ocean BIological laboratoriES) programme, a NERC National Capability Science (Single) funding (NC-SS) project with a primary purpose to consider the flux of carbon to deep ocean layers as well as monitoring ocean chemistry parameters, particular in relation to ocean acidification. This moored instrumentation complements the WCB surveys by providing year round temporal sampling of environmental conditions and acoustic backscatter.

The cruise consists of the following:

POETS - WCB survey

1. Acoustic survey during daylight hours using multi-frequency (38, 70, 120 & 200 kHz) Simrad EK60 echosounder. Two transects to be run each day during a four day period.
2. Regular deployments of XBTs (Expendable bathythermographs) along transects during day.
3. Deployment of the CTD at minimum of two stations per night during survey.
4. Continuous operation of underway data logging system (bathymetry, location, sea surface temperature, sea currents, etc.).
5. Net sampling (RMT8 and other zooplankton/micronekton nets) at night-time stations plus target fishing during both night and day to ground-truth acoustic data.
6. Acoustic calibration using standard sphere techniques will be undertaken in one of the deep-water harbours on the North coast of South Georgia.
7. Recover WCB mooring. Download data, refurbish and replace batteries. Redeploy mooring.

POETS – SCOOBIES - SCotia sea Open-Ocean BIological laboratoriES

Mooring recovery, refurbishment and redeployment

1. Recover two deep-water moorings (SW and NW of South Georgia). Download data, refurbish and replace batteries. Redeploy moorings during cruise.
2. Net sampling (RMT8, MOCNESS and other zooplankton nets) over 24 hour periods at mooring stations.

There are berths available for collaborative projects that can be undertaken within the existing sampling schedule. Funding for these can be sought from the Collaborative Antarctic Science Scheme.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/212

Principal Investigator
Mr Paul McIlwaine
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

Chief Scientist
Prof. Martin Collins
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

21 days

February - March 2019

Mapping the biodiversity of the South Sandwich Islands

In 2013, the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) declared a sustainable use Marine Protected Area across more than 1 million km2 of the Scotia Sea within its maritime zone (MZ). The GSGSSI is interested in scientific information that will describe the benthic ecological processes in a number of key sites. One of those key areas is to the east of the South Sandwich Islands. This area is a commercially important region and as such, fisheries could pose a threat to the benthos, particularly long-line fisheries for Dissostichus spp..

Discovery cruise 99 aims to acquire data on the benthic biodiversity surrounding the South Sandwich Islands to provide scientific analysis leading to a wider understanding and ultimately the management of the area by the Government of South Georgia.

Both video data and physical samples of the benthic fauna will be collected to support the aims of the survey. Samples of the benthic fauna will supply initial data for the assessment of the benthic community. The data will allow characterisation of the different communities and biological traits associated with it. Also, DNA samples from benthic epifauna will be collected to investigate the interconnectedness of the benthic communities across the MPA and wider region.

Discovery 99 is funded by the UK Overseas Territories Blue Belt Programme. Scientists from Cefas are being supported by scientists from University of Bristol, University of Oxford and the University of Essex.

Follow the cruise on Twitter here and #DiscoveryExpedition99

View the cruise blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/279

Principal Investigator
Prof. Martin Collins
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)

Chief Scientist
Dr. Simon Morley
British Antarctic Survey

40 days

March - April 2019

Protecting the biodiversity of the UK South Atlantic islands

St Helena and Tristan da Cunha form part of the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Ascension Island. The EEZs of St Helena and Tristan da Cunha account for around 1.25 million square kilometres of the South Atlantic Ocean. These regions are home to important biodiversity, but also play an important role in the economy and culture of the island communities.

Discovery 100 will be split between the EEZs of Tristan da Cunha and St Helena EEZs (22 science days, 11 in each territory), each with a suite of survey objectives relevant to fisheries and marine biodiversity in each territory. The Tristan da Cunha leg of the survey will focus upon the biodiversity and habitats associated with the seamounts in the centre of the EEZ (the main area for demersal fishing). The St Helena leg will focus upon pelagic ecosystems, with a view to improving the understanding of pelagic food webs that underpin tuna fisheries around St Helena and Cardno Seamount in the north of the EEZ.

The cruise will consist of the following:

1. Mapping the seamount habitats of the RSA and McNish seamounts in the Tristan EEZ;
2. Investigating the biodiversity and productivity of the Tristan seamounts using acoustics, nets, cameras and a small benthic sledge;
3. Investigating the impacts of demersal fishing on the benthic communities of the seamounts;
4. Mapping the Cardno Seamount and the area around St Helena;
5. Investigating the biodiversity and productivity of the St Helena area and the Cardno Seamounts using acoustics, nets, cameras and a small benthic sledge;
6. Deploying acoustic receivers as part of an array to track tuna and whale sharks.

Discovery 100 is funded by a combination of the UK Overseas Territories Blue Belt Programme (Cefas) and UK Overseas Development Assistance (British Antarctic Survey). Scientists from BAS and Cefas will be supported by colleagues from the Natural History Museum, Plymouth University, RSPB, Stanford University and will include active participation from scientists from both Tristan and St Helena.

The EEZs of St Helena and Tristan are poorly sampled and samples collected during the cruise will contribute to a range of research projects and many specimens will lodged at the Natural History Museum in London.

Further information can be found:

on Twitter

by following this blog and reading this news article here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:17/430

Principal Investigator
Dr. Susan Hartman
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Brian Bett
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

June - July 2019

Porcupine Abyssal Plain sustained observatory

The PAP-SO (Porcupine Abyssal Plain sustained observatory) is a component of the NERC National Capability Long-term Single Centre Science Programme, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS). This open ocean time-series site in the Northeast Atlantic (49°N, 16.5°W in ~4850m) also contributes data to ICOS, EMSO, OceanSITES and GOOS. Through collaboration (for example with the UK Met Office), studies are made on ocean-atmosphere interactions and pelagic benthic coupling.

The objective of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained observatory is to provide high temporal resolution (hours) of an increasing number of variables which are relevant from the perspective of the biology, physics and chemistry over a relatively small spatial scale (30km). Measurements include near real time reporting of Essential Ocean variables such as temperature, conductivity, nitrate, chlorophyll fluorescence, O2, pCO2, and pH. Research into the abundance and distribution of seafloor life in relation to incoming food flux and topographic features relies on the long time series (since the 1980s) of particle flux, taxonomy and biodiversity measurements.

On annual visits to the PAP-SO we service the infrastructure required for continuous sustained observation using a multi instrument observational approach and combine this with direct sampling. For example, sampling of the abyssal plain seabed and its fauna is done via coring, trawling and baited traps, and a time-lapse camera system for extended (1-year) seafloor observation. The PAP-SO is also a key site to test Emerging technology and techniques.

Further information can be found on the projects website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/391

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

20 days

July - August 2019

Recert

The refit on RRS Discovery will be an alongside, afloat repair period. This period will concentrate on annual statutory certification surveys, fabric maintenance of the vessel and annual maintenance to the cranes and lifeboats.

We will also be rectifying some of the deficiencies identified during the 2018/19 and progressing in water repairs to equipment used for science.

Refit Application Form Reference:19/1024

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

16 days

August 2019

Recert Trials

It is vital that when NMEP equipment is procured or modified that it is fully tested before being allowed into service. This way NMF can provide assurance to the science community that our equipment is in a ready to go state and will fulfil the science aims of any cruises it is employed on.

NMF have recently purchased a replacement bespoke winch for the Seasoar system. This has a unique design and incorporates several features not previously seen on a NMEP winch. The acceptance process for this winch begins with a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and culminates in a full Sea Acceptance Test (SAT) which recreates as closely as possible the working conditions for this winch. The sea trial will begin with basic safety and operational checks allowing technicians to become familiar with the features and operation of the winch. It is only when the PI and Senior Technician agree that the winch can be operated safely that any load will be applied. A series of tests will be run using dummy loads on the wire to build assurance that the package can be deployed and recovered safely. These tests must be realistic and repeatable. Only when this phase is finished will a Seasoar system be deployed and used exactly as it would be for science.

NMF has 2 metal free CTD winches that have never achieved full commissioning. Both of these winches have been removed from service and are undergoing a modification programme in order to resolve the various issues. They will both undergo a full SAT during this trials period and only be returned to service if this is successful.

As with the MFCTD winches NMF have modified the design of Stand Alone Pumps (SAPs) and will carry out full functional tests on them before passing them fit for science.

Recert Trials Application Form Reference: 18/819

Principal Investigator
Dr. Veerle Huvenne
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Blair Thornton
University of Southampton

Darwin Mounds
North Atlantic

15 days

September 2019

CLASS - Darwin Mounds

The Darwin cold-water coral mounds in the northern Rockall Trough were discovered in 1998 by NOC scientists (Bett, 2001). Initial surveys showed severe trawling impacts, and the area was closed in 2003 under the EU Common Fisheries Policy. It formed the first deep-water Marine Protected Area in UK waters. A revisit in 2011 showed that the fishing community respects the trawling ban, but the recovery of the most impacted coral areas may need decades (Huvenne et al., 2016).

As part of the CLASS project, we aim to carry out a programme of repeated observations, starting in summer 2019. We will install a mooring equipped with current meter, ADCP, sediment trap and turbidity sensor to measure current regimes, water mass structure and particle flux close to the corals. We plan regular surveys on an 8yr cycle to expand on existing survey effort. These surveys will include AUV-based acoustic mapping for seabed morphology and trawl marks, and ROV- and AUV-based photography or video for benthic habitats.

These long-term observations will be of direct relevance to Government (e.g. JNCC will be a partner in the cruise), in terms of the monitoring of MPAs, while the will also provide fundamental knowledge in terms of cold-water coral recovery after disturbance. The cruise will also be combined with the cruise activities for the BIOCAM project in the same area.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/433

Principal Investigator
Dr. Blair Thornton
University of Southampton

Chief Scientist
Dr. Veerle Huvenne
National Oceanography Centre

Darwin Mounds
North Atlantic

9 days

September 2019

BioCam - Darwin Mounds

This technology led expedition will demonstrate 3d visual mapping methods for cold-water-coral survey. The aim is to establish an effective approach for carrying out baseline observations and monitoring change in the area distribution of live coral, a GOOS Essential Ocean Variable. This will be achieved by generating multi-hectare foot-print, mm-order resolution 3d photogrammetric reconstructions of the seafloor. The survey will take place at Darwin Mounds, a well studied Marine Protected Area located in the Northern Rockall Trough, with plans to revisit the site in 2020/21. The expedition will be combined with the CLASS project in the same area.

AutoSub will be instrumented with BioCam, a high-altitude 3d camera system currently being developed as part of the NERC Oceanids programme. BioCam consists of a pair of stereo-cameras, dual sheet lasers and dual strobes to illuminate the seafloor. It generates ~3mm resolution photogrammetric reconstructions of the seafloor with a swath width of ~8m about the AUV's trajectory. By operating from higher altitudes than typical camera systems (6-8m as opposed to 2-3m), BioCam makes it possible to map live coral distribution over an order of magnitude larger area than was previously possible. During this expedition, long-transect, sparse grid and dense grid surveys will be performed. The long transects will map along a ~100km single swath trajectory through the Southern, Western and Eastern Darwin Mounds. The sparse grid surveys (~6 x 6km) will establish a statistically robust baseline in each of these Darwin Mound clusters. The dense grid surveys will form full cover monitoring sites, measuring approximately 600x400m, that can be revisited in successive expeditions in order to track temporal changes in live coral distribution.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/245

Principal Investigator
Dr. Andy Rees
Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Chief Scientist
Dr. Giorgio Dall'Olmo
Plymouth Marine Laboratory

43 days

October - November 2019

The Atlantic Meridional Transect

The Atlantic Meridional Transect programme (AMT) is a component of the NERC National Capability Long-term Single Centre Science Programme, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) with objectives to:

• quantify the nature and causes of ecological and biogeochemical variability in planktonic ecosystems;
• quantify the effects of this variability on nutrient cycling, on biogenic export and on air-sea exchange of climate active gases;
• construct a multi-decadal, multidisciplinary ocean time-series which is integrated within a wider “Pole-to-pole” observatory concept;
• provide essential sea-truth validation for current and next generation satellite missions;
• provide essential data for global ecosystem model development and validation and;
• provide a valuable, highly sought after training arena for the next ge neration of UK and International oceanographers.

AMT also provides a contextual logistical and scientific infrastructure for independently funded national and international open ocean biogeochemical and ecological research.

AMT is a time series of stations along a transect of ~13,500 km in the Atlantic Ocean between the UK and South Atlantic.

Twenty eight cruises have been completed so far, and the data collected have contributed to >320 peer reviewed publications and 68 PhD theses. Further information can be found on the AMT site.

Expedition DY110 (AMT-29) will take place between Southampton and Punta Arenas, Chile in October – November 2019. On-board will be scientists from Plymouth Marine Lab, the National Oceanography Centre, the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the University of Southampton who will be working to deliver on projects funded by NERC and ESA (calibration/validation of Sentinel-3 satellite) in addition to the AMT-NC science deliverables.

Daily routine will involve stations at pre-dawn and mid-day which will include water column sampling using CTD, bongo nets and optical instrumentation.

Data collected during previous AMT cruises is available from BODC.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/584

DY111

&

DY112

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Adrian Martin
National Oceanography Centre

38 days
&
10 days

December 2019 - January 2020

CUSTARD - Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in Antarctic Remineralisation Depth

The CUSTARD (Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in Antarctic Remineralisation Depth) project will examine how seasonal changes in food availability for phytoplankton at a key junction of the global ocean circulation influences how long carbon is trapped in the ocean rather than escape to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. It is part of the NERC Role of the Southern Ocean in the Earth System programme.

In CUSTARD we will make new observations in an important, yet remote region of the Southern Ocean using an exciting combination of robotic vehicles and sophisticated new sensors. We will examine the processes that control the uptake of carbon and its fate at this key ocean junction. In particular we will explore how seasonal availability of nutrients can affect the type and health of the local phytoplankton, both of which change the depth to which the carbon penetrates. Modelling will allow us to determine where the carbon ending up on each motorway goes and how this varies through the year. Together the observations and model will allow us to determine the key processes regulating carbon uptake in this important area. This will provide important information to those building the UK’s climate model that will be used to provide input to future high profile studies into the state of the world’s climate such as IPCC.

This cruise follows on from DY096 in November/December 2018 which deployed a mooring in conjunction with the US OOI programme (including innovative new sensors developed at NOC) and unmanned submarine vehicles called gliders to collect key data on the physics, chemistry and biology of the area. By the time of DY111, the mooring and gliders on site will have collected a year's data on how the ecosystem functions throughout the year, including the challenging winter period. DY111 will recover the gliders and carry out further detailed observations on the controls on carbon penetration at the site, extending the investigation along a line south, to near the Polar Front, spanning an area vital to nutrient supply to much of the world's oceans.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/228 & 18/921

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Doug Connelly
National Oceanography Centre

36 days

April - May 2019

STEMM-CCS - Strategies for the Environmental Monitoring of Marine carbon Capture and Storage

This cruise is the main experimental cruise of the EC funded €16m project Strategies for the environmental monitoring of marine carbon capture and storage STEMM-CCS. This is a technologically ambition cruise which will place a CO2 tank on the seabed in the North Sea and will use a pre-placed pipe to release the CO2 under the surface sediments. This release will be monitored using AUV, ROV, landers and moorings with an aim to test all of the currently available, and developing technologies, to detect leakage from the seabed of the placed CO2. This experiment, and the whole project aims to increase the confidence the science community and the public have as we move towards using old hydrocarbon reservoirs for CO2 storage to mitigate climate change. If we use these storage sites we need to ensure that should they leak we will be able to detect any leakage and quantify it.

The project and the cruise has many international participants and there will be a German Research ship working with the RRS James Cook during the release experiment.

Further information can be found here:

within the Blog

Twitter

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

26 days

June - July 2019

Refit

The annual refit to the RRS James Cook will take place at the Damen Shipyard Amsterdam.

The normal refit specification work as presented to the Shipyard will be carried out in addition to the annual statutory certification surveys.

Refit Application Form Reference:18/915

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

July 2019

Refit Trials

The vessel is due to sail from refit and this will be followed by basin trials leading onto sea winch trials.

These trials will provide an opportunity for a post refit testing and calibration of equipment, commission ship fitted instrumentation and computing systems, stream the DW core and trawl to check new scrolling gear and any further test deemed a requirement.

Winch trials:

The following winches are planned to be trialled and tested:

1. Deep water coring winch system including the outboard P-Frame out haulers
   1. All over side work will be carried out using steel anchor chain clumps as specified in the supply agreement.
   2. The NMEP reeling winch has been requested to be installed on the stern deck for the duration of the trials cruise to enable trials work to progress without over side deployment of the rope if required.
   3. Primary task is to assess effectiveness of the PLASMA rope spooling system and safe operation of the rope out hauler.
2. Steel GP winch system
   1. Primary task is to confirm the repeated reliability of the spooling capability without the need for adjustment or intervention of the spooling carriage position ‘mid-operation’.
3. CTD winch system
   1. Primary task is to operate and evaluate the Active Heave Compensation (AHC) capability noting the previous concerns with maximum winch speed constraints
4. Trawl winch system
   1. Primary task is to operate and prove the winch system following the replacement of the traction winch drums during refit

To test winch spooling effectiveness previous criteria used is to deploy/recover the wire/rope three times with no adjustment or intervention.

Evaluation of the winch speeds is also to be carried out to assess if the winches still operate effectively to their designed specification.

It is required to carry out over side winch deployments 0800 – 2000 with wires/ropes recovered to deck by 2000hrs to then progress Gravity meter surveys.

Gravity meter survey

There will be three Gravity meters embarked with the requirement to carry out an operational and data comparison between the meters.

This will require a series of eleven surveys at the same site. Ideally these surveys will be completed as an end-to-end single survey but the time pressure and available days may not be sufficient to achieve this, and will likely require the individual surveys to be carried out overnight, with winch deployment by day.

USBL Cassius calibration

Requirement to carry out a Cassius calibration of the USBL system

Refit Trials Application Form Reference: 18/968

JC187

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Peter Talling
Durham University

Congo Canyon

38 days

September - October 2019

First Direct Measurements of Turbidity Currents in Congo Canyon - Cruise 1

This cruise aims to deploy a series of moorings with sensors along the length of the Congo Submarine Canyon offshore West Africa, and these moorings and sensors will be recovered in future cruises. The project will thus make the first detailed measurements of seafloor sediment flows (called turbidity currents) in the deep (>2-5 km) ocean. Turbidity currents form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, which are deep-sea submarine fans. They flush globally significant amounts of sediment, organic carbon, nutrients and fresher-water into the deep ocean, and affect its oxygen levels. Their deposits host major oil and gas reservoirs, and contain important archives of the Earth’s geological past. Only rivers transport comparable volumes of sediment across such large expanses of our planet. However, one turbidity current can transport more sediment than the annual flux from all of the World’s rivers. There are exceptionally few direct measurements from oceanic turbidity currents, which is a stark contrast to millions of measurements from rivers.

Direct monitoring of turbidity currents that form major submarine fans in the deep ocean has been a major and long-standing challenge for sedimentology, oceanography, and marine geology. This project is timely due to recent successful tests of new methods and technology for measuring turbidity currents in shallow (<2 km) water which can now be used for deep-water submarine fan systems.

We choose to study the Congo Canyon off West Africa due to initial measurements collected in 2010 and 2013. These measurements at 2 km water depth are the deepest detailed observations yet for turbidity currents. Surprisingly, they show that individual turbidity currents lasted for almost a week, and that these flows were active for 20% of the time. This challenges our understanding of such flows because all previously measured shallower-water turbidity currents lasted for just a few hours or minutes, and occurred for < 0.1% of the total time.

Our overall aim is to show how deep-sea turbidity currents behave using the first direct measurements, and understand the causes and wider implications of this behaviour.

We will deploy 8-10 moorings along the Congo Canyon at water depths of 2 to 5 km that will measure frequency, duration, and run-out distance of multiple flows; together with their velocity, turbulence and sediment concentration structures; and changes in water, sediment and organic carbon discharge.

We will answer the following linked hypotheses about flow behaviour:

1. What controls flow duration, and does flow stretching cause near-continuous canyon flushing?
2. What controls runout and whether flows become more powerful? We will test a hypothesis that turbidity currents tend towards one of two distinct modes of behaviour, in which they erode and accelerate (a process termed ignition), or deposit sediment and dissipate. This is one of the main ways in which turbidity currents differ from rivers.
3. How is flow behaviour and character recorded by deposits?
4. How does flow behaviour affect the transfer and burial of terrestrial organic carbon in the deep-sea?

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:17/239

Principal Investigator 
Mr Steve Snook
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Chief Scientist
Ms. Sara Lewis
Fisheries and Oceans Canada

24 days

November - December 2019

Goals

The Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) was implemented in 1998 by the Gulf, Quebec, Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador regions of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The program's aim is to collect and analyze the biological, chemical and physical field data that are necessary to:

• characterize and understand the causes of oceanic variability at the seasonal, inter-annual and decadal scales
• provide multidisciplinary data sets that can be used to establish relationships among the biological, chemical and physical variables
• provide adequate data to support the sound development of ocean activities

Sampling strategy

The sampling strategy is based on 4 components.

1. Seasonal and opportunistic sampling along sections to quantify the oceanographic variability in the Canadian northwest Atlantic shelf region.
2. Higher frequency temporal sampling at more accessible fixed sites to monitor the shorter time scale dynamics in representative areas.
3. Fish survey and remote sensing data to provide broader spatial coverage and a context to interpret other data.
4. Data from other existing monitoring programmes, such as:
   • toxic algae monitoring
   • the water levels network
   • Continuous Plankton Recorder lines
   • nearshore long-term temperature monitoring

JC190 will collect data according to the AZMP mandate in the Newfoundland and Labrador region; in particular the St. Pierre Bank, Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Flemish Cap, Northeast Newfoundland and Southern Labrador shelves.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 19/1111

45 days

January - March 2018

Climate and Oceanographic Evolution of the Southwest Atlantic

Overview

The Southwest Atlantic is an important region in the modern ocean for dispersal of deep waters. Deep components of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the largest current system on Earth, pass through narrow bathymetric conduits in the northern Scotia Sea, which either flow northward over the eastern end of the Falkland Plateau (Maurice Ewing Bank and Georgia Basin) or continue within the eastward flow of the ACC. The path of the ACC in this region greatly influences the position of surface frontal systems, across which there are strong temperature, salinity, and nutrient gradients. The complex bathymetry of the Scotia Sea, Falkland Plateau, and Georgia Basin in the Southwest Atlantic also controls the path of cold, saline deep waters formed in the southern Weddell Sea, which flow northwards into the Argentine Basin through several narrow abyssal passageways.

The primary aim of DY087 is to investigate the geological history of the Southwest Atlantic through seismic reflection and piston coring operations, which will be used to both image and sample the sedimentary rock layers that record the history of climate and circulation changes in this area. Seismic and coring datasets collected on the cruise will contribute valuable new insight on deep-water sedimentary processes and the long-term history of drift sedimentation and bottom-current erosion associated with deep-water circulation in the Southwest Atlantic. The results of DY087, in combination with a future cruise led by AWI-Bremerhaven in Germany, will also be used as the basis for a new drilling proposal for the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). New IODP drillcore records from this region will be used to test long-standing hypotheses regarding the role of atmospheric carbon dioxide versus the initiation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the onset of Cenozoic cooling and development of large polar ice sheets.

Objectives

DY087 will operate in the eastern Falkland Plateau region of the subantarctic southwest Atlantic Ocean, focused on the Maurice Ewing Bank (MEB), West Georgia Basin (WGB), and Northeast Georgia Rise (NEGR). New multi-channel seismic reflection data will be collected across this study area to image the sedimentary rock layers at high resolution and identify target sites for IODP drilling. Also, since ancient rock layers crop out near the sea floor around the periphery of the MEB, we will also map and date these rock strata through collection of piston cores.

The primary objectives of DY087 will be to:

1. Collect new seismic reflection profiles over the MEB, WGB, and NEGR, in order to understand the processes and patterns of sedimentation in these areas and identify expanded sedimentary successions.
2. Collect and analyse piston cores along newly collected seismic lines to identify locations with the most continuous geological successions, appropriate geological ages, and sediment lithologies suitable for multi-proxy palaeoceanographic investigations.
3. Assess potential IODP drill sites while underway and collect seismic reflection crossing lines at suitable localities, fulfilling IODP seismic data requirements for site selection and safety.
4. Collect short multicores, multibeam bathymetry, and acoustic sub-bottom profiler data at potential drillsites to characterise the surface sediments.
5. Correlate new seismic reflection and piston core age data to existing scientific drillcores to inform seismo-stratigraphic interpretations and refine drilling targets and science objectives for an IODP proposal.
6. Investigate physical properties and mixing in the modern ocean through collection of water-column temperature and salinity profiles and analysis of seismic data (seismic oceanography).

The science team sailing on DY087 will be composed of researchers from Univ. of Southampton, British Antarctic Survey, Univ. of Exeter, Univ. of Birmingham, Univ. of Cardiff, Padova University (Italy), and the Univ. of Nebraska (USA), with combined expertise in marine geology, geophysics, and oceanography.

Expedition updates and blog postings, and Pip the Penguin will be reporting from the RRS Discovery on Twitter and more Twitter

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/073

Principal Investigator
Dr. Teal Riley
British Antarctic Survey

Chief Scientist
Dr. Kelly Hogan
British Antarctic Survey

27 days

March - April 2022

Geological and Geophysical Surveys of the South Scotia Ridge

The southern Scotia Sea is located in a unique location for studying environmental change for two reasons. First, seafloor ridges like the South Scotia Ridge, and the sub-Antarctic islands act as topographic barriers to ocean currents moving from the Weddell Sea to the South Atlantic, with basin areas providing some routes through for cold dense waters from the Weddell Sea. Second, glaciers and ice caps on the islands themselves are particularly sensitive to climatic change (known as “sentinels” of change) because they are located in the transition zone between the isolated, cold, Southern Ocean and the better-connected, warmer mid-latitude oceans. Thus, the aims of this project are two-fold:

1. to understand how and when the South Scotia Ridge formed and its impact on ocean circulation;
2. to investigate the last glaciation and retreat of the South Orkney ice cap and its sensitivity to climate variability.

By analysing the composition and geochemistry of basement rocks from the South Scotia Ridge we can determine the age of the topographic highs, for example, did these banks form as part of a Cretaceous-aged granite batholith belt identified in Tierra del Fuego (Eagles, 2006) with similar a magnetic anomaly signature? Also, by retrieving seafloor cores from the tops of the highs we can analyse conditions at the seafloor (from things like isotopes and the species of microfossils) back through time. We do this to look for past changes in ocean conditions including: variability in influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current vs. Weddell Sea waters, and variability in primary productivity and sea-ice extent during recent West Antarctic Ice Sheet expansions, as well as during the warm interglacials. This work complements IODP Leg 382, to drill sediments deposited in the basins bordered by Bruce and Pirie banks.

The approach in our second work area, the South Orkney Plateau (SOP), is to perform geophysical surveys to map glacial landforms and sediments on the seafloor in large trenches or troughs that we believe were carved by fast-flowing ice during the last glaciation (c. 20 000 years ago). For example, suites of small (<5 m high) moraines, which can only be identified by high-resolution 3D mapping of the seafloor and sub-surface sediments, indicate “episodic” retreat of grounded ice back towards the landmasses. By taking seafloor cores targeted to sample the transition between subglacial and postglacial sediments we can add a chronology of South Orkney ice cap retreat to the record provided by the glacial landforms; longer cores can be used to identify significant climatic/oceanographic changes that may have driven the retreat. This work builds on previous cruises to the area (e.g. Dickens et al., 2014) and addresses a significant data gap on the southwestern SOP where the deglacial history is virtually unknown.

During DY088, we will deploy seafloor dredges from the RRS Discovery to sample volcanic material from the slopes of Discovery Bank as the prime target, and Bruce and Pirie Banks as secondary targets, and we will recover gravity cores on the tops of the highs. On the SOP we aim to survey in “Signy Trough” (south of Signy Island) and retrieve sediment cores both along the trough and on either side of a significant mid-shelf bank interpreted as the extent of the South Orkney ice cap during the last glacial. The geoscientific expedition team is includes hard-rock geologists, geophysicists and palaeoceanographers, as well as several students who are “first-timers” at sea!

Follow the BAS Twitter feed for more information during the expedition.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/165

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Stephanie Henson
National Oceanography Centre

South Georgia
South Atlantic Ocean

37 days

May - June 2018

COMICS - Controls over Ocean Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage

The surface ocean is home to billions of microscopic plants called phytoplankton which produce organic matter in the surface ocean using sunlight and carbon dioxide. When they die they sink, taking this carbon into the deep ocean, where it is stored on timescales of hundreds to thousands of years, which helps keep our climate the way it is today.

The size of the effect they have on our climate is linked to how deep they sink before they dissolve - the deeper they sink, the more carbon is stored. This sinking carbon also provides food to the animals living in the ocean's deep, dark 'twilight zone'.

Computer models can help us predict how future changes in greenhouse gas emissions might change this ocean carbon store. Current models however struggle with making these predictions. This is partly because until recently we haven't even been able to answer the basic question 'Is there enough food for all the animals living in the twilight zone?'. But in a breakthrough this year we used new technology and new theory to show that there is indeed enough food.

So now we can move on to asking what controls how deep the carbon sinks. There are lots of factors which might affect how deep the material sinks but at the moment we can't be sure which ones are important. We think that two important ones are the amount of surface biomass and the amount of oxygen inside the ocean.

In this project we will make oceanographic expeditions to two different places where only these factors vary to test how these different factors affect carbon storage in the deep ocean.

DY086 was the first of those expeditions and this is the second DY090. On both expeditions we will measure the carbon sinking into the twilight zone and the biological processes going on within it.

Then we will determine if the systems are balanced - in other words, what goes in, should come out again. We will then write equations linking all the parts of the system together and analyse them to make them more simple.

At the same time we will test whether the simple equations are still useful by seeing if they produce good global maps of ocean properties for which we have lots of data.

Finally, when we are happy that our new equations are doing a good job we will use them in a computer model to predict the future store of carbon in the ocean and how it will change as the ocean warms.

Further information can be found on the COMICS projects website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/119

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Kevin Williams 
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

84 days

July - September 2018

Refit - 5 year special survey

RRS Discovery will undertake her 5 Year Special Survey Dry Docking in Cape Town commencing 4th July.

During this period all vessel statutory certification will be renewed allowing the vessel to continue operating for a further 5 years, subject to annual verifications.

Outside of the machinery spaces the biggest job planned for the refit will be the addition of two new berths, bringing the vessel capacity up to 54 persons. This will be achieved by converting part of the current ships office into a cabin for the 3rd Officer, the existing 3rd Officers Cabin will be fitted with a Pullman berth and able to hold two persons. Construction drawings are currently being produced by our Naval Architects.

One of the ships main generator engines will be overhauled and the stock spares serviced ready for the next generator overhaul or in the event of any unforeseen circumstances used to overhaul any engine failures prior to planned work.

All four of the vessels thrusters will be opened for Class survey, the extent of which depends on the availability of seal arrangements to convert the three Wartsila thrusters to Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants (EAL’s), any wear fund ( the stbd aft thruster was opened for underwater inspection in February 2017 and none found) and the attending Class surveyor.

All other works planned are based on vessel defects and proposed modifications.

Due to refit location and possible seasonal climatic conditions certain planned tasks may or may not be done.

Currently there is a severe drought in the Cape region of South Africa if this continues no work will be undertaken in FW tanks as the port is currently not supplying visiting vessels with fresh water and all vessel stocks will be required during and after the refit. If, as is the hope of those living in the area the seasonal rains do come then painting of the ship’s hull could be dropped from the planned worklist. The weather situation will be closely monitored and a decision made nearer the time on both topics.

Refit Application Form Reference: 17/157

Principal Investigator
Prof. Bramley Murton
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Mr Paul Lusty
British Geological Survey

Rio Grande Rise
South West Atlantic

20 days

October - November 2018

The E-Tech element potential of submarine ferromanganese mineral deposits of the Rio Grande Rise

Formed 72 million years ago and drowned 22 million years ago, the Rio Grande Rise is a lost land of dinosaurs, ravines and plateaus the size of Wales. Cruise DY094 will sail from Santos, Brazil, on the 19th of October with a scientific team from the National Oceanography Centre, British Geological Survey, University of Edinburgh and the University of Sao Paulo. Deploying the autonomous underwater vehicle, Autosub6000, the team will map the Rio Grande Rise in extraordinary detail. With the robotic underwater vehicle HyBIS, they will explore and photograph features on the seafloor including a huge rift over 1000m deep, mysterious sinkholes and the ancient remains of beaches long since drowned under hundreds of metres of water.

The Rio Grande Rise lies 1400 km east of Brazil, in the South Atlantic. Surrounded by water over 3000m deep, the relatively shallow Rio Grande Rise is of interest for seafloor mineral deposits rich in iron, manganese and other metals that are important to modern society. Two of these in particular are critical to any future effort to reduce our dependence on hydrocarbons: cobalt and tellurium. Cobalt is essential in rechargeable batteries that are needed if we are to move to electric vehicles. Tellurium is essential for high-efficiency solar-electric power generation.

Our research aims to enhance understanding of the processes controlling the formation and composition of deep-ocean mineral deposits. By deploying autonomous and robotic underwater vehicles, instrument moorings, and novel sampling methodologies, we will test hypotheses for the environmental controls on metal concentration and deposit richness at a regional to local scale.

Cruise DY094 is jointly funded by the UK and Brazil, and is purely a scientific expedition of discovery.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:17/117

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Adrian Martin
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

November - December 2018

CUSTARD - Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in Antarctic Remineralisation Depth

The CUSTARD (Carbon Uptake and Seasonal Traits in Antarctic Remineralisation Depth) project will examine how seasonal changes in food availability for phytoplankton at a key junction of the global ocean circulation influences how long carbon is trapped in the ocean rather than escape to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. It is part of the NERC Role of the Southern Ocean in the Earth System programme.

In CUSTARD we will make new observations in an important, yet remote region of the Southern Ocean using an exciting combination of robotic vehicles and sophisticated new sensors. We will examine the processes that control the uptake of carbon and its fate at this key ocean junction. In particular we will explore how seasonal availability of nutrients can affect the type and health of the local phytoplankton, both of which change the depth to which the carbon penetrates. Modelling will allow us to determine where the carbon ending up on each motorway goes and how this varies through the year. Together the observations and model will allow us to determine the key processes regulating carbon uptake in this important area. This will provide important information to those building the UK’s climate model that will be used to provide input to future high profile studies into the state of the world’s climate such as IPCC.

This cruise will be the important first stage of CUSTARD, deploying a mooring in conjunction with the US OOI programme (that will include innovative new sensors developed at NOC) and unmanned submarine vehicles called gliders to collect key data on the physics, chemistry and biology of the area. Having the mooring and gliders on site will allow us to understand how the ecosystem functions throughout the year, including the challenging winter period.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/457

42 days

February - April 2018

ORCHESTRA - Ocean Regulation of Climate through Heat and Carbon Sequestration and Transports

Background

Climate change is one of the most urgent issues facing humanity and life on Earth.

A critical gap in our understanding of how the climate system works concerns the uptake of heat and carbon by the oceans. Over 93% of the extra heat now present in the Earth System because of global warming has entered the ocean, with the recent IPCC assessment showing strong increases in the energy stored in both the upper ocean and deep ocean since the 1970s. The Southern Ocean is disproportionately important in this regard, since it is a key site where water modified by contact with the atmosphere can feed into both the upper layers of the global ocean and its deepest levels.

Consequently, the Southern Ocean accounts for ~50% of oceanic carbon uptake and >75% of the heat uptake. However, reliable projections of the future trajectories of these uptakes are currently not possible, due to the lack of process-based understanding of the governing mechanisms, the absence of a robust network of in-situ observations with which to detect and interpret changes, and inadequately parameterised models.

The expedition

The expedition is a coast-to-coast full depth hydrographic section, with physical and biogeochemical measurements. The section will cross the Atlantic at 24S. We will occupy up to 150 full-depth stations, where the ship will stop and lowered equipment will measure ocean temperature from surface to seabed. Water samples will be collected at discrete levels through the profile, and brought back to the ship’s deck, where analysts will measure the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide, dissolved oxygen and nutrients that are vital for ocean biological productivity.

When we cross the Atlantic at 24S we will measure the amount of heat and dissolved carbon crossing the section from south to north, and therefore being exchanged between the Southern Ocean and the rest of the Atlantic. This will contribute to the global picture of how the oceans redistribute the heat and dissolved carbon taken up by the Southern Ocean. Some of that extra take-up is carried up to the North Atlantic, where it impacts on European climate.

Measurements were last made on this section by a UK expedition in March/April 2009.

We will be looking to see how things have changed in the intervening nine years.

Further information can be found:

by viewing the cruise blog here

by following this link here to read about the Orchestra programme

by following the science on Twitter @jc159_24s here

Further information can also be obtained via the Go Ship website here 

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/083

Principal Investigator
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Brian Bett
National Oceanography Centre

25 days

May - June 2018

Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems research at the PAP Sustained Observatory

This cruise supports the sustained observatory at the PAP site and continues the observations of the oceanography at this location in the subpolar gyre and the processes which occur there. A crucial part of the cruise is to recover the moorings which comprise the observatory and which were deployed in June 2015 and to deploy a new set of moorings.

In addition to this, scientists from across Europe who have expertise in water column and benthic biology and biogeochemistry will make observations which complement the data obtained by the observatory and which cannot be made autonomously such as rate processes (e.g., primary production, zooplankton feeling etc.) and sampling that cannot be done autonomously. This will include seafloor photographic transecting, benthic trawling and sediment coring.

Further information about PAP and the PAP observatory blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/336

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Veerle Huvenne
National Oceanography Centre

19 days

June - July 2018

Haig Fras

Haig Fras is an isolated, sublittoral bedrock outcrop in the Celtic Sea, and is the only offshore rocky reef on the UK Celtic shelf. The Greater Haig Fras area was designated a Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) in 2016 to protect this unique site and its mosaic of rock and sedimentary habitats.

To demonstrate the use of autonomous survey methods for the monitoring of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and improve our understanding of the natural variability of this mosaic habitat, NOC has set up a series of repeat AUV surveys (multibeam echosounder, sidescan sonar, photography) over the area, with a 3 year cycle (2012, 2015, 2018 etc.; Benoist et al., subm.).

The aim of this cruise is to continue and expand the data delivery and scientific study of the spatio-temporal variability in this rocky shelf habitat, incorporating further autonomous and data analysis methodologies as they develop in the future.

This cruise will deliver data on seafloor morphology, substrate and habitat, community composition, size-specific density and biomass, and trawl or other fishing impact in the Greater Haig Fras area, with the specific re-survey of the study site visited in 2012 and 2015.

The outcomes of this work will have direct relevance for the UK Government (e.g. JNCC), and will provide insights into the long-term evolution of MPAs on the UK shelf. The chief scientist will stay in close contact with JNCC to determine potential additional survey targets in the Greater Haig Fras area.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/432

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

63 days

July - September 2018

Refit

RRS James Cook will dry dock in Amsterdam on July 12th and undertake her intermediate dry dock survey.

During the docking her statutory Certification will be updated to include underwater condition of the vessel.

Work will be undertaken on the fwd Azimuth blades to bring them back to the correct specification.

The painting of the underwater areas on the hull will be completed and repaired as required.

One of the ships main generator engines will be overhauled and the stock spares serviced ready for the next generator overhaul or in the event of any unforeseen circumstances used to overhaul any engine failures prior to planned work.

The drives for the two aft thrusters will be upgraded to the same specification that the forward thrusters were upgraded to in 2017.

The final works will be carried out on the DWC winch system and this set to work during the subsequent trials period.

All other works planned are based on vessel defects and proposed modifications.

Refit Application Form Reference: 17/673

JC171

&

JC173

Principal Investigator
Prof. Ulf Riebesell
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Chief Scientist
Mr Jan Hennke
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Northeast Atlantic, off Gran Canaria

JC171:
9 days
October 2018

JC173:
5 days
December 2018

Ocean artificial upwelling

The two cruise legs (JC171 & JC173) support the experimental field campaign of the ERC project Ocean Artificial Upwelling (Ocean atUp). The project aims to examine the potential of forced upwelling in raising ocean productivity and enhancing fish production. This year’s campaign will investigate the relationship of upwelling intensity with trophic transfer efficiency and export efficiency for a range of upwelling strengths and two different upwelling modes (pulsed vs. continuous) using the KOSMOS seagoing mesocosm facility.

RRS James Cook (JC171) will deploy the moorings and the experimental platform and assist – jointly with the KOSMOS divers and technical team - in gearing up the mesocosms. The ship will further deploy the large-volume (100 m3) collector to obtain nutrient-rich deep water and tow the filled collector to the experimental site. Once the experimental platform is up and running, the study will be carried out independently with small boats operating out of Taliarte habour.

The GEOMAR-led mesocosm campaign involves 48 scientists from 8 countries and will last from October 11 to December 15, 2018.

After completion of the mesocosm campaign RRS James Cook (JC173) will recover the mesocosms and the moorings and will return the seagoing equipment to Las Palmas harbour, Gran Canaria.

Further information about the ERC project Ocean artUp can be found here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/555 & 17/576

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr David Smeed
National Oceanography Centre

Subtropical North Atlantic

36 days

October - November 2018

RAPID

The RAPID 26N project makes observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in collaboration with colleagues from University of Miami and NOAA in the USA.

The UK component of this project is an array of moorings in the subtropical Atlantic that make measurements of temperature, salinity, currents, and bottom pressure. From these we are able to calculate the transport of mass, heat and freshwater associated with the overturning circulation. Variability of these transports have important climate impacts in the North Atlantic, the surrounding regions and globally.

Additionally there are sensors to measure biogeochemical transports, in particular carbon, for the ABC project. There are three main sub-arrays: the first is on the western boundary close to the Bahamas, the second is over the mid-Atlantic Ridge and the third is on the Eastern boundary close to the Canary Islands.These moorings are scheduled to be serviced once every 18 months.

Further details can be found here about RAPID AMOC and ABC fluxes project

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 17/250

21 days

January 2017

Scientific Verification Period - DY063 – ROV

It is intended to conduct a full array of ROV operations paying particular attention to the deployment and recovery procedures on both the Port and Starboard sides of the ship.

Considerable modifications have been made to the propulsion and structure of the vessel to enable operations to commence.

This again leads itself to the ideal opportunity to deliver additional training to newer members of the NMFSS technical teams.

Trials Application Form Reference: 16/052

7 days

February 2017

Scientific Verification Period - DY064 – Commission

This element will provide NMFSS with the opportunity to conduct operations utilising the latest addition to the NMEP for items such as the new Lebus Double Barrel Winch for the use of mooring deployment and recovery and the new Romica PAP Winch.

It is again another valuable opportunity to provide additional training to staff to work towards the implementation of the new tiered skilled enhancement of technical staff.

3 days

February - April 2017

PiLAB – Passive Imaging of the Lithosphere-Athenosphere Boundary

Plate tectonics has been a fundamental tenet of Earth Science for nearly 50 years, but fundamental questions remain, such as where is the base of the plate and what makes a plate, "plate-like?" A better understanding of the transition from the rigid lithospheric plate to the weaker mantle beneath has important implications for the driving forces of plate tectonics, natural hazards, and climate change.

The Passive Imaging of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary (PILAB) Experiment led by Catherine Rychert aims to understand the nature of the base of the tectonic plate. We will systematically image the entire length of an oceanic plate, from its birth at the Mid Atlantic Ridge to its oldest formation on the African margin. This is a large-scale focused effort with multiple scales of resolution and sensitivity, from a metre to kilometre scale using seismic and electromagnetic methods. This scale, focus, and interdisciplinary approach will finally determine the processes and properties that make a plate strong and define it.

In March 2015, on a previous cruise, 39 broadband ocean bottom seismometers (BOBS) and 39 ocean bottom electromagnetic instruments (OBEM) were deployed in the equatorial Mid Atlantic to record for one year. The dense seismic and EM array will achieve the imaging goals of the study. DY072 is the recovery cruise for these instruments and will continue marine geophysical mapping of the area.

Further information on this expedition can be found by reading this blog and daily log

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/058

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

24 days

May 2017

The 2017 occupation of the Extended Ellett Line, and servicing UK OSNAP moorings

The Extended Ellett Line is a hydrographic section between Iceland and Scotland that is occupied annually by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), UK. The measurement programme began as a seasonally-occupied hydrographic section in the Rockall Trough in 1975, building on early surface observations made underway from ocean weather ships.

In 1996 the section was extended to Iceland, sampling three basins: the Rockall Trough, the Hatton-Rockall Basin and the Iceland Basin. These three basins form the main routes though which warm saline Atlantic water flows northwards into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean. The section crosses the eastern North Atlantic subpolar gyre; as well as the net northward flow there is a large recirculation of the upper layers as part of the wind-driven gyre. During its passage through the region, the warm saline water is subjected to significant modification by exchange of heat and freshwater with the atmosphere. The two deep basins (Rockall Trough and Iceland Basin) contain southward flowing dense northern overflow waters and Labrador Sea Water in the intermediate layers.

UK-OSNAP is part of the international Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Programme which aims to generate new knowledge and understanding of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre and its wider impacts on climate. The project duration is five years from September 2013. It entails activities in ocean measurement, modelling of the ocean and climate, and the analysis of results, requiring significant skills in those fields.

The specific objectives of this cruise are:

• To complete the annual Extended Ellett Line CTD section;
• To service the UK OSNAP Eastern Boundary moorings;
• To collect water samples for measuring biogeochemical properties including dissolved oxygen and nutrients;
• To collect underway measurements of surface currents, surface temperature and salinity, bathymetry, surface meteorology;
• To complete epibenthic sled tows at a deep location in the central Rockall Trough;
• To deploy Argo floats provided by the UK Met Office as a contribution to the International Argo Project.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/066 & 16/067

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Ewan Wakefield
University of Glasgow

Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone
North West Atlantic

26 days

June 2017

The Distribution and Ecology of Seabirds in the Sub-Polar Frontal Zone of the Northwest Atlantic

Summary

This cruise aims to survey and sample of seabirds in the Northwest Atlantic to examine multiple aspects of their ecology. In addition, complimentary studies on physical oceanography, nutrient dynamics and cetaceans will be undertaken.

Background

Breeding seabirds are a familiar sight in coastal areas but pelagic species, such as shearwaters and fulmars, spend most of their time far out at sea. Typically, they travel 100s to 1000s of km from their colonies to provision their offspring and may migrate across oceans during non-breeding periods. Until recently this made them enigmatic but the development of bird-borne tracking devices is now providing incredible insights into their movements and behaviour. Nonetheless, many fundamental aspects of their ecology (diet, niche partitioning, etc.) remain poorly understood.

This is of concern for a number of reasons: Firstly, pelagic seabirds may be major consumers of mesotrophic organisms in many areas of the world’s oceans, thereby exerting top-down control of pelagic ecosystems. Moreover, recent studies on functionally homologous cetaceans suggest an intriguing possibility - that by rapidly resupplying nutrients (and particularly iron) within the photic zone, seabirds enhance primary production within oceanic waters, mediating carbon drawdown. Similarly, due to their wide ranging movements, they may provide important links between disparate marine ecosystems, such as those on and off-shelf or in different hemispheres.

Secondly, shearwaters and other large petrels rely on the wind in order to fly efficiently. This constrains them to follow least-cost pathways defined by large-scale wind patterns, much in the same way as traditional sailing ships. There is emerging evidence that climate change may alter these wind patterns, potentially impacting seabirds in either positively or negatively. In turn, this could disrupt their provision of the ecosystem services alluded above.

Finally, negative impacts from human activities, such as fisheries and the introduction of invasive species to breeding colonies, mean that as many as 40% of seabird species may become functionally extinct by 2100. There is therefore an urgent need to identify areas used most frequently by seabirds so that potentially harmful human activities can be mitigated.

Early seabird biologists worked largely from ships, piecing together data on distribution, movement and diet, often through lethal sampling of birds. There followed a shift to colony-based studies, and latterly to remote observation using bird-borne devices. Since the pioneering days, surprisingly few studies have been carried out at sea in the deep Atlantic, despite the fact that the area is bounded by large seabird colonies and some of the world’s most developed countries. A recent meta-analysis of tracking data by BirdLife International and others has identified a potentially important hotspot of seabird diversity and abundance in the deep Northwest Atlantic. It has been suggested that this area, which lies in the vicinity of the sub-polar front, south of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ), should be designated as a High Seas Marine Protected Area but more data are needed to confirm its importance.

Context

Expedition DY080 is being undertaken as part of the NERC-funded project Seabirds and wind - the consequences of extreme prey taxis in a changing climate.

This project has five broad objectives:

• to estimate the distribution, movements and behaviour of key seabird populations during breeding and non-breeding stages and determine the dependence of these processes on movement constraints and habitat;
• to quantify temporal variation in habitat use within species and niche partitioning between them;
• to predict how wind-mediated seabird movement corridors are likely to change under future climate change scenarios and estimate how this will affect the ecosystem functions performed by seabirds;
• to estimate nutrient recycling and transport within and between marine ecosystems by seabirds; and
• to facilitate the conservation of seabirds and other higher marine predators by identifying potential High Seas Marine Protected Areas.

The study focuses on four morphologically similar speceis: Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea), northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis), great shearwaters (Ardenna gravis) and sooty shearwaters (Ardenna grisea).

During the project, these species will be tracked using gelocation and time-depth loggers deployed at their colonies. In addition, we intend to track the latter two species at higher resolution using satellite tags deployed on birds caught at sea. This will allow simultaneous observation of individual birds, seabird communities, and the environment in which they forage.

Expedition Aims

• To estimate the distribution, abundance and behaviour of seabirds and cetaceans in a study area centred on the sub-polar front, south of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ), and to survey these species en route to and from the study area.
• To develop non-lethal methods of catching seabirds at sea.
• To estimate the diet, stable isotope and contaminant loading, faecal nutrient content and moult status of seabirds within the study area.
• To determine the comparative habitat use of great and sooty shearwaters on and off the Canadian continental shelf and the timing of their movements between these areas.
• To map the location of major frontal features and nutrient regimes within the study area.
• To estimate the vertical distribution and biomass of mesopelagic nekton within the study area.
• To conduct in vitro phytoplankton incubation experiments to estimate rates of nutrient cycling within the study area.

Participating institutes: The University of Glasgow, Environment Canada, the Sea Mammal Research Unit, the University of Manitoba, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Coiumbra, GEOMAR, CEFAS, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/078

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Kate Hendry
University of Bristol

34 days

July - August 2017

ICY-LAB: Isotope cycling in the Labrador Sea

The high-latitude regions are experiencing some of the most rapid changes observed in recent decades: polar temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global mean and there are concerns about the impact of sea-ice and glacier retreat on global oceans and climate. The aim of this European Research Council project, ICY-LAB, is to understand the impact of changes in glacial input and ocean circulation on marine biogeochemical cycling of essential nutrients that support oceanic productivity.

Diatoms are photosynthetic algae that are responsible for nearly half of the export of carbon from the sea surface to the seafloor, and they are a sensitive indication of the state of nutrient cycling. Diatoms are one of many organisms that precipitate biogenic opal, an amorphous glass made of silica (hydrated SiO2), in order to form protective skeletons, and one of the essential nutrients is therefore dissolved silicon (Si) in the form of silicic acid.

The approach will be to capture the whole silicon cycle system in areas of marked environmental change using careful field sampling strategies – with research expeditions to coastal Greenland and the open ocean Labrador Sea – coupled with cutting-edge isotope geochemistry methods. During expedition DY081 we will be collecting samples from locations within the Labrador Sea in the NW Atlantic, including seamounts that are influenced by different oceanic currents, and the Greenland shelf. We will collect samples of seawater, particles, sediments and biological specimens, all the way from surface waters to within the seafloor sediments.

From the RRS Discovery, we will deploy Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) rosettes to collect physical oceanographic data and water samples, Stand Alone Pumps (SAPs) to collect particles within the water, and sediment corers. Finally, we will use a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to collect water, sediment and biological samples from near the seafloor. The international expedition team is multi-disciplinary, including geochemists, physical oceanographers, palaeoceanographers, engineers, and biologists – some specialising in algae and some specialising in seafloor dwelling creatures.

The results will lead to an unprecedented and cross-disciplinary view of nutrient cycling, biomineralisation, and the taxonomy and biogeography of siliceous organisms in an ecologically important region of the North Atlantic.

You can read more here ICY-LAB project

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Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/072

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

24 days

August - September 2017

Refit

The refit on RRS Discovery will be an alongside, afloat repair period. This period will concentrate on annual statutory certification surveys, fabric maintenance of the vessel and annual maintenance to the cranes and lifeboats.

We will also be rectifying some of the deficiencies identified during the 2016/17 Science Verification Period trials.

Refit Application Form Reference:17/310

39 days

September - October 2017

The Atlantic Meridional Transect

The Atlantic Meridional Transect programme (AMT) is a NERC National Capability project with objectives to:

• quantify the nature and causes of ecological and biogeochemical variability in planktonic ecosystems;
• quantify the effects of this variability on nutrient cycling, on biogenic export and on air-sea exchange of climate active gases;
• construct a multi-decadal, multidisciplinary ocean time-series which is integrated within a wider “Pole-to-pole” observatory concept;
• provide essential sea-truth validation for current and next generation satellite missions;
• provide essential data for global ecosystem model development and validation and;
• provide a valuable, highly sought after training arena for the next generation of UK and International oceanographers.

AMT also provides a contextual logistical and scientific infrastructure for independently funded national and international open ocean biogeochemical and ecological research.

AMT is a time series of stations along a transect of ~13,500 km in the Atlantic Ocean between the UK and South Atlantic.

Twenty six cruises have been completed so far, and the data collected have contributed to >300 peer reviewed publications and 68 PhD theses. Further information can be found in project publications.

Expedition DY084 (AMT-27) will take place between Southampton and the Falkland Islands in September-October 2017.

On-board will be scientists from Plymouth Marine Lab, the National Oceanography Centre, the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the University of Southampton who will be working to deliver on projects funded by NERC (twilight zone nitrogen cycling) and ESA (calibration/validation of Sentinel-3 satellite) in addition to the AMT-NC science deliverables.

Daily routine will involve stations at pre-dawn and mid-day which will include water column sampling using CTD, bongo nets and optical instrumentation.

Data collected during previous AMT cruises is available from BODC

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Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/075

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Phyllis Lam
University of Southampton

6 days

November 2017

SONIC - Shortcuts in the Oceanic Nitrogen Cycle

The overarching goal of this project is to determine whether a shortcut exists in the remineralisation of organic nitrogen back to nitrate in the ocean’s twilight zone, and its potential significance in the oceanic nitrogen budget.

Why nitrogen? - Nitrogen (N) is often a limiting nutrient to biological production, thus its availability in the surface ocean and subsequent export of organic carbon into the deep ocean are major determinants of the ocean’s ability to sequester atmospheric CO2: the Ocean’s biological pump.

Why twilight zone? - Once exported from the surface ocean, organic matter is mostly remineralised back to CO2 and nutrients, with >90% occurring in the twilight zone (mesopelagic) between the sunlit surface and the deep dark ocean.

Why remineralisation? - The depth of remineralisation within this transition zone, and which mechanisms are involved govern the exact amounts and appropriate forms of nutrients that can be returned to surface ocean to support phytoplankton growth.

Hence, accurate and quantitative understanding of nitrogen remineralisation pathways and remineralisation depths are essential to the projection of how global environmental changes may affect ocean productivity and so CO2 sequestration. Despite such importance, actual quantification of nitrogen remineralisation fluxes in the mesopelagic is completely lacking.

This project will combine a series of 15N-labelling experiments, functional gene analyses, metaproteomics and single-cell techniques to identify the microbial pathways and organisms responsible for the direct or stepwise conversion of organic nitrogen to nitrate in the oceanic twilight zone; and quantitatively assess the relative importance of each identified pathway in the mesopelagic versus lower euphotic zones. In order to better evaluate the global significance of the observed pathways, the above-mentioned experiments and analyses are to be conducted on samples collected from various surface nutrient regimes, thus making the AMT cruise that traverses multiple biogeochemical ocean provinces from the UK to the Falkland Islands in the Atlantic the ideal opportunity for our sampling and experimental campaign.

Expedition DY085 is thus to be integrated with the AMT expedition (DY084), with the added station time every few days to allow for additional water sampling and deployment of the large-volume standalone pump arrays specific for this project. Incubation experiments will be conducted on board ship at various temperatures mimicking in situ conditions. Subsamples for various stable isotope, inorganic and organic analyses, and molecular biological analyses are to be collected at various time intervals for later analyses in shore-based laboratories. We will work closely with the AMT team on sampling / analytical logistics and data sharing, in order to achieve both of our shared and complementary research goals.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/076

Principal Investigator
Prof. Richard Sanders
National Oceanography Centre

Chief Scientist
Dr. Stephanie Henson
National Oceanography Centre

South Georgia
South Atlantic 

40 days

November - December 2017

COMICS - Controls over Ocean Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage

The surface ocean is home to billions of microscopic plants called phytoplankton which produce organic matter in the surface ocean using sunlight and carbon dioxide. When they die they sink, taking this carbon into the deep ocean, where it is stored on timescales of hundreds to thousands of years, which helps keep our climate the way it is today.

The size of the effect they have on our climate is linked to how deep they sink before they dissolve - the deeper they sink, the more carbon is stored. This sinking carbon also provides food to the animals living in the ocean's deep, dark 'twilight zone'.

Computer models can help us predict how future changes in greenhouse gas emissions might change this ocean carbon store. Current models however struggle with making these predictions. This is partly because until recently we haven't even been able to answer the basic question 'Is there enough food for all the animals living in the twilight zone?'. But in a breakthrough this year we used new technology and new theory to show that there is indeed enough food.

So now we can move on to asking what controls how deep the carbon sinks. There are lots of factors which might affect how deep the material sinks but at the moment we can't be sure which ones are important. We think that two important ones are the amount of surface biomass and the amount of oxygen inside the ocean.

In this project we will make oceanographic expeditions to two different places where only these factors vary to test how these different factors affect carbon storage in the deep ocean.

DY086 is the first of those expeditions. The second is to the South Atlantic just off South Africa in mid 2018. On both expeditions we will measure the carbon sinking into the twilight zone and the biological processes going on within it.

Then we will determine if the systems are balanced - in other words, what goes in, should come out again. We will then write equations linking all the parts of the system together and analyse them to make them more simple.

At the same time we will test whether the simple equations are still useful by seeing if they produce good global maps of ocean properties for which we have lots of data.

Finally, when we are happy that our new equations are doing a good job we will use them in a computer model to predict the future store of carbon in the ocean and how it will change as the ocean warms.

Further information can be found on the COMICS project website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/069

40 days

February - April 2017

RAPID

There is a northward transport of heat throughout the Atlantic, reaching a maximum of 1.3PW (25% of the combined atmosphere-ocean global heat flux) around 26°N. The heat transport is a balance of the northward flowing warm Gulf Stream, and southward flowing cold North Atlantic Deep Water. Together these are known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Variations in the AMOC have important impacts on the climate of the Atlantic and surrounding regions.

Since 2004 the RAPID program has been continuously monitoring the AMOC and associated northward heat transport at 26°N. The time series of the AMOC produced by the RAPID program is freely available from RAPID AMOC site and is widely used by ocean and climate scientists around the world.

There are three components to the AMOC. Firstly monitoring of the AMOC at 26°N is facilitated because the Gulf Stream transport is confined to the Florida Strait where it is measured using a subsea cable. A second part of the AMOC is the shallow wind driven transport, referred to as the Ekman flow. This is measured by satellite scatterometers. The third part is ‘mid-ocean’ circulation from the Florida Strait to the coast of Africa and this flow is monitored by the RAPID team at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. An array of moored instruments take measurements of temperature, salinity and currents across the Atlantic. Once every 18 months the array is serviced. Instruments are recovered and serviced and the data downloaded before the moorings are deployed again.

Recently oxygen and biogeochemical sensors have been added to the array as part of the ABC project. The North Atlantic is thought to be accumulating human carbon emissions faster than anywhere else in the ocean and the ABC project aims to quantify the variability of the transport of carbon dioxide by the overturning circulation.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/098

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Jenny Collier
Imperial College London

65 days

April - June 2017

Volatile recycling at the Lesser Antilles Arc: Processes and Consequences

Everyone has probably heard of the water cycle at the Earth’s surface, where the exchange happens between the sea and the atmosphere via evaporation, cloud formation and rain. However there is also a water cycle within the Earth, where the exchange happens between the sea and the solid Earth.

The most important step in this lesser-known cycle is when water trapped in the oceanic crust is returned to the deep interior at subduction zones as part of the plate tectonic cycle. As the sinking plate heats up and gets squeezed a large fraction of the incoming water is "sweated off" and added to the overlying mantle where it causes melting. These melts feed volcanoes above which are dangerously explosive. This activity, combined with the earthquakes triggered by the plates scraping past each other and the consequent tsunamis and landslides, makes subduction zones the most hazardous places on Earth.

Yet these regions also have many benefits: the cocktail of fluids travelling with the melts concentrates valuable metal deposits and the fine ash erupted by the explosive volcanoes produces nutrient-rich, fertile soils.

The aim of the NERC VOILA (Volatile cycling in the Lesser Antilles arc) research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of volatiles (water, along with other volatiles such as carbon dioxide and sulphur) into the deep Earth at the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. Here the North American plate, soaked with water from the Atlantic Ocean subducts beneath the Caribbean plate.

The project combines a range of Earth scientists with skills in petrology, geochemistry, numerical modelling as well as marine geophysics to track the passage of the water as it goes into and out of the subduction zone system.

During JC149, we will conduct seismic surveys into an array of seismometers deployed on the seabed and on the islands. We will use methods similar to medical X-ray imaging to produce a new velocity model of the volcanic arc. This will improve hazard assessment by improving earthquake locations.

The distribution of the array should allow detection of small earthquake events not resolvable from the current land station network. We will also make surveys of the subducting plate.

This will allow us to answer specific questions such as is there a link between the fluid content of the incoming plate and the structure and hazard distribution along the volcanic arc?

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/084 

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Claire Mahaffey
University of Liverpool

47 days

June - August 2017

Zinc, Iron and Phosphorus co-limitation in the Ocean

At present, on-going warming is predicted to reduce the physical supply of essential nutrients, nitrate and phosphate to the surface ocean, and hence control future trends in productivity in the subtropical gyres.

However, this view ignores the significant additions of nitrogen to the subtropical ocean from both natural and anthropogenic atmospheric input that decouples nitrate and phosphate, causing phosphate stress for phytoplankton. This will drive an ‘arms race’ towards accessing alternative forms of phosphorus, such as dissolved organic phosphorus.

Recent work by our team and others suggests that availability of trace metals, specifically zinc and iron, regulates the uptake of alternative phosphorus pools. If such phenomena are widespread, this suggests that predictions of future trends in biological activity are inaccurate and instead we need to consider expansion and intensification of a phosphate-deplete ocean. By combining novel observational and modelling experiments, we will gain a more complete quantitative understanding of how trace metals regulate phosphorus acquisition and thus biological activity in the contemporary and future ocean.

During JC150, our aim is to quantitatively assess the role of zinc and iron in regulating phosphorus acquisition by key phytoplankton groups, specifically the nitrogen fixer, Trichodesmium and the cyanobacteria, Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus. We will achieve this aim by performing a series of trace metal clean bioassay experiments at 6 stations along a westward transect from Guadeloupe to Tenerife at a latitude of ~ 20°N.

In these low phosphate subtropical waters, phytoplankton are known to deploy alternative strategies to acquire organic phosphorus. We will collect seawater using the trace metal clean titanium CTD rosette and sampling bottles. We will add a range of concentrations of zinc and iron (alongside other nutrients) and determine the impact of these trace metals on the rate of organic phosphorus acquisition, growth and carbon and nitrogen fixation and incubate under in situ light and temperature conditions for 48 hours. In addition, we will collaborate with international experts in the field of single cell elemental quotas and proteomics to determine the impact of trace metal additions on cell quotas and protein production.

In addition to trace metal clean bioassay experiments, we will exploit the natural gradients in inorganic nutrients and trace metals along the transect to determine the natural variability in rates of phosphorus acquisition, carbon and nitrogen fixation, cell quotas and proteomics.

Further information can be found on the projects blog here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/070

Principal Investigator
Prof. Jonathan Bull
University of Southampton

Chief Scientist
Dr. Tim Minshull
National Oceanography Centre

19 days

August - September 2017

CHIMNEY - Characterising leakage pathways through the overburden of the North Sea

CHIMNEY is a NERC-funded project examining potential leakage pathways from reservoirs in which carbon dioxide might in future be stored. The location of CO2 leakage and the potential intensity of CO2 leakage at the seafloor are critically dependent on the distribution of fluid pathways in the sediment overburden and on the permeability of these pathways.

Evaluation of seismic reflection data as part of a recently completed EU project (ECO2) has revealed ubiquitous structures cross­cutting vertically through the overburden within the North Sea and Norwegian Sea.

These seismically ­imaged pipes and chimneys are considered to be pathways for sedimentary fluid flow. Natural gas from deeper strata is likely to have migrated through these structures into the water column at some point in geological time. If the CO2 plume reaches the base of these structures, and if their permeability is high enough they will act as pathways for CO2 leakage. To provide a reliable prediction of seep sites, and a quantitative assessment of CO2 emissions, the nature and especially the permeability of these pathways needs to be better constrained.

It has been suggested that many chimney and pipe structures imaged on seismic reflection profiles in the North Sea represent (1) a fracture network that has been reactivated by pore fluid pressure which facilitates the migration of fluids upwards; and (2) nearer surface lateral migration of fluids along stratigraphic interfaces.

The CHIMNEY project will include a geophysical field program and associated rock physics experiments, geochemistry and modelling, to constrain chimney permeability. It will be closely linked to related work within the EU Horizon2020 project STEMM-CCS.

During expedition JC152 in August-September 2017, we will complete a broad frequency range anisotropy experiment over a chimney structure within the North Sea. We will deploy 25 Ocean Bottom Seismometers from the UK Ocean Bottom Instrumentation Facility, and record signals generated by low frequency airguns, GI guns and a higher frequency deep tow sparker.

The cruise will follow on and be closely linked to a STEMM-CCS cruise on the German vessel RV Maria S Merian in May 2017, during which high-resolution 3D seismic reflection and controlled source electromagnetic surveys will be conducted across the same chimney structure, and the structure will be drilled by the British Geological Survey’s RD2 rock drill.

Further information can be found on the projects website here.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/074

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

28 days

September - October 2017

Refit

The annual refit to the RRS James Cook will take place at the Damen Shipyard Amsterdam over the period 16^th September -13^th October 2017. This will be followed by five days of basin trials leading onto approximately eight weeks of extensive deep sea winch trials.

Major items of note:-

1. Completion of annual surveys by both LR and MCA.
2. Up-grade of the scientific winch control drive system by Rolls-Royce.
3. Upgrade of the EM120 echo sounder, to the EM122 version and carried out by Kongsberg.
4. Up-grades to the K-Bridge navigational equipment, again carried out by Kongsberg.
5. Blue drive thruster control up-grades to both Azimuth and bow thruster units, this being carried out by Siemens.

These up-grades will be carried out alongside the normal refit specification work as presented to the Shipyard. This specification will be readily available on-board the vessel during the refit period should any-one wish to consult it.

Refit Application Form Reference: 17/159

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Alessandro Tagliabue
University of Liverpool

44 days

December 2017 - February 2018

FRIDGE - The impact of mid-ocean ridges on the ocean's iron cycle

Mid-ocean ridges are significant sources of iron to the ocean due to hydrothermal activity, with dramatic iron plumes that persist for thousands of km away from the ridge.

The impact of hydrothermal iron on the ocean carbon cycle depends both on the longevity of the iron plumes and the mixing of iron into surface waters, with both aspects poorly constrained.

Thus our understanding of how the ocean iron cycle functions is incomplete. This is important as the influence of ocean biology on ocean-atmosphere carbon dioxide exchanges via the biological pump is controlled by iron availability over large parts of the ocean.

Our cruise will document the changes in iron supply, cycling and speciation along the diverse hydrothermal systems of the northern Mid Atlantic Ridge. We will link observational science with state of the art ocean modelling to assess the global influence of mid ocean ridges on the ocean iron cycle and the sustenance of surface productivity. This cruise is also a UK contribution to the international GEOTRACES programme and is designated as an approved section GA-13.

Further information can be found:

on the projects website here

and on Twitter here and here  

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/077

41 days

January 2016

Role and Extent of Detachment Faulting at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge

The objectives of JC132 are to acquire the necessary geophysical data to test the very different, often contrasting, hypotheses for the spatial and temporal evolution of oceanic core complexes (OCCs). These were believed to be the unroofed plutonic and partially serpentinised mantle footwalls of large-offset normal "detachment" faults, structures apparently responsible for accommodating a significant proportion of the plate separation. Following the passive recording of microearthquakes from the active faults using 25 ocean bottom seismographs (OBS) deployed on JC102 and recovered on JC109, the primary objective of JC132 is to collect active source geophysical data (multichannel seismic reflection (MCS) profiles and wide-angle data using OBS) across, between and around oceanic core complexes in the vicinity of 13° 20´N on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At the same time, high-resolution, near-seabed magnetic and micro-bathymetry imaging will determine spreading history.

It is also hoped that gravity and swath bathymetry data will also be acquired port to port.

Further information can be found in this news and this blog and this other blog

11 days

March 2016

Volatile recycling at the Lesser Antilles Arc: Processes and Consequences

Everyone has probably heard of the water cycle at the Earth’s surface, where the exchange happens between the sea and the atmosphere via evaporation, cloud formation and rain. However there is also a water cycle within the Earth, where the exchange happens between the sea and the solid Earth. The most important step in this lesser-known cycle is when water trapped in the oceanic crust is returned to the deep interior at subduction zones as part of the plate tectonic cycle. As the sinking plate heats up and gets squeezed a large fraction of the incoming water is "sweated off" and added to the overlying mantle where it causes melting. These melts feed volcanoes above which are dangerously explosive. This activity, combined with the earthquakes triggered by the plates scraping past each other and the consequent tsunamis and landslides, makes subduction zones the most hazardous places on Earth. Yet these regions also have benefits: the cocktail of fluids travelling with the melts concentrates valuable metal deposits and the fine ash erupted by the explosive volcanoes produces nutrient-rich, fertile soils.

The aim of the NERC VOILA (Volatile cycling in the Lesser Antilles arc) research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of volatiles (water, along with other volatiles such as carbon dioxide and sulphur) into the deep Earth at the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. Here the North American plate, soaked with water from the Atlantic Ocean subducts beneath the Caribbean plate. The project combines a range of Earth scientists with skills in petrology, geochemistry, numerical modelling as well as marine geophysics to track the passage of the water as it goes into and out of the subduction zone system.

Cruise JC133 contributes to Work Package 2: Water Pathways from the Slab to the Arc of the VOILA programme. We will lay out an array of seismometers on the seabed to record distant earthquakes in order to image the wedge (area between the top of the underlying subducting slab and the seabed). We will use methods similar to medical X-ray imaging to determine the seismic velocity and attenuation structure and hence the pathways of the water and melt. The seismic array will also record local earthquakes from the scraping of the North American and Caribbean plates which will help regional hazard assessment and answer specific questions such as is there a link between the fluid pathways and the pattern of earthquakes?

The VOILA passive array is the largest of its type ever deployed at an Atlantic subduction zone. The instruments will sit on the seabed for about 15 months, when we will return to pick them (and their precious data recordings) up. We will then conduct further geophysical measurements to determine the pattern of water on the incoming plate in order to complete our understanding of this interior water cycle.

Further information can be found here

28 days

April 2016

DUSTTRAFFIC - Transatlantic fluxes of Saharan dust

DUSTTRAFFIC is a project in which we are monitoring and sampling Saharan dust that is being blown from Northwest African sources across the Atlantic Ocean. In particular, we are studying the marine environmental effects of deposition of mineral dust on the ocean surface.

To this end, a Transatlantic array of moorings (N=5) was deployed along the 12th parallel between 23°W (just South of the Cape Verde Islands) and 57°W (just East of Barbados) for the first time in 2012. These stations were re-visited during consecutive cruises in 2013 and 2015.

Each of the moorings contains a set of instruments that are measuring/logging oceanographic properties like Temperature, Salinity, currents, etc., as well as collecting material –both mineral dust as well as plankton remains — settling through the water column. Automated sediment collection is being done using two sediment traps at 1200 and 3500m water depth, at a two-weekly resolution. In addition, two moored surface buoys were added in 2014 to the stations at 38°W and 49°W. With these buoys, Saharan dust is sampled from the atmosphere in sync with the material that is collected from the water column.

During RRS James Cook cruise JC134 - DUSTTRAFFIC IV, five sediment-trap moorings and two dust-collecting buoys will be recovered and two moorings and two buoys will be re-deployed at two positions along the 12th parallel, this time between 23°W and 38°W (East of the Mid Atlantic Ridge). In addition, a third dust-collecting buoy, which is located at 21°N/21°W (off Cape Blanc, Mauritania) will also be recovered, serviced, and re-deployed.

On board, we will collect mineral dust from the atmosphere to be analysed for its mineralogical, chemical, organic geochemical, and physical properties as well as microbiological content. In addition, we will carry out incubation experiments with in-situ collected surface-ocean water with different kinds of Saharan dust. Finally, we will bring different scientific instruments to measure optical- and radiative properties of mineral dust in the atmosphere.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Kerry Howell
University of Plymouth

Rockall Trough

40 days

May - June 2016

Influence of population connectivity on depth-dependent diversity of deep-sea marine benthic biota

In the deep-sea (>200m) the bathyal region of the continental slope has been identified as an area where the rate of origination of new species is high. The reasons for this are not clear, but key to its understanding lies in understanding how populations are connected and if and how they become isolated. The aim of this NERC funded project is to elucidate patterns of population connectivity in the deep-sea utilising realised gene flow and larval dispersal models, coupled with analysis of community-scale patterns.

The JC136 expedition will focus on an area of the UKs deep-sea, west of Scotland. The aims of the expedition will be to obtain physical samples of selected animal species for molecular analysis, benthic biological survey data for community level analysis, and a small amount of oceanographic data to validate oceanographic models.

On the expedition will we will use the UK's remotely operated vehicle (ROV ISIS) to collect samples of test species from 6 key study sites and from four depth horizons (500m or summit depth, 1000m, 1500m, 2000m). We will then use a type of DNA fingerprinting to look at how closely related individuals of the same species are from populations at different sites and at different depths. These analyses will tell us how well connected the populations are.

Another part of the project will model the dispersal of larvae from the 6 sites in order to gain a mechanistic understanding of population connectivity and to see if this agrees with the genetic understanding. Another aim of the expedition will therefore be to deploy moorings at the Anton Dohrn Seamount (one of our study sites) to measure ocean currents at different depths to provide us with real data to check our ocean current models against.

Finally, we will use the Autosub6000 autonomous underwater vehicle to gather information on the benthic communities at each of the study sites. We are interested in asking whether sites that are more closely connected by ocean currents have more similar communities of species living on them, and if the degree of community similarity varies with depth.

This research not only has important implications for our understanding of population dynamics in the marine environment, it also has important implications for the future sustainable management of the marine environment because understanding how populations are connected helps us design better networks of protected areas.

Further information can be viewed on the Deeplinks site

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/038

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Bramley Murton
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

55 days

June - August 2016

Breakthrough Solutions for the Sustainable Exploration and Extraction of Deep Sea Mineral Resources

The project is an ambitious €12M international programme to study processes of formation and preservation of seafloor mineral deposits, and evaluate their resource potential and recovery.

During July and August of 2016, Cruise JC138, on the RRS James Cook, will sail to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to study a series of seafloor massive sulphide deposits that were formed by hydrothermal activity at a depth of 3500m below sea-level.

The cruise, led by Blue Mining project leader Bramley Murton from the National Oceanography Centre, will immediately follow a five week-long site survey cruise on the R/V Meteor by our German partners at the research centre Geomar based in Kiel, using autonomous underwater vehicles and near bottom seismic studies.

The RRS James Cook cruise will deploy novel geophysical tools such as active source electromagnetics to get a three-dimensional image of the deposit subsurface, as well as the robotic underwater vehicle HyBIS to map and sample the seafloor.

The majority of the cruise time will be used deploying a robotic sea-floor drilling rig, the RD2, developed by our project partners at the British Geological Survey. The six ton drilling rig will be lowered to the seafloor to a depth of 3500m where it will drill and recover 50m long cores through the ore deposits, acquire in situ measurements of the subseafloor rocks and their properties, and sample fluids from deep within the bore hole.

The data and samples will be analysed to understand the processes of formation, evolution and preservation of hydrothermal mineral deposits on and below the seafloor.

Blue Mining project partners include German, Portuguese, Dutch and Belgian colleagues and will run for four years.

Further information on the Blue Mining project can be found here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/037

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

Marine Engineering Deputy
Mr Alan Black
National Oceanography Centre

32 days

August - September 2016

Refit

The RRS James Cook will undertake her ten-year special survey in 2016, this survey is conducted by the vessels Classification Society – Lloyds Register of Shipping & Flag State – Maritime and Coastguard Agency. This will be in dry dock for the bulk of this survey with a period alongside on completion.

Major items of note:

• Inspection, survey, paint renewals and thickness measurements of the vessels hull plating, tanks and void spaces.
• The rudders will be removed to facilitate removal of both propellers and propulsion tail shafts. It is known that both tail shafts, which are 17m long, have been damaged since build as are the shaft stern bearings, all items are scheduled to be replaced.
• Two of the vessels thrusters are due for a major overhaul, service and survey.
• Upgrade to the vessels scientific winch system drive suite.
• Renewal of the wooden working deck and thickness measurements of the steel structure underneath.
• Renewal of the floor coverings in parts of the accommodation.
• Renewal of benches etc., within laboratories.
• Installation of variable speed drives to sea water pumps, this will result in less erosion of system pipework, saving money on repairs and will realise energy savings.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/039

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Bramley Murton
National Oceanography Centre

41 days

October - December 2016

MarineE-tech - Marine ferromanganese deposits – a major resource of E-tech elements

Seafloor ferromanganese oxides represent the most important yet least explored resource of ‘E-tech’ elements on the planet. These polymetallic deposits form a continuum from nodules rich in manganese and cobalt to crusts rich in tellurium and the heavy rare earth elements (HREE) (Hein et al., 2003). It is this combination of traditional (base) metals and the extreme enrichment of ‘E-tech’ elements that makes seafloor ferromanganese oxide deposits particularly interesting to both science and society. A recent estimate of the global resource, based on the sparse data available, infers a dry mass of ferromanganese crusts on the seafloor of 35 x 10⁹ tonnes (35GT). Of this, 3.7 GT is predicted in the Indian Ocean, 8 GT in the Atlantic, and 23 GT in the Pacific (Halbach, 1984).

At a global scale, the processes controlling the formation and distribution of Fe-Mn deposits are reasonably well understood. Much of this knowledge, however, is drawn from sparse sampling across wide ocean basins. As a result, there remains a fundamental gap in understanding of the role of local-scale factors, such as micro-topography, ocean currents and upwelling, sedimentation rates, micro-organisms, water mass composition and biological productivity, that are considered crucial to controlling the growth and composition of Fe-Mn deposits. Indeed, quantitative information for these processes and their relative importance in deposit formation is almost completely absent. Hence, to make any significant advance in understanding these deposits requires new and fundamental research.

During October to December this year, we will undertake a multi-disciplinary research programme that combines geology, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrography and microbiology to understand the local controls on ferromanganese oxide deposits at a seamount and micro-basin scale. Our study focuses on the Tropic Seamount (north-east Atlantic) and Rio Grande Rise and adjacent basins (south-west Atlantic). In addition, we will explore the environmental impacts of ore extraction and novel low-carbon approaches to the recovery of E-tech elements.

Expedition JC142 will depart and return to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. While at the Tropic Seamount, we will deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle 'Autosub 6000', and the remotely operated vehicle 'ISIS' to map and sample ferromanganese crusts across this 50km wide gyot. The gyot (a flat-topped seamount) rises some 3km from the abyssal plain where it forms a plateaux at a depth of ~1100m. Here, the conditions over the past 20 million years have led to the growth of ferromanganese-rich crusts.

Autosub6000 is NOC's deep-diving autonomous underwater vehicle, famous for its discovery of the deepest hydrothermal vents know on Earth in the Caribbean at a depth of 5000m. It will carry a number of sensors including sidescan and swath bathymetry sonar and bottom photography to map crusts and sessile biology. ISIS is NOC's deep-diving ROV and will deploy a core drill to sample over 100 sites for manganese crusts. In addition, we will deploy hydrographic moorings to map Taylor Columns and other turbulence fields caused by the seamount, and a benthic lander to monitor sediment plumes generated by the ROV to simulate seafloor mining disturbance. We will also deploy HyBIS (NOC's versatile robotic underwater vehicle) to deliver payloads and conduct surveys and collect samples from the Rio Grande Rise.

The MarineE-tech project and expedition JC142 involves partners from NOC, BGS, University of Southampton, HR Wallingford, Gardline Marine Environmental Surveys Ltd., the Spanish Geological Survey and the University of São Paulo, Brazil (funded through the science funding agency FAPESP).

Further information can be found on the projects website here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/057

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Darren Rayner
National Oceanography Centre

Canary Islands

8 days

December 2016

Recovery of RAPID MYRTLE-X lander

The RAPID project deployed a telemetry system in October 2015 (DY039) that was scheduled to automatically release data pods throughout the 18 month deployment for satellite transmission of the data to shore.

The telemetry system comprises a lander deployed next to a mooring with communication between the two by acoustic modem. The pods are intended to be released from the lander, but there has been no contact from the two pods that should have surfaced before this date.

JC146 will recover the lander frame only, which is sited in international waters approximately 200 miles SW of the Canary Islands. Redeployment is scheduled on JC145.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/098

16 days

February 2016

Repair

It is planned to stop the vessel on completion of science after DY040 to undertake the following:

• Extension of the scientific winch control cab, this includes the fitting of a new control chair from which all future winch operations will be conducted.
• Completion of improved sound proofing/habitability to all Officers cabins and scientific berths not achieved during last Septembers docking.
• Preparations for the installation of an additional fuel oil separator due for delivery in March, this will provide redundancy for a vessel critical system.
• Strengthening of the deck in way of the vessels fast rescue boat to eliminate flexing of the deck during launch and recovery.

10 days

February 2016

Winch control cab commissioning period

Operate all ship fitted winch systems following the modifications to the main ship fitted winch control cab.

16 days

March 2016

Deep dive and communications testing of Autosub ALR-1

Trials of the Autosub Long Range AUV (ALR-1) are required in support of the programme in 2015–2016.

The main aims are:

1. ALR controlled descent to at least 3700m depth. The main issue is the validation of the ALR flight control, and descent rate while the vehicle buoyancy varies due to the increasing water density as it dives deeper. This will also test the correct functioning of all the vehicle components at this environment. This is so that the navigation accuracy is not too seriously degraded by long periods of the descent being without seabed DVL.
2. Simultaneously testing the performance of the newly installed acoustic ranging system, to confirm that this system will work adequately at a slant range of up to 6000m.
3. Test launch and recovery procedures on a research ship (as will be needed for the DynoPoo and FISS deployments).

27 days

March 2016

Scientific Verification Period

Discovery arrived into Southampton evening of 15 March. Demobilisation of the Autosub Trials equipment commenced 16 March. Discovery is scheduled to be alongside NOC until 18 April when the ship departs for DY050.

DY050 is part of the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) program. DY050 supports the sustained observatory at the PAP site and which continues the observations of the oceanography at this location in the subpolar gyre and the processes which occur there. A crucial part of the cruise is to recover the moorings which comprise the observatory and which were deployed in June 2015 and to deploy a new set of moorings.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Mark Stinchcombe
National Oceanography Centre

Northeast Atlantic

21 days

April - May 2016

Biogeochemistry at the PAP sustained observatory

This application is for a cruise which supports the sustained observatory at the PAP site and which continues the observations of the oceanography at this location in the subpolar gyre and the processes which occur there. A crucial part of the cruise is to recover the moorings which comprise the observatory and which were deployed in June 2015 and to deploy a new set of moorings. In addition to this, scientists from across Europe who have expertise in water column and benthic biology and biogeochemistry will make observations which complement the data obtained by the observatory and which cannot be made autonomously such as rate processes (e.g., primary production, zooplankton feeling etc.) and sampling which cannot be done autonomously such as benthic trawling and coring.

Further information can be found on the projects website here and PAP observatory blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/028

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Ursula Witte
Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen

Rockall Trough

22 days

May - June 2016

Pressure-dependence of organic matter turnover and hydrocarbon degradation by deep-sea microbial communities

DY051 will visit Goban Spur and Porcupine Seabight, as well as the Rockall Trough, to trial a novel, pressure-coring, experimentation and cultivation system that enables studies of deep-sea prokaryote biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, under ambient or manipulated pressure, temperature and oxygen conditions from any medium sized ocean going research ship with deep-sea coring capability. The MAC-EXP system, developed through a NERC technology development grant, will provide a flexible, cost-effective alternative to in situ experimentation aiming to study the diversity and function of deep-sea prokaryote communities, in particular at the continental margins.

The main aim of the cruise is two-fold:

• To investigate the pressure dependence of microbial DOC and POC turnover in deep-sea sediments via stable and radio-isotope tracing experiments (ITEs);
• To investigate the natural capacity for hydrocarbon degradation in deep sea sediments West off Shetland, and identify the micro-organisms involved and their susceptibility to pressure.

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/030

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Stefan Gary
Scottish Association for Marine Science

Eastern North Atlantic

19 days

June 2016

The Extended Ellett Line

The Extended Ellett Line is a hydrographic section between Iceland and Scotland that is occupied annually by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), UK.

The measurement programme began as a seasonally-occupied hydrographic section in the Rockall Trough in 1975, building on early surface observations made underway from ocean weather ships.

In 1996 the section was extended to Iceland, sampling three basins: the Rockall Trough, the Hatton-Rockall Basin and the Iceland Basin. These three basins form the main routes though which warm saline Atlantic water flows northwards into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean. The section crosses the eastern North Atlantic subpolar gyre; as well as the net northward flow there is a large recirculation of the upper layers as part of the wind-driven gyre.

During its passage through the region, the warm saline water is subjected to significant modification by exchange of heat and freshwater with the atmosphere. The two deep basins (Rockall Trough and Iceland Basin) contain southward flowing dense northern overflow waters, and Labrador Sea Water in the intermediate layers.

The specific objectives of the 2016 Extended Ellett Line cruise are:

• To complete the annual Extended Ellett Line CTD section;
• To collect water samples for measuring biogeochemical properties including dissolved oxygen, nutrients, carbon and trace metals;
• To collect underway measurements of surface currents, surface temperature and salinity, bathymetry, surface meteorology;
• To complete epibenthic sled tows at a deep location in the central Rockall Trough;
• To capture water column and sea floor video with a downward-looking camera attached to the CTD;
• To listen for whales and dolphins with a towed hydrophone; and
• To deploy Argo floats provided by the UK Met Office as a contribution to the International Argo Project.

Further information can be found by following this blog

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/031

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Stuart Cunningham
Scottish Association for Marine Science

Subpolar North Atlantic

25 days

June - July 2016

UK-OSNAP - The UK overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program 

UK-OSNAP is a large project which aims to generate new knowledge and understanding of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre and its wider impacts on climate. The project duration is five years and it began on 1 September 2013. It entails activities in ocean measurement, modeling of the ocean and climate, and the analysis of results, requiring significant skills in those fields. Accordingly we assembled a team of experts from around the UK: from the National Oceanography Centre's two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, from the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, from the Physics and Earth Sciences Departments of the University of Oxford, and from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences of the University of Liverpool.

There is mounting evidence from measurements and models of the importance of the transports of heat and freshwater by the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre (SPG) for impacts on North Atlantic, European and global climate via temperature, precipitation and wind strength, and also on marine ecosystems, hurricanes, even rainfall in the Sahel, the Amazon and parts of the US. The SPG behaves substantially differently from the Subtropical Gyre, and their mechanisms and timescales for transport and storage of heat and freshwater are very different. The SPG is inadequately measured, and no ocean general circulation or climate model represents it accurately. UK-OSNAP aims to generate new knowledge and understanding of the SPG, to improve predictions of the contribution of the SPG to climate. We are conducting a programme of sustained observation of SPG circulation and fluxes, coupled with the modelling and analysis required to deliver enhanced understanding of processes critical to the improvement of model physics and (ultimately) to the improvement of climate models. UK-OSNAP will form part of an international SPG measurement project, leveraging additional national and international investment in excess of £25M.

The outputs from UK-OSNAP are designed to benefit decadal and seasonal forecasters – particularly at the UK Met. Office and UK, European and international climate modellers. We aim to inform and influence international and domestic climate policy and decision makers through the reduction of the uncertainty of seasonal, decadal and longer-term model forecasts. These ultimately contribute to increasingly reliable projections of future climate, thereby underpinning mitigation and adaptation strategies. New understanding of environmental variability is highly valuable to organisations that provide advice for maintaining healthy and productive seas. Combination of OSNAP results with data from other locations will aid detection of any large-scale change in the system that may be underway, or evolve, in the coming years, likely to influence regional climate and require modified adaptation and mitigation policies to those currently in place

This cruise is completing work for the international and UK components of OSNAP. The purpose is to recover and redeploy US moorings in the Iceland Basin (Prof. William Johns, RSMAS) and UK moorings in the Rockall Trough (Prof. Stuart Cunningham, SAMS); deploy Argo floats to sustain the distribution of North Atlantic floats (Jon Turton, UK Met. Office); deploy RAFOS floats targeted to depths of the deep overflows (Dr Amy Bower, WHOI); deploy and recover Seagliders in the Hatton-Rockall Plateau (Prof. Mark Inall, SAMS); deploy and recover Spray gliders in the Iceland Basin (Prof. Dalei Song, Ocean University China). Standard CTD-LADCP sections will be occupied and routine shipboard observations of underway meteorology, sea-surface properties and ocean currents will be monitored.

Further information about the OSNAP programme can be found here and here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/032

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

Subpolar North Atlantic

22 days

July - August 2016

UK-OSNAP - The UK overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program 

UK-OSNAP is a large project which aims to generate new knowledge and understanding of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre and its wider impacts on climate. The project duration is five years and it began on 1 September 2013. It entails activities in ocean measurement, modeling of the ocean and climate, and the analysis of results, requiring significant skills in those fields. Accordingly we assembled a team of experts from around the UK: from the National Oceanography Centre's two sites in Southampton and Liverpool, from the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, from the Physics and Earth Sciences Departments of the University of Oxford, and from the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences of the University of Liverpool.

There is mounting evidence from measurements and models of the importance of the transports of heat and freshwater by the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre (SPG) for impacts on North Atlantic, European and global climate via temperature, precipitation and wind strength, and also on marine ecosystems, hurricanes, even rainfall in the Sahel, the Amazon and parts of the US. The SPG behaves substantially differently from the Subtropical Gyre, and their mechanisms and timescales for transport and storage of heat and freshwater are very different. The SPG is inadequately measured, and no ocean general circulation or climate model represents it accurately. UK-OSNAP aims to generate new knowledge and understanding of the SPG, to improve predictions of the contribution of the SPG to climate. We are conducting a programme of sustained observation of SPG circulation and fluxes, coupled with the modelling and analysis required to deliver enhanced understanding of processes critical to the improvement of model physics and (ultimately) to the improvement of climate models. UK-OSNAP will form part of an international SPG measurement project, leveraging additional national and international investment in excess of £25M.

The outputs from UK-OSNAP are designed to benefit decadal and seasonal forecasters – particularly at the UK Met. Office and UK, European and international climate modellers. We aim to inform and influence international and domestic climate policy and decision makers through the reduction of the uncertainty of seasonal, decadal and longer-term model forecasts. These ultimately contribute to increasingly reliable projections of future climate, thereby underpinning mitigation and adaptation strategies. New understanding of environmental variability is highly valuable to organisations that provide advice for maintaining healthy and productive seas. Combination of OSNAP results with data from other locations will aid detection of any large-scale change in the system that may be underway, or evolve, in the coming years, likely to influence regional climate and require modified adaptation and mitigation policies to those currently in place

This cruise is completing work for the international and UK components of OSNAP. The purpose is to recover and redeploy the Netherlands moorings in the eastern Irminger Sea (Dr. Laura de Steur, NIOZ) and UK moorings in the western Irminger Sea (Dr. Penny Holliday, NOC). Standard CTD-LADCP sections will be occupied and routine shipboard observations of underway meteorology, sea-surface properties and ocean currents will be monitored.

Further information about the OSNAP programme can be found about here and here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference: 16/033

35 days

August - September 2016

Refit

This is the vessel planned refit period, during which annual statutory surveys will be carried out in conjunction with various vessel maintenance tasks and scientific system improvements/modifications.

Refit Application Form Reference: 16/035

4 days

October 2016

NERC in the North West

Following the success of the 2015 Discovery in London event, NERC and NOC are keen to continue to develop the national interest in research in the UK. A ‘NERC in the North West’ showcase event is now planned to take place in Liverpool in October 2016. This project will involve the RRS Discovery hosting a series of events and exhibitions targeted at industry, business, outreach and civic members of Liverpool and the North West community.

Further information can be found within this NERC article 'Into The Blue' which can be read here

Ship-time & Marine Equipment Application Form (SME) Reference:16/063

Scientific Verification Periods (SVPs)

To enable RRS Discovery to provide the specified scientific disciplines as designed, NERC have programmed a set of specific expeditions.

This opportunity will allow NMFSS to conduct an array of specialist scientific disciplines ensuring that each can be conducted safely, efficiently and effectively.

The expeditions will be broken down into specific elements of shore side preparation and sea going activities.

Project Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

12 days

October 2016

Scientific Verification Period: DY058

During this period, NMFSS Technical Staff and External Ship Yard Repair teams, will conduct structural alterations and additions to both Discovery and the NMEP Nioz Piston Coring System.

On completion, a full mobilisation will be under taken ensuring all equipment is loaded for DY059.

Trials Application Form Reference: 16/047

Project Lead
Mr Jez Evans
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

19 days

November 2016

Scientific Verification Period: DY059 - Piston coring

During this element it is intended to conduct a variety of deployments of the Piston Coring System utilising the Bullhorn overboard gantry.

It is also the intention to commission the Ifremer Cinema Piston Corer Modelling System.

The LEBUS General Purpose Containerised Winch fitted with the Nexans Synthetic rope will be used to conduct full ocean depth (6000M+) samples.

This period will also provide an ideal opportunity for less experienced sea going technicians to receive a full course of on the job training by more senior collegues.

Project Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

5 days

October 2016

Scientific Verification Period: DY060 - Shore

A quick demobilisation of equipment from DY059 will take place before the structural repair work is completed to enable the design specification of a 2 beam 6 gun array to be fitted on board.

This in itself has provided technical staff with a unique set of constraints due to the requirement to house the compressor units on the working deck in addition to the normal array of deployment equipment.

So new deployment and operation techniques will be adapted alongside the physical equipment operations. 

Project Lead
Mr Andrew Henson
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

12 days

October - November 2016

Scientific Verification Period: DY061 - Seismic

Initially work will focus on training staff and ensuring deployment operations can be conducted safely, before progressing to conducting a full seismic survey ensuring the system operates and receives data as expected.

Trials Application Form Reference: 16/081

Project Lead
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

12 days

November 2016

Scientific Verification Period: DY071 - Shore

Another quick turnaround of equipment and repair works to enable the ROV element of the SVPs to commence.

Considerable structural alterations will have been required to the overboard gantry to enable the ROV to deploy on the starboard side.

Trials Application Form Reference: 16/049

40 days

January 2015

OSCAR - Oceanographic and Seiemic Characterisation of heat dissipation and alteration by hydrothermal fluids at an Axial Ridge

The OSCAR programme consists of a two-ship marine geophysical and oceanographic investigation of the hydrothermal fluid flow and plumbing within the oceanic crust at the Costa Rica Rift on the East Pacific Rise, and how this changes as the crust ages and spreads off-axis.

6 days

February 2015

OSCAR - Oceanographic and Seiemic Characterisation of heat dissipation and alteration by hydrothermal fluids at an Axial Ridge

The objective of this cruise is to obtain a new suite of conductive subseafloor heat flow data to better understand the nature of conductive and convective heat transfer in young sedimented crust of the Panama Basin. This heat flow data, when combined with existing heat flow data will provide a better estimate of total hydrothermal heat loss from the crust in the study region.

45 days

March 2015

OSCAR - Oceanographic and Seiemic Characterisation of heat dissipation and alteration by hydrothermal fluids at an Axial Ridge

This cruise is the second of three cruises which will form part of a combined sampling and survey project (JC112/13, JC114 and SO238) funded under the Oceanographic and Seismic Characterisation of heat dissipation and alteration by hydrothermal fluids at an Axial Ridge (OSCAR) programme.

This cruise will essentially comprise of 3 mooring deployments and recoveries. 12 MT lander deployments, CTDs, VMP and heat flow deployments.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Daniel Jones
National Oceanography Centre

Pacific

34 days

April 2015

MIDAS - Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource Exploitation

As part of the EU Project MIDAS (Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation) the RRS James Cook cruise JC120 will visit the polymetallic nodule fields in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the equatorial Pacific. There is substantial commercial interest in harvesting metal-rich nodules, which occur naturally in large quantities on the seafloor in this area, and mining activities could take place in the next few years. It is really important, before industrial extraction takes place, to assess the ecosystems of the CCZ at a scale similar to that of the potential mining activity.

The cruise will map a large area of the seafloor in very high resolution, using both acoustic techniques and photography, and carry out a detailed seabed sampling programme with two main aims:

• To map variation in abyssal nodule habitat and link to faunal distribution, abundance and diversity in the CCZ
• Understand geochemical properties of nodules and surrounding sediments

Passage

Atlantic

31 days

May 2015

Passage

The vessel transited the Panama Canal on 29 May and will passage to Southampton.

Southampton

15 days

June 2015

Port Call

Intentions are for RRS James Cook to commence demobilisation after arrival. The RRS James Cook will then start mobilisation for JC123. Departure from Southampton to start JC123 is scheduled for 3 July. There is a crew change scheduled for the 2 July.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Colm O'Cofaigh
Durham University

North Sea

31 days

July 2015

BRITICE-CHRONO – rates and style of ice sheet retreat: collapse, punctuated or steady?

Cruise JC123 is the second of two cruises on the UK vessel the RRS James Cook related to the UK 5 year NERC-funded research project “BRITICE-CHRONO: constraining rates and style of marine-influenced ice sheet decay”.

The project is led by Professor Chris Clark (University of Sheffield) and a steering group comprising Professor Colm O'Cofaigh (Marine Geology - Durham), Dr Richard Chiverrell (Terrestrial - Liverpool), Dr Derek Fabel (Geochronology - Glasgow), Professor James Scourse (Oceanography - Bangor) and Dr Richard Hindmarsh (Ice sheet modelling - BAS). The project involves some 40+ researchers from eight universities, plus the British Geological Survey, British Antarctic Survey, NERC's radiocarbon facility and Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre as well as project partners in Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Norway.

The underlying rationale behind BRITICE-CHRONO is concern about the retreat/stability of the marine-influenced West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, and consequent sea-level rise. It is imperative that we can predict the future rates of change of these large ice masses but our current ability to do so is limited and a weakness in climate science. Numerical ice sheet models – capable of making predictions have yet to be adequately tested against data on the pattern and timing of a shrinking ice sheet. Although recent work has constrained the pattern of retreat of the ice sheet that once covered Ireland and Britain, the timing of that retreat is inadequately constrained. BRITICE-CHRONO is a systematic and directed campaign to collect and date material to constrain the timing and rates of change of the collapsing British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS).

The focus of the project is on retreat rates from marine-calving to terrestrial-melting margins and this requires that effort is split between these environments. The marine and terrestrial work is fully integrated and follows a common sampling strategy and procedure. Research effort is organised via a series of 8 transects from the continental shelf edge to a short distance (~30 km) onshore. The marine component utilises existing geophysical data archives supplied through our collaboration with the Geological Survey of Ireland and also from British Geological Survey to identify target locations.

There are two cruises on the RRS James Cook during the project. The first cruise (JC106) took place in 2014 and focused on the Celtic and Irish seas, the northern approaches to the Barra Fan, and the NW and western Irish shelf. The second cruise (JC123) will take place in from July 3-August 3 2015 and will focus on the North Sea, the seas around the Shetland Islands and NW Scotland.

During JC123, geophysical data in the form of multibeam echo sounder and sub-bottom profiler data will be collected and will be used to identify targets for coring. Coring will utilise a British Geological Survey 6m long vibrocorer system and UK Natural Environment Research Council 10m piston corer. Following collection the cores will be analysed using a range of techniques and samples of marine bivalves and foraminifera will be dated to provide a chronology of ice sheet retreat.

Further information can be viewed on the projects website here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Russell Wynn
National Oceanography Centre

Celtic Sea

4 days

August 2015

Novel AUV deployments to inform future marine monitoring strategy in UK waters

This Defra-funded project involves repeat mapping of seabed habitats and fauna within a Marine Protected Area off southwest UK. The study site is at Haig Fras, which is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a proposed Marine Conservation Zone (pMCZ); it is the only substantial area of rocky reef away from the coast off southwest UK.

The project involves repeat mapping of the seabed using the Autosub6000 AUV, building upon a previous Autosub6000 survey at this site undertaken in 2012. Geophysical mapping (multibeam bathymetry and sidescan sonar) will be combined with high-resolution seafloor photography to assess the extent to which different habitats and their associated fauna have changed over the three-year period. Repeat mapping during the 2015 cruise will also enable assessment of change over shorter timescales (days to weeks), and potential variability introduced by AUV survey methods.

The results will provide valuable scientific information about natural change in shelf habitats and faunal distribution over timescales of days to years (and whether this can be separated from human-induced change), and will inform policy-makers about the suitability of AUVs for repeat survey and monitoring of offshore Marine Protected Areas.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Veerle Huvenne
National Oceanography Centre

North-east Atlantic Ocean

27 days

August 2015

Complex Deep-sea Environments: Mapping habitat heterogeneity As Proxy for biodiversity

Expedition JC125 is part of the ERC Starting Grant project CODEMAP (Complex Deep-sea Environments: Mapping habitat heterogeneity As Proxy for biodiversity, Grant No 258482), and has affinities with the NERC MAREMAP programme. It will focus on the Whittard Canyon, a large submarine canyon system along the Celtic Margin, south-west of Ireland and the UK.

Submarine Canyons are the main transport pathways between the shelf and the deep sea, and are often considered biodiversity hotspots. Their irregular topography can create specific oceanographic effects that result in enhanced primary productivity, which then gets transported to deeper waters through the canyon. At the same time, the steep canyon walls and enhanced sediment dynamics create a wide range of seabed substrates, providing different niches for a large variety in faunal communities.

However, studying these communities and the underlying processes is a major challenge in this complex terrain. Whittard Canyon has several sections with near-vertical or overhanging walls, which cannot be studied using traditional ‘over-the-side’ scientific equipment. Using the MARS vehicles (ROV Isis and AUV Autosub6000), we will be able to obtain a correct picture of these environments, mapped and quantified in true 3D. After an initial test in Whittard Canyon in 2009, using the ROV Isis, we are now developing a new methodology to carry out further sideways mapping of the canyon walls, using Autosub6000.

Hence, the aims of the cruise are:

• To carry out further habitat mapping at different resolutions in Whittard Canyon, to increase our understanding of the system and to test the predictive habitat models built within CODEMAP using the 2009 data
• To test and apply further sideways multibeam mapping, in order to develop a true 3D habitat model of the canyon
• To revisit key habitats in the canyon in order to establish potential changes over the last six years.

Further information can be viewed on the projects website here

View the cruise blog

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Pete Talling
National Oceanography Centre

Whittard Canyon

3 days

September 2015

Field test of ISIS ROV-vibracorer

The purpose of this short expedition is to field test a new type of corer, called a vibracorer, which vibrates its way into the seafloor. Other types of corer can recover samples from areas of muddy seafloor, but only a vibracorer can successfully sample areas of sandy seafloor.

This new vibracorer is attached to the NERC's Romotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) ISIS, which is able to precisely located the vibracorer. This would be the first vibracoring system that operate to full ocean depths, and be available for science worldwide. We would like to thank the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in helping to design the new ROV-vibracorer

Refit

Amsterdam

21 days

September 2015

Refit

During this period the vessel will undertake afloat repairs consisting of an overhaul of the main engine; the renewal of the ‘red deck’ coating and UTs of deck underneath; repairs to deck matrix sockets and science modification carried out as required.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Carol Cotterill
British Geological Survey

Mid Atlantic Ridge

46 days

October 2015

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 357 – Atlantis Massif Seafloor Processes: Serpentinisation and Life

IODP Expedition 357 will address two exciting discoveries in mid-ocean ridge research: off-axis, serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal activity, exemplified by the Lost City Hydrothermal Field (LCHF) on the Atlantis Massif oceanic core complex (30°N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge); and the significance of tectono-magmatic processes in forming and exposing heterogeneous mafic and variably serpentinised ultramafic lithosphere that are key components of slow and ultraslow spreading ridges. Serpentinisation is a fundamental process that controls rheology and geophysical properties of the oceanic lithosphere and has major consequences for heat flux, geochemical cycles and microbial activity in a wide variety of environments. However, we currently have no constraints on the nature and distribution of microbial communities in ultramafic subsurface environments.

Our drilling focuses on:

• exploring the extent and activity of the subsurface biosphere in young ultramafic and mafic seafloor;
• assessing how abiotic and biotic processes change with aging of the lithosphere and with variations in rock type;
• quantifying the role of serpentinisation in driving hydrothermal systems, and in sustaining microbiological communities, and in the sequestration of carbon in ultramafic rocks; and
• characterising tectono-magmatic processes that lead to lithospheric heterogeneities and the evolution of hydrothermal activity associated with detachment faulting.

This expedition will utilise seabed rock drill technology (MeBo and BGS Seafloor Rockdrill 2) to core a series of shallow (50-80 mbsf) holes across the Atlantis Massif, where detachment faulting exposes both mafic and ultramafic lithologies on the seafloor. We aim to recover in-situ sequences of sediments, hydrothermal deposits/veins, and basement rocks that comprise a broad zone of detachment faulting across: a spreading-parallel (E-W) profile along the southern wall and at varying distances from the LCHF; and a ridge-parallel (N-S) profile into the center of the massif, where the dominant rock compositions changes from ultramafic to gabbroic. Drilling the E-W profile will allow us to evaluate how microbial communities evolve with variations in hydrothermal activity and with age of emplacement on the seafloor.

We aim to compare microbial activity and diversity in areas of diffuse h3-rich fluid flow and carbonate precipitation with communities in areas away from the active hydrothermal system and with variable substrates and crustal ages. By quantifying the extent and evolution of carbonate precipitation, we will evaluate the potential for natural CO2 sequestration in serpentinising peridotites. Drilling the N-S profile will allow us to evaluate how faulting and lithospheric heterogeneities influence hydrothermal alteration and the nature of the deep biosphere in varying lithologies; and to assess the role of the differing rheologies of gabbros and serpentinised ultramafic rocks in localising detachment faults.

Further information can be found here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

14 days

December 2015

Trials

This is an opportunity to trial equipment prior to JC132.

Iberian Abyssal Plain
Canary Basin

GBSOU – PTFNC

22 days

January 2015

Sea Acceptance Trials (SAT) for the ship fitted winch system

Following the winch repair period in Aalesund, Norway, the RRS Discovery will sail from Southampton on 7 January to commence around 48 days of deep water Sea Acceptance Trials (SAT) for the ship fitted winch system. This trials programme will be split into three legs DY047; DY048 and DY049 and all ship fitted winch wires, cables and ropes will be streamed behind the ship at least once during the trials, with all wires, cables and ropes streamed down to the drum.

25 days

March 2015

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

The aim of the NERC Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European Shelf Seas, and to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles.

Of the four main work packages this cruise is will mainly focus on Work Package 2 (Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer) and Work Package 3 (The Supply of Iron from Shelf Sediments to the Ocean), but with facets of the CANDYFLOSS Pelagic Work package. All Work packages contribute to the overall Intergrated modelling effort of Work Package 4.

This mainly benthic focused cruise, DY021, will include the use of benthic lander systems, Autosub 6000, benthic trawl equipment, Benthic flumes, CTD water column sampling, wire deployed sensors and various Coring systems..

This cruise is essentially a repeat of DY008 in 2014, which was the first of the UK Shelf Seas programme cruises.

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Alex Poulton
National Oceanography Centre

Celtic Sea

29 days

April 2015

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

This cruise forms part of the NERC shelf seas biogeochemistry cruise programme, contributing mainly to the pelagic workpackage, Candyfloss, lead by Professor Jonathan Sharples at the University of Liverpool.

It will make observations of biological processes such as phytoplankton production and zooplankton grazing in the shelf seas to discover how they decouple carbon and nitrogen from each other and also measure seasurface carbon dioxide fluxes to discover how they vary spatially, and with other cruises in the programme, seasonally.

Both these activities are part of a wider research effort to understand how the shelf sea carbon pump – the process by which carbon is transferred to the open ocean via the shelf seas, a key term in the global carbon cycle, functions.

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Gary Fones
University of Portsmouth

Celtic Sea

21 days

May 2015

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

The aim of the NERC Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European Shelf Seas, and to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles.

Of the four main work packages this cruise will mainly focus on Work Package 2 (Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer) and Work Package 3 (The Supply of Iron from Shelf Sediments to the Ocean), but with facets of the CANDYFLOSS Pelagic Work package. All Work packages contribute to the overall Integrated modelling effort of Work Package 4.

This mainly benthic focused cruise is the third of four benthic cruises following on from DY008 in Spring 2014 and DY021 in March 2015. DY030 will include the use of a number of benthic lander systems, Autosub 3, gliders, benthic trawl equipment, benthic flumes, CTD water column sampling, Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) camera and various coring systems.

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Penny Holliday
National Oceanography Centre

North-East Atlantic

21 days

May 2015

The Extended Ellett Line

The Extended Ellett Line is a hydrographic section between Iceland and Scotland that is occupied annually by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), UK.

The measurement programme began as a seasonally-occupied hydrographic section in the Rockall Trough in 1975, building on early surface observations made underway from ocean weather ships.

In 1996 the section was extended to Iceland, sampling three basins: the Rockall Trough, the Hatton-Rockall Basin and the Iceland Basin. These three basins form the main routes though which warm saline Atlantic water flows northwards into the Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean. The section crosses the eastern North Atlantic subpolar gyre; as well as the net northward flow there is a large recirculation of the upper layers as part of the wind-driven gyre.

During its passage through the region, the warm saline water is subjected to significant modification by exchange of heat and freshwater with the atmosphere. The two deep basins (Rockall Trough and Iceland Basin) contain southward flowing dense northern overflow waters, and Labrador Sea Water in the intermediate layers.

The specific objectives of the 2015 Extended Ellett Line cruise are:

• To complete the annual Extended Ellett Line CTD section;
• To collect water samples for measuring biogeochemical properties including dissolved oxygen, nutrients, carbon and trace metals;
• To collect underway measurements of surface currents, surface temperature and salinity, bathymetry, surface meteorology;
• To complete epibenthic sled tows at a deep location in the central Rockall Trough;
• To launch a seaglider (near Rockall);
• To recover a FASTNeT mooring.

Further information about the programme can be viewed here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Richard Lampitt
National Oceanography Centre

North-East Atlantic

18 days

June 2015

Sustained observations of properties and processes at the PAP Observatory

This cruise will service the multi instrumented PAP Sustained Observatory. We will replace, update and enhance the suite of instruments that record and telemeter key physical and biogeochemical properties of the water column all the year round.

In addition we will be collecting water samples at many depths at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, to benchmark all our instruments and ensure our data is always accurate. We will sample the mesopelagic and the seabed and in cooperation with our colleagues at the NOC and at other leading oceanographic institutions, we will continue to identify and measure fundamental processes that occur in open ocean waters.

This will enhance our understanding of and confidence in connecting the essential biogeochemical cycles of our oceans.

Further information about the programme can be viewed here and PAP observatory blog

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Mark Moore
National Oceanography Centre

Celtic Sea

23 days

July 2015

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

The aim of the NERC shelf seas biogeochemistry (SSB) research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European Shelf Seas, and to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles.

This cruise contributes to Work Packages 1 and 3 of the NERC SSB programme, namely the pelagic work package, Candyfloss and the Iron cycling workpackage.

We will make observations of biological processes such as phytoplankton production and zooplankton grazing in the shelf seas to discover how they decouple carbon and nitrogen from each other and also measure sea surface carbon dioxide fluxes to discover how they vary spatially, and in combination with the other cruises in the programme, seasonally. We will also make observations to constrain the cycling of the crucial micronutrient iron both on the shelf and across the shelf break and into the open ocean to the west of the Celtic Sea.

These activities are part of a wider research effort to understand how the shelf sea carbon pump – the process by which carbon is transferred to the open ocean via the shelf seas, a key term in the global carbon cycle, functions in combination with the cycling of major nutrients and iron through the shelf sea system.

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

Celtic Sea

27 days

August 2015

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

The aim of the NERC Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry research programme is to take a holistic approach to the cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the controls on primary and secondary production in UK and European Shelf Seas, and to increase understanding of these processes and their role in wider biogeochemical cycles.

Of the 4 main work packages this cruise is will mainly focus on Work package 2 (Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer) and Work package 3 (The Supply of Iron from Shelf Sediments to the Ocean), but with facets of the CANDYFLOSS Pelagic Work package. All Work packages contribute to the overall Integrated modelling effort of Work package 4.

This mainly benthic focused cruise, DY034, will include the use of benthic lander systems, Autosub6000, benthic trawl equipment, benthic flumes, CTD water column sampling, wire deployed sensors and various sediment coring systems.

This cruise is the last of a series four cruses which have used this suite of tools to examine how our shelf seas process carbon at the seafloor, and will be the last of nine UK Shelf Seas programme cruises on NERC vessels. Because it’s the last of the cruises we also expect to recover a substantial amount of automated marine observatory equipment that has been deployed continuously since the first Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry research programme cruise that began in March 2014.

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Santander

18 days

September 2015

Refit

During this drydock period, statutory annual/intermediate surveys will be undertaken alongside the following:

• the servicing of underwater equipment;
• fuel tank Modifications to give a further 34m³ capacity;
• main engine overhaul;
• retractable Azi survey/service;
• whit Gill Thruster survey/service;
• crane hydraulic cylinder replacement ×18;
• improvements to noise and light pollution in accommodation;
• replacement of SW Chlorination System;
• hull paint repairs;
• mods to science equipment as required.

NERC

London

5 days

October 2015

RRS Discovery in London

In October 2015 RRS Discovery will be berthed alongside HMS Belfast in London as the focal point for a series of events to mark the Fiftieth Anniversary of NERC. Centre and HEI staff from across the UK will showcase the achievements of NERC’s research and technology community. A busy programme is in preparation that will enable engagement with a broad range of NERC’s stakeholders, including industry and policy makers, and members of the general public, including students and school groups.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Darren Rayner
National Oceanography Centre

Subtropical North Atlantic

45 days

October 2015

RAPID-AMOC MOC-OBS System and ABC Fluxes Observations

Since April 2004, researchers have developed and maintained an observing system for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at 26.5°N under the Rapid Climate Change programme, the Rapid WATCH programme and now the Rapid AMOC programme.

These programmes investigate how the changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) will affect us globally.

The overall intention during this expedition is to service the RAPID-MOC 26°N moorings. The MOC is the most important dynamical quantity to determine ocean transports of heat, freshwater, carbon, and other properties, and is central to all considerations of rapid climate change and the role of the thermohaline circulation.

In addition to redeploying the normal array of instruments we shall be adding biogeochemical sensors as part of the ABC Fluxes project, which aims to calculate time series of inorganic carbon and nutrient fluxes in the Atlantic at 26.5°N.

We shall also be deploying a recently developed telemetry system for the transmission of subsea moored instrument data to shore at regular intervals throughout the 18-month deployment period, and servicing the NOG mooring near the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Further information can be viewed here

View the RAPID Challenge blog

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Brian King
National Oceanography Centre

North Atlantic

45 days

December 2015

RAGNARoCC

Cruise DY040 is part of a program of research studying the role of the North Atlantic Ocean in controlling greenhouse gas concentrations. Our project name is RAGNARoCC, and you can find out more by following this link

Oceanographers around the globe measure the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ocean, and compare it with the level that would have been there without human contribution from burning fossil fuels. The excess amount is what we call the ‘anthropogenic’ CO2. The North Atlantic has a higher concentration of anthropogenic CO2 than anywhere else in the world, and this expedition is part of a study to explain why that is the case. Importantly, we also want to understand the combined ocean-atmosphere system, so that we can predict future ocean uptake of CO2. The oceans have already absorbed 25% of the CO2 released by human activities. We want to know if that trend will continue. Without it, global warming would be much quicker than it already is, and could accelerate in the future.

Our expedition will travel from the eastern seaboard of the USA, to the African continent, along latitude 24°N. Every 30 miles we will stop and lower sampling equipment from the ocean surface to the seabed. We will measure temperature, concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide, and a raft of other chemical concentrations that will enable us to understand the physical-chemical-biological balance of the ocean. We will measure ocean currents, so we know how much of each chemical is crossing the line into or out of the North Atlantic. We will also know how much heat is being carried by the ocean currents. Ocean currents on this line carry warm water northwards at the surface, with colder water flowing southwards at depth. The exchange of warm water for cooler water acts like a domestic hot water central heating system, but the effective rating of the boiler that warms the North Atlantic is one thousand, million, million Watts. This helps give Northern Europe a more temperate climate than, say Alaska, since the Pacific has no equivalent circulation. We undertook similar measurements on RRS Discovery’s predecessor ship, also named RRS Discovery, in 2010 and 2004. We will look for differences, and find out what they can teach us about long-term changes in climate.

There is a wider context for our measurements. In June and July 2014, we had a similar expedition around the northern perimeter of the Atlantic, from Canada to Greenland to Iceland to Scotland. We will now look at what goes in and out across each line. Of the carbon that crosses our section at 24°N, how much leaves at about 60°N? We have colleagues working out how much enters and leaves through the ocean surface. And other colleagues will work how much is being stored in between our two lines. When we put all our results together we will have a better idea of the workings of a critical part of the earth’s climate system, which will lead to better confidence in predictions of future trends.

Follow the cruise blog here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Rafael Bartolome de la Pena
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas

30 days

February 2014

Characterisation of seismic and tsunami hazard associated with the structural contact of plate Rivera-Jalisco Block

The scientific experiment that will take place aboard the RRS James Cook, under a barter agreement between the NERC and the CSIC, between 17 February and 19 March 2014 is located between the Rivera Plate and the Jalisco Block, West Pacific coast of Mexico at the following coordinates 18° 00'N–22° 30'N, 103° 30'W–107° 30'W.

The cruise aims to conduct a detailed marine geophysical study using seismic refraction and reflection methods, along with multibeam mapping and gravity records.

The project aims to determine the lithospheric structure from the seabed into the upper mantle, and identify the sources which can trigger earthquakes and tsunamis on the West coast of Mexico.

The project also seeks to evaluate the potential energy resources of the methane that may exist in the BSR reflectors detected along the continental shelf and slope, using the MCS data recorded during the Spanish CORTES project (1996).

12 days

March 2014

Passage

The ship will passage from Manzanillo, Mexico via the Panama Canal to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to start the next scientific expedition. The ship will pass through the canal on Thursday 27 March.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Christine Peirce
Durham University

12 days

April 2014

Role and Extent of Detachment Faulting at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge

The primary objective of this cruise is to install 25 ocean-bottom seismographs (OBS) at the 13° 20´N oceanic core complex on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, to record local passive micro seismicity. These instruments will be recovered during the JC109 cruise, six months after deployment.

It is also hoped that gravity and swath bathymetry data will also be acquired port to port.

The objectives of this Mid Atlantic Ridge cruise are to acquire the necessary geophysical data to test the very different, often contrasting, hypotheses for the spatial and temporal evolution of oceanic core complexes (OCCs). These were believed to be the unroofed plutonic and partially serpentinised mantle footwalls of large-offset normal "detachment" faults, structures apparently responsible for accommodating a significant proportion of the plate separation.

Data will be collected by carrying out the first, combined wide-angle and reflection seismic and micro-seismicity study of, and between, actively forming OCCs, and couple this with high-resolution, near-seabed magnetic and micro-bathymetry imaging to determine spreading history.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. David Smeed
National Oceanography Centre

42 days

April 2014

RAPID-WATCH MOC-OBS system

Since April 2004, researchers have developed and maintained an observing system for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) at 26.5°N under the Rapid Climate Change programme and now the RAPID-WATCH programme.

These programmes investigate how the changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) will affect us globally.

The overall intention during this expedition is to service the RAPID-MOC 26°N mooring. The MOC is the most important dynamical quantity to determine ocean transports of heat, freshwater, carbon, and other properties, and is central to all considerations of rapid climate change and the role of the thermohaline circulation.

There are cruise blogs for RAPID here and the fieldwork here

7 days

June 2014

Passage

The vessel will passage from Tenerife to Southampton before commencing the next science cruise.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Joanne Hopkins
National Oceanography Centre

15 days

June 2014

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

JC105 was funded as part of the NERC Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry (SSB) programme. This programme aims to reduce uncertainly in our process understanding of the cycling of nutrients and carbon, and the controls on primary and secondary production in both the UK and European shelf seas, and in wider global biogeochemical cycles.

A series of long-term moorings and gliders were deployed in the Celtic Sea in early 2014 (DY008) and will remain in the water until late summer 2015. They will provide an unprecedented recorded of both physical and biogeochemical measurements across a full seasonal cycle providing the research community with (a) a long term record of the parameters controlling biogeochemical cycling rates and pathways, (b) a background against which to set process studies carried out on subsequent cruises and (b) essential data for model validation and development.

The main objective of JC105 was to service these gliders and moorings. Specifically:

1. to service eight moorings/landers distributed across five different sites in the Celtic Sea
2. to recover four gliders (two from the SSB programme and two from NERC's Sensors on Gliders (SoG) programme)
3. to calibrate both the moorings and gliders

Further information can be viewed:

on the programmes website here

on Facebook here

on Twitter here

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Colm O Cofaigh
Durham University

40 days

July 2014

BRITICE-CHRONO - rates and style of ice sheet retreat: collapse, punctuated or steady

Cruise JC106 is part of the research programme “BRITICE-CHRONO: constraining rates and style of marine-influenced ice sheet decay”and is the first of two cruises on the RRS James Cook which make up the marine component of this programme.

The first of these cruises will be to the Celtic and Irish seas, the northern approaches to the Barra Fan, and the NW and western Irish shelf. The second cruise will take place in 2015 to the North Sea and northern Britain.

During the cruises geophysical data in the form of multibeam echo sounder and sub-bottom profiler data will be collected and will be used to identify targets for coring. Coring will utilise a British Geological Survey 6m long vibrocorer system and NOC 10m piston corer.

View the cruise blog here

3 days

August 2014

Passage

The ship will passage from Southampton to Santander. The vessel is due to dock in Santander on 31 August and will commence a period of 20 days in refit.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

30 days

August 2014

Refit

This period has been scheduled to renew the Kongsberg Sonar Array, in addition to focusing on the Starboard frame for the metal free CTD, scientific winch upgrade level winds, overhaul of main engines and the renewal of underwater paint coatings.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Aitken Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

15 days

September 2014

Post Refit Trials

The vessel is due to sail on 21 September following twenty days in refit. These trials will provide an opportunity for a post refit shakedown; commission ship fitted instrumentation and computing systems; stream the DW core and trawl to check new scrolling gear; Commission the Lebus MF CTD rope on new sheave arrangements and test PLASMA out-hauler arrangement using 2Te steel weight.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Christine Peirce
Durham University

GBSOU – TTPOS

25 days

October 2014

Role and Extent of Detachment Faulting at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridge

The primary purpose of this cruise is to recover an array of 25 ocean-bottom seismographs (OBS) which were deployed in April 2014 on JC102. These instruments will then be serviced and prepared for another upcoming cruise on board RRS James Cook in December 2014 (JC112).

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Jason Scott
National Oceanography Centre

9 days

November 2014

Seismic Trials

This cruise will trial the seismic systems required for JC114 and train staff in the operational deployment and maintenance of NMF seismic systems.

There is also a requirement to test and commission the hired EEL equipment with an EEL representative in attendance.

The intention is also to:

• carry out multiple deployments of the Bolt airgun beam(s) and Sercel GI gun array for training purposes;
• carry out deployments of the EEL multichannel seismic streamer at the two different lengths required for JC114 for test purposes and testing of that and the associated recording equipment.

5 days

November 2014

Passage

The ship will transit to Balboa through the Panama Canal.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

17 days

January 2014

Ship Fitted Winch Trials

The primary objective of the DY006 trials cruise was to continue the ship fitted winch trials which took place during the DY004 trials.

It was also planned to use the trials passage to deep water to deploy a number of scientific moorings in advance of the DY008 cruise, to attempt to recover the ‘broken away’ PAP mooring buoy which was adrift and to commission and trial a range of NMEP equipment.

Unfortunately, poor weather prevented the deployment or recovery of any of the mooring equipment and the PAP buoy had to be recovered by a charter vessel.

The scientific mooring deployments are now planned to be carried out during further winch trials planned following the refit in Virgo early February.

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitkin Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

33 days

February 2014

Refit

RRS Discovery will dry dock in Vigo on 3 February to undertake modifications to the ‘head boxes’ for the vessels main Azimuth thrusters. These modifications will eliminate the cavitation issues noted during the vessels manufacturers sea trials and increase the vessels fuel efficiency, subsequent trials on completion of the refit will measure the effectiveness of these improvements.

The build yard will also be undertaking the rectification of defects and deficiencies as part of the guarantee/warranty arrangements in the build contract.

In addition the final preparations will be undertaken for the vessels first planned science cruise in March.

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitkin Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

GBHUL – GBSOU

18 days

September 2014

Post Refit Trials

These trials will provide an opportunity for a post refit shakedown and an opportunity to commission all ship fitted instrumentation and computing systems.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

9 days

March 2014

Winch Trials

The objective of the DY007 trials cruise is to continue the ship fitted winch trails process following the initial DY004 and DY006 trials.

DY007 will focus on the winches necessary to support the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry cruise programme.

The winches not trialled on DY007 will be trialled on a further commissioning cruise in June 2014.

The prioritised winches are CTD 1 and 2, MF CTD, and the GP winch.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

10 days

March 2014

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

This is the first of five expeditions funded under the Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry research programme on board RRS Discovery.

The programme aims to reduce the uncertainty in our understanding of nutrient and carbon cycling within the shelf seas, and of their overall role in global biogeochemical cycles.

This expedition is part of Work Package 2 (Biogeochemistry, macronutrient and carbon cycling in the benthic layer (BMCC)) and Work Package 3 (The Supply of Iron from Shelf Sediments to the Ocean).

This activity will include the deployment of lander systems, a benthic flume, Autosub6000, trawl systems, CTD rosettes, wire deployed sensors, and coring devices. and here

Further information can be viewed about the SSB programme and programme news

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr Richard Stoop
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

May 2014

Winch Remedial Work

The overall objective of DY020 is to operate, commission and prove the ship's scientific winch and over side handling systems for delivery of science support. The key activities are to operate and test all the winches (except the MFCTD), as well as all the wires, cables and ropes over all the stern handling systems to evaluate the overall capability using steel weights only at this point.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Richard Sanders
National Oceanography Centre

21 days

August 2014

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

The objective of this expedition is to undertake a tidal resuspension study using the marine snowcatchers, deploy and recover CTDs and undergo various sediment coring exercises. This cruise will also provide a training opportunity for a number of students.

Further information can be viewed about the SSB programme and programme news

2 days

September 2014

Passage

The vessel will passage from Southampton to Hull to commence a 14 day refit period.

Marine Engineering Lead
Mr Aitkin Hunter
National Oceanography Centre

14 days

September 2014

Refit

Discovery is undertaking annual renewals of all statutory certification during the repair period in Hull.

Work also being undertaken includes the following:

• repairs to soft shell plate damage on the stbd side which has caused the bulkhead to trip between cabin 268 and the winch room;
• fuel monitoring equipment is being fitted to all four main generators that will provide an accurate account of fuel used over any given period;
• fuel bunker meters are also being fitted to accurately measure fuel delivered to the vessel;
• additional air cooling unit is also being fitted in the main switchboard to assist in cooling the static frequency converters;
• both aft knuckle cranes and the gangway crane are having the hydraulic cylinders changed to those of a higher specification to prevent corrosion, current cylinder rams are pitted;
• the deck head in the thruster room and hydraulic pump space is being insulated, to reduce heat soak from the main working deck;
• additional cabling is being pulled in to enable better CCTV cameras and additional monitors for observing the scientific winch system, to be fitted at a later date when they become available from our suppliers;
• Classification Society hull and machinery items are being surveyed as part of the vessels ongoing maintenance program;
• RR-Odim and Wartsila are attending to investigate guarantee defect items, registered before the end of the vessels guarantee period.

Trials are being conducted en-route to the repair yard for the implementation of a power limiting operating mode.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Stuart Painter
National Oceanography Centre

18 days

October 2014

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry: Outer Hebrides Process Study

This cruise sampled the Hebridean and Malin shelf areas west of the UK, and parts of the Rockall Trough. The objectives are to map the large scale gradients in nutrients, dissolved iron and dissolved inorganic carbon within the context of studying shelf edge exchange processes with the open ocean.

Data from this cruise will contribute towards the NERC Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry programme.

Further information can be viewed about the SSB programme and programme news

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Jonathan Sharples
National Oceanography Centre

29 days

November 2014

Shelf Sea Biogeochemistry

This cruise is the fourth of a series of dedicated research cruises focused on understanding the seasonal cycle of biological and chemical processing of the different forms of the nutrients and carbon.

We will measure the rates at which both the photosynthetic and consumer plankton incorporate nutrients and carbon into their cellular material, and subsequently how the combined activity of this biological/chemical system influences the cycling of the major elements. This will allow us to understand the ways in which the role of the shelf system in global cycles is maintained.

See the cruise blog

Further information can be viewed about the SSB programme and programme news

North Sea

GBSOU – NOAES

3 days

December 2014

Passage

The vessel will dock in Southampton (United Kingdom) to undertake a short demobilisation port call prior to commencement of a passage leg to Alesund (Norway). Upon arrival, all scientific equipment will be lifted off the ship and before departure bunkers will be taken.

Norway

NOAES – NOAES

11 days

December 2014

Repair

Following DY043, the vessel will spend a period of around eleven days undergoing repairs to replace the traction drums for the GP, trawl and CTD winches. The manufacture and installation of these replacements will occur in Alesund, Norway.

North Sea

NOAES – GBSOU

20 days

December 2014

Passage and Alongside

Following successful completion of the work plan, the Discovery will commence a passage from Alesund, (Norway) to Southampton, (United Kingdom) and spend the festive holiday period alongside before commencing the first in a series of three sea acceptance trials that are required to prove the repairs. This package of trials is scheduled to end in time for mobbing of the next science cruise in the programme (DY021).

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Jonathan Copley
National Oceanography Centre

19 days

February 2013

Hydrothermal activity and deep-ocean biology of the Mid-Cayman Rise

Exploration of ecosystems to discover novel biodiversity, increase knowledge of how ocean circulation influences ecosystems and determine how the properties of the Earth's interior influence its surface environment.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Peter Talling
National Oceanography Centre

11 days

February 2013

Building and testing a new tool for precisely located coring and coring of sandy substrate in water depths of up to 6,000m

The project will make a vibrocorer that is attached to the ISIS ROV. The cruise will aim to operationally test the vibrocorer on ISIS in a range of water depths.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Richard Lampitt
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

15 days

April 2013

EuroBASIN and OSMOSIS

EuroBASIN
Investigating the rate that sinking organic matter is absorbed and how this relates to plankton community structure and the process that control it.

OSMOSIS
The recovery and re-deployment of gliders, calibratation of both the gliders being recovered and those being deployed.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Colin Griffiths
Scottish Association for Marine Science

20 days

May 2013

Extended Ellett Line

To create a time series of the evolution water flow of the Northeast Atlantic. It involves taking full depth hydrographic measurements between Scotland, Rockall and Iceland. It is designed to capture the warm saline inflow into the subpolar gyre and the Nordic Seas, and the path of the deep returning flow in the lower branch of the meridional overturning circulation.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Richard Lampitt
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

18 days

May 2013

EuroBASIN

Following on from JC085 this combined EuroBASIN and OSMOSIS cruise will be studying marine snow and how it links to the climate, and the processes of mixing in the upper Ocean using gliders.

Find out more at the expedition blog - Down to the twilight zone page

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Mark Inall
Scottish Marine Institute

26 days

June 2013

FASTNEt - Fluxes Across Sloping Topography of the North East Atlantic - Ocean Shelf Exchange

Furthering the Fluxes Across Sloping Topography of the North East Atlantic project. This physical oceaongraphy cruise will be using gliders, moorings and drifters to study the exchange of nutrients and carbon between oceanic and shelf waters.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. David Hodell
University of Cambridge

25 days

August 2013

Survey of the "Shackleton sites" on the Southwest Iberian Margin

A survey using high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and swath bathymetry to map the terrain. Collect water samples to characterise the physical and chemical properties of the water. Acquire sediment cores to study sediment processes. Analyse piston, gravity and multicores for pore water chemistry at various intervals of the core. Study the distribution and shell geochemistry of living benthic foraminiferal species within the core.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Alberto Naveira Garabato
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

17 days

August 2013

Ocean Surface Mixing, Ocean Sub-mesoscale Interaction Study

This cruise will be supporting the OSMOSIS project, which aims to understand the physical processes that control the depth and other aspects ocean surface boundary layer and upper thermocline. It also seeks to develop and define the parameters of some of those processes so they can be included in accurate climate-scale ocean models.

JC090 objective is to recover the OSMOSIS Mooring Array in its entirety, nine subsurface full instrumentation moorings and four surface expression guard moorings.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Laura Robinson
Bristol University

48 days

October 2013

Ocean Chemistry: Past and Present

Mapping deep water coral habitats and reconstruction of their population history through dating work. Geochemical proxy calibrations pairing seawater with modern corals and core top sediments. Reconstruction of the history of Antarctic intermediate and bottom waters, and of North Atlantic deep water either side of the mid Atlantic Ridge.

View the Ted talk (Technology, Entertainment and Design)

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Mark Trimmer
University of London

Eastern Tropical
North Pacific

44 days

December 2013

Nitrous oxide and nitrogen gas production in oxygen minimum zones: a process and community based study

In this project we aim to link Nitrogen cycling to bacterial gene diversity. Firstly by characterisation of the water column (for example, Nitrous oxide profiles) and then experimental manipulations to test if the ratio of nitrogen to nitrous oxide production is fixed or flexible.

Delivery of the RRS Discovery to NERC

RRS Discovery was delivered to NERC on the 8 July 2013 by builders CNP Freire, SA from Vigo.

The RRS Discovery comes with sub-bottom profiling and multi-beam equipment for mapping the seabed, while her dynamic positioning capability means Remotely Operated Vehicles such as Isis can be used. Her wide range of cranes and overside gantries, with associated winches and wires, will allow many different types of equipment to be deployed from the ship. These facilities and the many more listed below help support the UK marine science community as it undertakes research of national and global importance.

Further information can be viewed about RRS Discovery

22 days

July 2013

Marine Familiarisation and Training Trials

This is the first marine familiarisation and training trials cruise in preparation for winch trials.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr. Colin Day
National Oceanography Centre

11 days

September 2013

Deep Water Sea Acceptance Trials for the Ship Fitted Winch Systems

Representatives from Freire ship yard, ODIM, RRS Discovery project team and NMFSS marine engineering/technical teams conducted the first part of the deep water sea acceptance trials for the ship fitted winch systems.

All ship fitted winch wires, cables and ropes were streamed down to the drum behind the ship; deloyed vertically with various steel weights to defined deployment plans, with specific winches being further trialled with instruments or sea bed sampling devices.

2 days

October 2013

Naming Ceremony

The ship was named by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton on Thursday 10 October.

Around 200 guests, including the Science Minister David Willetts, local MPs, civic guests and senior figures from the UK’s marine science community were present to see a bottle of champagne smashed in the traditional manner on the vessel’s bow. The Honorary Assistant Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend John Dennis, blessed Discovery.

For further information can be viewed about this event

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Mr. Gareth Knight
National Oceanography Centre

17 days

October 2013

Hydrographic Familiarisation and shakedown Trials Cruise

This was a successful trials cruise combining training with the sea acceptance testing of Kongsberg hydrograpic equipment and familiarisation with the vessel.

A calibration of Sonardyne USBL system was also undertaken with deployment and recovery of a tracking beacon.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Alberto Naveira Garabato
National Oceanography Centre

51 days

January 2012

UKD-3: DIMES

This expedition forms the third leg of the UK DIMES project. The project aims to complete a CTD survey, recover six moorings at the blue star in Drake Passage and recover five sound sources en route.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

13 days

April 2012

Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory

This cruise will conduct maintenance on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain - Sustained Observatory. Use will be made of the PAP3 sediment trap mooring and the bathysnap camera system. A replacement ODAS buoy will be brought to the site and the existing buoy will be returned to shore.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. John Roberts
Heriot-Watt University

29 days

May 2012

Impacts of ocean acidification on key benthic ecosystems, communities, habitats, species and life cycles

This expedition will look at the impacts of ocean acidification on key benthic ecosystems, communities, habitats, species and life cycles. An ROV will be used to survey, sample and experiment within cold-water coral habitats at two contrasting areas where it is predicted there will be differences in aragonite saturation state within the coming century. This cruise is linked to the European EPOCA (ocean acidification) and HERMIONE (deep-sea ecology and anthropogenic impact) projects.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Ian Wright
National Oceanography Centre

24 days

September 2012

Environmental monitoring studies of the Sleipner Carbon Capture Storage Site

This cruise will investigate the carbon capture storage at the Sleipner Site in the North Sea. The project is to assess the marine environmental risks associated with sub-bed CO2 storage. Little is known about the short-term and long-term impacts of CO2 storage on marine ecosystems even though CO2 has been stored in the North Sea (Sleipner) for over 13 years with injection of over 12 million tonnes of CO2 some 800-1000m beneath the seafloor. The team will be examining the Sleipner Site to establish the effects of possible leakage, and develop novel monitoring techniques will be applied to detect and quantify the fluxes of formation fluids, natural gas, and CO2 from storage sites.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Andy Rees
Plymouth Marine Laboratory

45 days

October 2012

Atlantic Meridional Transect

This sustained observing system aims to provide basin-scale understanding of the distribution of planktonic communities. Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important sink of organic carbon in pelagic ecosystems but remains poorly studied in oceanic environments. AMT enables the measurement of plankton community structure, over large spatial scales and seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales, to better define natural variability and long term trends.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Emeritus Professor Paul Tyler
National Oceanography Centre

East Scotia Ridge
South Sandwich Islands

34 days

December 2012

Chemosynthetic Ecosystems South of the Polar Front: Ecology and Biogeography

A varied combination of observations, sampling and analyses at each site encountered, with a common priority to complete a thorough mapping and photographic (video and stills photography, and mosaicking) documentation of each site.

Find out more by following this link

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Jonathan Copley
University of Southampton

Cayman Trough
Caribbean

3 days

March 2012

Recovery of moorings deployed on the Mid-Cayman Rise by JC044

This expedition will be recovering deep-water moorings that were deployed on the Mid-Cayman Rise during a previous cruise on the RRS James Cook in April 2010. The moorings will be inspected and have their batteries replaced so they will continue to record data.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Colin Griffiths
Scottish Association for Marine Science

23 days

June 2012

FASTNET - Ocean Shelf Exchange

This expedition forms part of the Ocean Shelf Exchange – FASTNET programme, which aims to construct a new view on ocean and continental shelf exchange. Using new observations and model techniques, the teams will look at the key seasonal, interannual and regional variation information missing from current knowledge.

Standard oceanographic moorings will be paired with 60 satellite tracked drifters and a fleet of eight Gliders patrolling the shelf break from west of the Isles of Scilly to north Scotland.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

14 days

July 2012

Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss (AESA): Understanding Mesoscale Spatial Heterogeneity in the Deep Sea

Using Autosub and Benthic trawling, the team aims to look at a possible link between the sea floor features and the related disbursement of marine life at depths of up to 100km. The information gained form this study will provide information as to how surface climate change activity impacts life in the deep oceans.

Find out more here within this blog

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Dr. Henry Ruhl
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

7 days

July 2012

Autonomous Ecological Surveying of the Abyss

This expedition will look at the same objectives as above but over a larger scale.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Alberto Naveira Garabato
National Oceanography Centre

Porcupine Abyssal Plain
North Atlantic

32 days

September 2012

Ocean Surface Mixing, Ocean Sub-mesoscale Interaction Study

This expedition will be supporting the OSMOSIS project, which aims to understand the physical processes that control the depth and other aspects ocean surface boundary layer and upper thermocline. It also seeks to develop and define the parameters of some of those processes so they can be included in accurate climate-scale ocean models.

Principal Investigator & Chief Scientist
Prof. Stuart Cunningham
National Oceanography Centre

35 days

October 2012

Monitoring the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5°N

This expedition forms part of the ongoing RAPID-WATCH programme. This visit will monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which is a major part of Earth's climate system. It has specific effects on the United Kingdom (UK), and is responsible for increasing UK air temperatures to 5-10°C warmer than would be expected for the UK’s position on the globe. Information from these moorings is fed into climate change research and potentially influences national and international government policy.