Scientists aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown set off on their fourth expedition to investigate the deep-water coral communities of the Gulf of Mexico. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lopehlia/welcome.html http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/include/images/ocean_explorer_podcast_100.jpg http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/welcome.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Our final dive of this expedition was an exploratory dive to an area 7 miles to the SW of the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and to the same depth as that site. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/nov3/nov3.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Catching a scientist for an interview simply means you must search out one of the labs. But looking for Safety Officer Bryan Begun required a different tact. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/nov2/nov2.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Growing up near the Pacific Ocean in Oxnard, California, Walter Cho always loved the ocean so going into biology in college was not a big leap. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct31/oct31.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Although it will take a while to quantify the numbers of animals we saw on the GulfOil, many of the ‘usual suspects’ were observed at the wreck. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct30/oct30.html ____________________________________________________________________________ A shipwreck is a bit different but still works in concert with the biology and geology. The priorities in terms of documentation are laid out with leeway to adapt and change. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct29/oct29.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Tina Enderlein wears many hats at the lab. She uses her GIS expertise to help with the photo mosaics and to organize data. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct27/oct27.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Studies suggest black corals grow slowly, and reach sexual maturity at very old age. In fact, black coral colonies are the oldest living animals on Earth; recent studies have dated black coral colonies that are thousands of years old, with the oldest being over 4000 year old! http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct26/oct26.html ____________________________________________________________________________ While decidedly less scenic than the corals, the sediment around these reefs is also important. At sites around the Gulf, Amanda Demopoulos, from the U.S. Geological Survey, has been using Jason to take sediment cores that she analyzes to learn about the worms and other critters that live in the seafloor. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct25/oct25.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Greenhorn. Rookie. Novice. When it’s your first time out at sea, these are all phrases that you hear pretty often. The first time someone called me a greenhorn, I was annoyed. After all, it said ‘Scientist’ on my door, right? http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct24/oct24.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Jason gives us amazing access to the deep-sea. This is my third expedition with Jason and the technology keeps getting better. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct23/oct23.html ____________________________________________________________________________ One focus in this project is to document what octocoral species live in the Gulf and how they are related to each other. We are also interested in what processes (environmental, dispersal, historical) influence where octocorals live. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct21/oct21.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Using biochemical methods to determine the activity of certain enzymes in the coral tissue, we can learn how well certain coral species can adapt to water containing various oxygen levels, or periods of no oxygen at all. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct20/oct20.html ____________________________________________________________________________ This past weekend, the cruise visited a brand new, unexplored area called Green Canyon 246, chosen because of its wonderfully varied seafloor bathymetry, as well as its multiple bright and dim seismic amplitude anomalies. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct19/oct19.html ____________________________________________________________________________ One objective of this cruise is to learn why we find deepwater corals where we do. An important factor is that these corals require hard bottom to settle and grow. Such hard substrate is rare on the muddy seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico, except in the occasional area with exposed carbonate rock. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct18/oct18.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Biological and chemical oceanographers need to observe a specific place over time to understand the natural patterns of how material, both biological and inorganic, moves around and reaches the deep ocean. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/oct17/oct17.html ____________________________________________________________________________ This study is centered around developing a predictive model for coral distribution in the Gulf. We are also focused on detecting any potential impact on these communities from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster that unfolded over the last few months. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/plan/plan.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Modules (EEM) are designed to reach out in new ways to teachers, students, and the general public, and share the excitement of daily at-sea discoveries and the science behind NOAA’s major ocean exploration initiatives with people around the world. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/edu/edu.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The October investigations of the Gulfoil will focus on two archaeological objectives. The first is the detailed documentation of the wreck and a closely associated debris field. The second is to test the accuracy of a deepwater shipwreck predictive model developed using data from the 2004 Gulf of Mexico DeepWrecks Study. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/archaeology/archaeology.html ____________________________________________________________________________ One of the key species we are studying in this project is Lophelia pertusa. L. pertusa is a stony coral that occurs throughout the world’s oceans mostly at depths from 200 – 1000 meters, yet in the Gulf of Mexico L. pertusa has been observed to a maximum depth of 650 meters. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/biology/biology.html ____________________________________________________________________________ We not only know of 12 sites with deep sea corals that we did not know about before, we have 18 very well-navigated and marked study sites where there are high-resolution mosaics and photographs of numerous coral colonies that we can re-locate and check up on this year and then continue to monitor for years to come. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/monitoring/monitoring.html ____________________________________________________________________________ View photos and and short bios of the explorers participating on the <i> Lophelia II 2010 </i> exploration. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/explorers/explorers.html ____________________________________________________________________________ For more information about the exploration check out the Information page! http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/background/info/info.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Visit an archive of videos, podcasts, and photos taken during this exploration. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/10lophelia/logs/photolog/photolog.html ____________________________________________________________________________