On August 28, scientists onboard the Russian research vessel Professor Khromov left Nome, Alaska, to commence the second leg of the 2012 Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) cruise. This is the ninth year that RUSALCA scientists will be conducting long-term research to better understand the causes and consequences of environmental change in the fragile Arctic environment. Scientists will return to Nome on September 17.   http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/welcome.html http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/welcome.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The 2012 Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) cruise has come to a close. The scientists have safely made their ways home. And Bodil Bluhm and Katrin Iken from the University of Alaska Fairbanks share a few additional photos collected over the course of the second leg of the 2012 RUSALCA mission. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept17/sept17.html ____________________________________________________________________________ We are on our last full day at sea, all the stations have been sampled and samples sorted and we are ending our voyage with the long transect home along the Russian coast and through Bering Strait. We are due to arrive in Nome tomorrow at noon (ADT). Despite a (very) bumpy start, overall the cruise has been very successful. Here are a few last photos from the cruise. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept15/sept15.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The main goal of this Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) cruise was to document marine mammals along the Chukotka coast of Russia. Unlike the U.S. Chukchi that is surveyed by plane and boat annually, there are no systematic surveys of the Russian coast. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept14/sept14.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The objectives of our benthic program are to evaluate macroinfaunal abundance and biomass of animals living within the sediments and their relationship to environmental variables within the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) study area. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept13/sept13.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Maria (Masha) Pisareva is a graduate student at the PP Shirshov's Institute of Oceanology and is helping with the CTD casts and data collection. Here, she shares some reflections on the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) cruise thus far. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept11/sept11.html ____________________________________________________________________________ During the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic 2012 cruise, our four-person team (Ershova, Hopcroft, Kosobokova, Rutzen) is studying the distribution of the small animals that drift within the water called zooplankton. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept9/sept9.html ____________________________________________________________________________ This is the first time I’m in Pacific waters. Normally I work with fishes in Atlantic waters near Svalbard or Greenland, but several species I see here are very similar, or the same species, as we have back home. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept7/sept7.html ____________________________________________________________________________ After days of high waves, wind, and fog, we awoke this morning in the lee of Wrangel Island. For the first time in what feels like a very long time (but is only four or so days), the sun was shining and we could see Wrangel 12 miles away. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept6/sept6.html ____________________________________________________________________________ We are at a science standstill right now, hostage to two low-pressure systems, one currently in the southwest Bering Sea and the other over Norton Sound. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept3/sept3.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Anyone from kitchen staff to cleaning personnel, winch operator to our fellow scientists, including even the geologists and ‘clean water’ colleagues come to take curious peaks when we empty out the trawl net and spread out the treasures from the seafloor in sorting dishes on deck. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept2/sept2.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Just prior to the current leg of the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) expedition, a small team of intrepid explorers headed over to the Russian side of Bering Strait to try to recover three oceanographic moorings that had been there for two years. Aleksey Ostrovskiy was on the cruise and describes the experience. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/sept1/sept1.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Adding to the challenge of navigating in a sometimes-confused sea with spray that occasionally hits the bridge windows is the presence of big chunks of sea ice that blend in with the whitecaps of breaking waves. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/aug30/aug30.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Through pictures and video, U.S. mission coordinator for the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic project, Kathy Crane, shows us how the second leg of the 2012 cruise got underway. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/aug29/aug29.html ____________________________________________________________________________ View photos and videos taken during the Russian-U.S. Arctic Census 2012 Expedition, including high-resolution photos and slideshows. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/logs/photolog/photolog.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 the people around the world. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/background/edu/edu.html ____________________________________________________________________________ Marine biodiversity refers to the variety of living organisms in the ocean, from bacteria and fungi to invertebrates and fishes, all the way to marine mammals and birds. These biota are intricately connected with the environmental conditions they occur at and also with each other through the flow of energy (food) through the ecosystem. Any changes in the environment or this energy flow will lead to changes in the biodiversity. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/background/biodiversity/biodiversity.html ____________________________________________________________________________ The Bering Strait is the only gateway from the Pacific to the Arctic. As such, it is an important migratory corridor for marine mammals that spend the winter in the Bering Sea but much of the rest of the year in the Arctic. These species include Arctic-adapted animals such as bowhead and beluga whales, ice seals, polar bears, and walrus. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/background/mammals/mammals.html ____________________________________________________________________________ My team focuses on the identification and distribution of fishes that live on or near the bottom, the so-called benthic and demersal fishes. We use a bottom trawl net called an “otter trawl” to collect samples. Our mission on the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) project has been to generate and disseminate essential information on the poorly studied fish fauna of the Pacific-Arctic region to a wide community of users, including the fish teams in the program focusing on other aspects such as life histories and ecology. We enable current and future monitoring of biodiversity and detection of change by providing basic knowledge on identification of species and accurate assessments of species distributions. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/background/fish/fish.html ____________________________________________________________________________ View photos and short bios of the explorers participating in the Russian-U.S. Arctic Census 2012 Expedition. http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/12arctic/background/explorers/explorers.html ____________________________________________________________________________