Deep-sea corals and sponges are the focus of an intense research
program now exploring the seabed along the West Coast. Live video
from the bottom of the ocean can be viewed via the research ship
Reuben Lasker, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
I’ve posted the two primary video feeds on this page, or you can
link to the
video pages associated with the 29-day expedition, which began
a week ago and will continue until Nov. 7. Previous video
recordings are often shown when live video is not
available.
The research cruise is exploring the seabed off the Washington,
Oregon and California coasts, as shown in the map below.
Researchers are using Yogi, a tethered remotely operated vehicle
(ROV), as well as SeaBED, an untethered autonomous underwater
vehicle (AUV), to collect samples of corals and sponges and observe
changes in previously surveyed sites.
“Recent advances in deep-ocean exploration have revealed
spectacular coral gardens in the dark ocean depths, far from
the sunny, shallow reefs most of us associate with corals,” states
a
description of the mission. “Similar explorations have revealed
new and familiar species thriving where we once expected little
activity.”
Proceeding from north to south,
the sites to be surveyed (green dots) are Willapa Canyon head,
North Daisy Bank, Sponge bycatch Oregon shell, Brush Patch,
Humboldt and Mad River, and Mendocino Ridge before a layover Oct.
19-22, followed by Cordell Bank/Farallones, Cabrillo Canyon, West
of Carmel Canyon, Monterey Bay, wind site, Santa Lucia Bank,
Channel Islands and Catalina Basin.
One goal is to characterize habitats at 12 specific sites along
the West Coast. That information could help the Pacific Fishery
Management Council modify fishing regulations while protecting
essential fish habitat. Survey data may also suggest feasible
locations — and locations to avoid — when developing offshore wind
power and other energy projects.
The expedition is a collaboration of NOAA, the Global Foundation
for Ocean Exploration, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The expedition consists
of two legs: from the Washington Coast to San Francisco, where a
public event will be held at the Exploratorium Museum, followed by
the second leg from San Francisco to San Diego.
“With every survey I’ve been a part of there’s a frantic flurry
of last-minute logistics getting the expedition together and
loading the ship,” Elizabeth Clarke, co-leader of the voyage, said
in a
news release. “Once we start the expedition, however, things
settle down and we start each day excited, wondering what new
discoveries we will find.”
As of today (Monday, Oct. 14), poor weather conditions had
delayed activities on the bottom since last night. “We are looking
to get back in the water tomorrow (10/14) evening, weather
permitting,” states last night’s Twitter feed, @Discover_GFOE, which is
the best way of keeping track of the voyage. You can also use
Twitter #expresscruise.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Alvin, a deep-sea vehicle
that has made some incredible scientific discoveries over the past
half-century.
The latest issue of Oceanus magazine is a special edition that
takes us through the history of Alvin, including its part in
locating a lost hydrogen bomb, investigating the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill and documenting the remains of the Titanic.
What really drew my attention to this issue is a photo feature
called “Alvin’s
Animals.” It was posted as a slide show in the online version
of Oceanus. It registered high on my amusing meter, and I encourage
you to click through the buttons that take you from one odd-looking
creature to the next.
One of Alvin’s most significant discoveries came in 1977, when
the submersible traveled to the Galapagos Rift, a deep-water area
where volcanic activity had been detected. Scientists had
speculated that steaming underwater vents were releasing chemicals
into the ocean water. They got to see that, but what they
discovered was much more: a collection of unique clams, worms and
mussels thriving without sunlight.
These were lifeforms in which bacteria played a central role at
the base of a food web that derives its energy from chemicals and
not photosynthesis.
Since then, other deep-sea communities have been discovered and
documented throughout the world, with hundreds of new species
examined and named.
The Oceanus article also describes in some detail the
just-completed renovation that has given Alvin new capabilities.
The people responsible for various aspects of the make-over are
interviewed in this special edition.
The first video on this page is by Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution celebrating Alvin’s 50th birthday. The second is a
walk-around the newly renovated craft by Jim Motavalli, who usually
writes about ecologically friendly automobiles.
I’ve been captivated by live videos on the Internet this year,
and I hope you won’t mind another live feed, this one from the sea
floor of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Massachusetts.
The video comes to us live from a remotely controlled submarine
traveling up to 10,000 feet below NOAA’s research vessel Okeanos
Explorer. Be sure to click to full-screen. The current expedition
will continue until Friday, but others are planned. If you don’t see anything, the
activity may be over for the day. Hours normally are 5:30 a.m. to
1:30 p.m. in our time zone. See the mission’s web page,
Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition.
Some of the most remarkable videos saved from the expedition can
be found on the
Photo and Video Log. While the live shots are surprising, the
recorded ones truly are highlights of the exploration. A
description of the work being done has been posted on the
Daily Updates page.
Reports on earlier research by the Okeanos Explorer is organized
by year and can be found on the
Expeditions page.
Because of the holidays, I did not get an immediate response
from several climate experts I contacted following
Nels Sultan’s comments about sea level rise in a blog post
regarding
“king tides.”
Earth at the winter
solstice, Dec. 22, 2011 / NOAA
photo
If you recall, Nels was making the point that the sea level in
Seattle has been rising at a steady rate of .68 feet, or about 8
inches, per century since 1898, as reported by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
His post included this statement:
“There is no real basis for the claims that sea levels will rise
by 2.6 feet or 7 feet, or more. Globally, sea level rise has NOT
accelerated. As found and reported by many researchers who
specialize in this, including the eminent professor Bob Dean and
other coastal experts.”
As a reporter, I’m not inclined to shoot back a response. I’d
rather discuss the issue with experts in the field. That is what I
did, and I think I have a better handle on the issue.
What I’m hearing is that the original estimates by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a rise of between 7
inches and 2 feet by the end of the century — remain reasonable,
but conservative given that they did not account for increased
melting of the Greenland ice sheet. See this
explanation by Stefan Rahmstorf soon after the release of the
2007 IPCC report. By the way, the range above accounts for the
minimum and maximum across six climate-change scenarios.
Ever since, researchers have been trying to find ways to account
for the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, but the uncertainties
remain high. A widely cited paper by
W.T. Pfeffer, J.T. Harper and S. O’Neel suggests that “most
likely” starting point for further refinement is .8 meter, or 31
inches, of sea level rise by 2100.
In some ways, the authors of the Pfeffer paper were trying to
limit some of the extremes being reported by others, so they
concluded that sea level rise could not be more than 6 feet by
2100. Some folks have reported 6 feet as the top of the range, as
unlikely as that extreme may be. Check out this explanation posed
by
Real Climate and this
response by Pfeffer and his collaborators.
As for the Houston-Dean paper that Nels Sultan mentioned, those
authors created “various problems” in their assumptions, according
to Eric Steig, professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the
University of Washington. One major problem was the starting date
of 1930, as explained by
Stefan Rahmstorf in Real Climate:
“Other start dates either before or after this minimum show
positive acceleration. Picking 1930 for this analysis is thus a
classic cherry-pick, and according to the authors that is no
accident. They write in the paper: ‘Since the worldwide data of
Church and White (2006)…appear to have a linear rise since around
1930, we analyzed the period 1930 to 2010.’ The interval was thus
hand-picked to show a linear rise rather than acceleration.
“Houston & Dean use their result to question the future
acceleration of sea level rise predicted by Vermeer & Rahmstorf
(2009) for the 21st Century as a consequence of global warming.
They argue that the 1930s acceleration minimum calls into question
the semi-empirical link between global temperature and global sea
level proposed by us in that paper. However, it is clear they never
bothered to check this, because quite the opposite is the case: our
semi-empirical formula predicts this acceleration minimum,
as the graph above shows. As it turns out, this is an expected
outcome of the mid-20th-Century plateau in global temperature.”
I also discussed this issue of sea level rise with Lara Whitely
Binder, outreach specialist for the UW’s Climate Impacts Group.
While sea level rise means one thing on the world scale, she told
me, the local impacts can be quite different.
If you live in Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula, for example,
you are not likely to see any sea level rise until at least 2080.
That’s because the entire land mass is uplifting as a result of
movement along the tectonic plates, and the uplift is predicted to
be faster than sea level rise until late in the century.
On the other hand, Central and South Puget Sound may not be
uplifting at all and could be sinking, which would intensify the
effects of sea level rise. Areas built on fill, including portions
of Olympia, also could be sinking as the fill settles, Lara
said.
In addition to global rise in sea level and local tectonic
shifts, factors affecting regional sea level rise include thermal
expansion of ocean waters and changes in onshore and offshore wind
patterns.
During El Niño events, sea level can rise as much as 12 inches
for several months at a time. The Climate Impacts Group analyzed
more than 30 scenarios from global climate models and concluded
that the change in wind patterns as a result of climate change
could decrease sea level by as much as 1 inch or possibly increase
it by as much as 6 inches. Review the white paper
“Sea Level Rise in the Coastal Waters of Washington State” (PDF 2.4
mb) for more details.
How much an individual property is affected by sea level rise
depends on the slope of the beach. Given the same rate of rise,
water will affect a house sooner when it is built on a gradually
sloping beach as opposed to a steep slope. In any case, tides and
weather will always play a major role in water levels.
Lara told me that a group of West Coast researchers is working
on a new report about sea level for publication later this year by
the National Academy of Sciences. I’ll try to review that paper
when it comes out.
I wish to thank Eric Steig, Lara Whitely Binder, Cliff Mass,
David Montgomery and Nate Mantua for responding to my inquiry.
