Collection of Arctic Ocean Data from US Navy Submarines on the New SCICEX Program

Bill Smethie1 (bsmethie@ldeo.columbia.edu); Ray Sambrotto1 (sambrott@ldeo.columbia.edu); Tim Boyd2 (tim.boyd@sams.ac.uk); Jackie Richter-Menge3 (Jacqueline.A.Richter-Menge@usace.army.mil); J. Elizabeth Corbett4 (corbett@ocean.fsu.edu)

1-Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY USA; 2- Scottish Marine Institute, Oban Argyll PA37 1QA, Scotland; 3-ERDC-Cold Regions Research and EngineeringLaboratory, Hanover, NH USA; 4-Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee FL.

C41D - 0439

I. IntroductionThe U.S. Navy’s SCience ICe EXercise (SCICEX) program originated in the 1990s when six dedicated science cruises were conducted in the Arctic Ocean aboard US Navy Sturgeon class submarines. After these cold war era subma-rines were retired, several Science Accommodation Missions (SAMs), on which a few days for civilian science were added to submarine transits through the Arctic Ocean, were carried out as opportunities arose. Interest in conducting SAMs on a regular basis to document and understand how the Arctic Ocean responds to climate change resulted in publication of a scientific plan in 2010 (http://www.arctic.gov/publications/scicex_plan.pdf ). In support of future SAMs, data collection and water sampling methods aboard newer Seawolf and Virginia class submarines were tested on transits from a Navy ice camp in the Beaufort Sea in March, 2011.

This poster presents the results of the 2011 sampling that are available to date to test the collection methods and identify sampling protocols that may need improvement. The available data include:

Depth (XCTD) probes were deployed from the USS Connecticut (SSN-22), a Seawolf class submarine, that were compared with profiles from CTD casts during the APLIS ice station and historical profiles.

the Connecticut and the New Hampshire, a Virginia class boat. Although these were not calibrated against standard Niskin collections, replicate samples reflected the precision of the underway sampling system as well as the integrity of the samples during storage and shipping for laboratory analysis.

near the North Pole to evaluate new data collection systems.

III. Protocol Tests Results from 2011

  

NH (180 m)

 

CT (219 m)

0.00.20.40.60.81.01.2

1 2 3

PO4 (

µM)

Replicates

Mean = 0.80 µM Rel. Err. = 0.75 % 

0.00.20.40.60.81.01.2

1 2 3

PO4 (

µM)

Replicates

Mean = 0.81 µM Rel. Err. = 7.74 % 

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

1 2 3

NO

2 (µM

)

Replicates

Mean = 0.02 µM Rel. Err. = 10.5 % 

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

1 2 3

NO

2 (µM

)

Replicates

Mean = 0.03 µM Rel. Err. = 104 % 

0

5

10

15

1 2 3

NO

3 (µM

)

Replicates

Mean = 12.0 µM Rel. Err. = 1.91 % 

0

5

10

15

1 2 3

NO

3 (µM

)

Replicates

Mean = 9.64 µM Rel. Err. = 9.78 % 

0

2

4

6

8

10

1 2 3

Si (µ

M)

Replicates

Mean = 5.94 µM Rel. Err. = 0.40 % 

0

2

4

6

8

10

1 2 3

Si (µ

M)

Replicates

Mean = 8.09 µM Rel. Err. = 8.35 % 

 

0

100

200

300

400

1 2 3

DO

C (µ

M)

Replicates

Mean = 205 µM Rel. Err. = 75.1 % 

-2

-1

0

-13

-12

-11

-0.2-0.10.00.10.2

-1.6-1.5-1.4-1.3

8

9

10

8

9

10

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.0

4.1

4.2

4.3

8.5

9.0

9.5

8.5

9.0

9.5

8.5

9.0

9.5

6.0

6.5

6.0

6.5

6.0

6.5

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.4

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.4

2.8

3.2

3.6

2.4

2.8

3.2

3.6

3.2

3.6

4.0

3.2

3.6

4.0

3.2

3.6

4.0

75

85

95

105

115

125

135

CT delta 18O (o/oo) NH delta 18O (o/oo)

CT delta D (o/oo) NH delta D (o/oo)

CT delta 3He (%) NH delta 3He (%)

CT Total Helium (10-8 cc STP/gm) NH Total Helium (10-8 cc STP/gm)

NH CFC-11 (pmol/kg)CT CFC-11 (pmol/kg)

NH CFC-12 (pmol/kg)CT CFC-12 (pmol/kg)

NH SF6 (fmol/kg)CT SF6 (fmol/kg)

Saturation (%)

No Data

No Data

CT (84 m) NH (180 m)Figure 7. Results of nutrient and dissolved organic carbon analyses. All of the analyses for the major inorganic nutrients produced values in the range of what would be ex-pected at the depths and locations sampled and changed smoothly along track. (The variations in nitrite are small compared to the nitrate pool).

The measurments of dissolved organic carbon (DOC; lower panel in CT data) varied by 6-8x in a region where nutirnets changed little. These measurements were not considered to be reliable and to be an artifact of contamination during sam-pling in the boat.

Figure 8. Results of analyses for several geochemical tracers. Impor-tant isotopic tracers such as !18O of seawater (that reflects water sources) and hydrogen and helium (that reflect water age) work well on samples obtained from the submarines. There was less uniformity in the results of the CFCs and SF6 tracers. On the NH (Virginia class) boat, CFC levels were below saturation, while the SF6 levels were above. CFC-11 samples from the CT (Seawolf ) were inecplicably large, while the SF6 values were undersaturated and similar to expected values. These results suggest that the composition of the boat’s atmosphere and storage conditions are critical.

_̂̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_̂_

0°

180°

60° N

70° N

70° N

60° N

60° N

50° N

AlaskaRussia

Greenland

SCICEX Data Release Area

pargo93

Cavalla95

Pogy96

Hawkbill99

USS Connecticut

_̂ USS New Hampshire

II. Prior SCICEX Results

(100% similarity) the shorter sequence obtained from DGGEband 4. Band 4 was intense in fingerprints from samples of the

95 and 96 samples, DGGE analysis indicated that the ribotyperepresented by band 4 was present in all three seasons. Cluster

FIG. 5. Neighbor-joining trees showing phylogenetic af filiations of representative partial 16S rRNA gene sequences retrieved from ArcticOcean samples to closely related database sequences. Only one representative from each clone library of sequences that are 99% similar isshown; the total number of clones represented by a sequence is given in parentheses. Clones from this study are indicated in boldface. Bootstrapvalues higher than 50% are shown. The tree is unrooted, and the bar indicates a Jukes-Cantor distance of 0.1. (A) Marine group I Crenarchaeota(positions 536 to 941); clone SB95-72 is used as an outgroup; clusters are named as in reference 24. (B) Marine group II and IV Euryarchaeota(positions 512 to 937); clone SB95-57 is used as an outgroup.

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Figure 2. Water types of the Arctic Ocean characterized in August - September 1992 from submarine XCTD measure-ments. Bering Sea Water characterizes the Western Arctic. The Transitional Halo-cline Water occupies the Eastern Arctic. Upper Halocline Water appears at the surface in the Makarov Basin. (Morison et al., 1998).

Figure 2. Ice draft measurements are a standard feature of Arctic crossings. This comparison of sea ice thickness approxi-mately 30 years apart [1958–1976 (dotted red lines in top panel) vs. the 1990s (solid blue lines)] revealed the changes in mean ice draft during this period (bottom panel, m; Rothrock et al., 1999).

A. Ice volume

B. Hydrography

C. Mixing rates

D. Microbial diversity

Fig.ure 1. Selected previous SCICEX cruise tracks as represented by missions aboard the U.S.S. Pargo, the U.S.S. Cavalla, the U.S.S. Pogy, and the U.S.S. Hawkbill. All sampling is restricted to the SCICEX Data Release Area. Stations in yellow were sampled on March 31st, 2011 aboard the U.S.S. Connecticut and the U.S.S. New Hampshire, and are the basis for the evaluation of protocols on the new submarines.

Figure 5. Submarine samples provide valid bio-logical material for de-tailed analysis. Here, ge-netic patterns of bacterial samples indicate that the differences among bacte-rial communities with depth are greater than the difference due to location and season. These samples were also used to compare Arctic and Antarctic bacte-ria. (Bano et al., 2004).

Figure 4. Through-hull measure-ments permit a variety of dis-crete samples to be collected. Here, vertical sections of delta He-3 (%) and tritium/He-3 age (years) along the SCICEX 96 cruise track reflect water mixing rates (Smethie et al., 2000).

Figure 6. Results of 3 XCTD deployments from Connecticut (Seawolf class) subma-rine in March 2011. These are compared to 2 contemporaneous CTD casts from the APLIS ice station. The left panel shows the full depth of the CTD casts and panel B shows the upper 550 m of the XCTD deployments.

There has been a signi!cant improvement in the rate of success for probes to achieve the designed maximum depth and this no longer appears to be a signi!cant problem.

A high rate of failure of probes (out-of-the-box) to pass pre-launch tests remains unacceptable.

Calibration of XCTD salinity measurements indicate that the XCTD salinities typically di"er by less than 0.02 with the CTD, and meet the design XCTD conductivity accuracy for this pressure and temperature range.

Calibration of XCTD temperature measurements at local minima and maxima are very close to the design criteria of ± 0.02 °C for XCTD temperature.

The most signi!cant limitation of the XCTD data derives from depth errors. Derived XCTD depths are biased by up to 10 m shallow relative to CTD pressure sensors within the depth range of the halocline. This limits the ability of XCTDs to resolve the small scale variability within !ne scale vertical structures associated with T/S steps in the upper ocean.

IV. Future SCICEX Sampling Opportunities

0°

180°

60° N

70° N

70° N

60° N

60° N

50° N

AlaskaRussia

Greenland

2001 Sept. Ice Extent

2007 Sept. Ice Extent

SCICEX Data Release Area

Near-term Sampling Priorities by Discipline:Ice draft profiling: Priority regions – North Pole for histori-cal comparison; Cross Canada Basin – from Lincoln to East Siberean; 50 km intervals for sampling

Hydrography: Water mass distributions, surface water changes; XCTD surveys

Chemistry: Atlantic – Pacific crossing ; Fresh water distri-bution; Carbonate chemistry of surface waters and halo-cline

Biology: Sampling of new open water region in western Canada Basin; Changes in productivity

10

Figure5. Example cruise tracks. Times for each of these tracks are given in Table1.

20

make a very important contribution to this issue by providing much-needed baseline data for relevant in situ sensed variables such as alkalinity, pH, and pCO2.

Global warming will also cause other changes in Arctic Ocean biogeochemistry that can be documented by submarine-based observations. For example, warming is thought to be causing an increase in methane release

from shelf sediments, which could be detected from collection of water samples for shore-based methane measurements along SAM submarine tracks.

Sampling Recommendations

priority order, are:

Table2. Recommended water properties to measure on SCICEX Science Accommodation Mission cruises. Sampleshighlighted in bluecan be made using current equipment and protocols. Others will require additional equipment or protocols, facilitated through

independent proposals and coordination with the U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory.

SAMPLE PURPOSE SIZE COLLECTION PROCEDURE ON BOARD PROCESSING STORAGE REQUIREMENTS

UNDERWAY CONTINUOUS SAMPLING VIA SENSORSTemperature Core water property N/A Hull-mounted CTD None N/A

Salinity Core water property N/A Hull-mounted CTD None N/A

OxygenWater mass tracer; biological production andrecycling

N/A Hull-mounted CTD None N/A

NitrateWater mass tracer; biological production andrecycling

N/A Hull-mounted CTD None N/A

DOC Water mass tracer N/A Hull-mounted CTD None N/A

Alkalinity, pH, pCO2

CO2 uptake, ocean acidification N/A Pumped stream from

hull-mounted CTD None N/A

Chl a, variable fluorescence

Phytoplankton abundance, photosynthetic capacity

N/A Pumped stream fromhull-mounted CTD None N/A

Spectral radiometry, light scattering, and absorption

Chemical and biological properties (CDOM; overlying phytoplankton levels, particulate characterization)

N/AUpward-looking sensors; pumped stream from hull-mounted CTD

None N/A

DISCRETE WATER SAMPLESSalinity

Core water property; calibrate salinty sensor on CTD

200 ml Rinse, fill, and cap a 200 ml glass bottle

Can be stored for shore-based measurement or measured on board with an Autosal

Room temperature

Oxygen

Water mass tracer; Biological production and recycling; calibrate O2sensor on CTD

120 ml Rinse and fill 120 ml flask Add reagents, follow Winkler titration procedures

Room temperature covered with water for up to one day prior to titration

Chl a, HPLC pigments

Phytoplankton levels and community composition; calibrate Chlafluorometer on CTD

500 ml (Chl aonly) or 1–3 L for HPLC

Chl a—filter and place filter into 10 ml 90% acetone; HPLC samples—freeze filter

Chll a can be measured in an on-board fluorometer or stored for shore based measurement like HPLC

–20°C, must not thaw (–80° if possible for HPLC)

21

1. Monitor the spatial and temporal (including sea-sonal) variability and longer-term trends of freshwa-ter distribution and composition in the mixed layer and in the halocline.

2. Monitor the spatial and temporal (including sea-sonal) variability and longer-term trends of CO2,alkalinity, and pH in the mixed layer and in the halocline and compare these observations to vari-ability and trends in plankton community structure.

3. Monitor the spatial and temporal variability and longer-term trends in the composition of the halo-cline and upper Atlantic layer.

4. Delineate circulation pathways for Atlantic and

ocean currents and transit times from source water regions to the interior.

Flow cytometry Microbial abundance 10 ml Rinse and fill 15 ml tube Add formalin and freeze

–20°C, must not thaw (–80° if possible)

Nutrients (PO4, NO3,SiO2)

Water mass tracers; biological production andrecycling

50 mlRinse, partially fill, and cap a 50ml plastic tube; keep upright and ensure cap is tight

Quick freeze as soon as possible at –20°C

–20°C, must not thaw

18O Determine freshwater sources 100 ml Rinse, fill, and cap 100 ml

glassbottles None Room temperature

Alkalinity CO2 uptake, ocean acidification 250 ml

Rinse and fill 250 ml glass bottle with screw cap leaving a 2 ml headspace

None Keep in dark at room temperature

SF6, CFCs

Age information; calculation of anthropogenic CO2;watermass tracer

1–2 L

Rinse and fill a 250–500 ml glass stoppered bottle, insert glass stopper, place the bottle in a jar and fill the jar with sample water

NoneRefrigerated at a temperature of 0–2°C

Heliumisotopes

Age information; watermass tracer 50 ml

Flush a 50 ml copper tube with the sample and crimp the ends of the tube with the water flowing; rinse the crimped ends with freshwater

None Room temperature

Tritium Age information; watermass tracer 500 ml Fill a 500 ml bottle without

rinsing and cap None Room temperature

129I Circulation time of Atlantic water 1 L Rinse, fill, and cap a 1 L

plasticbottle None Room temperature

Radiumisotopes

Circulation of shelf water into the interior 130 L

Filter water through a cartiridge while the submarine is underway

Change cartiridge approx every three hours while submarine is underway

Room temperature

ReferencesBano, N., S. Ruffin, B. Ransom, and J.T. Hollibaugh. 2004. Phylogenetic composition of Arctic Ocean archaeal assemblages and comparison

with Antarctic assemblages. Applied Environmental Microbiology 70:781–789.Morison, J., M. Steele, and R. Andersen. 1998. Hydrography of the upper Arctic Ocean measured from the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Pargo.

Deep-Sea Research I 45(357):15–38.Rothrock, D., Y. Yu, G.A. Maykut. 1999. Thinning of the Arctic sea ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters. 26:3469-3472. Smethie, W.M., P. Schlosser, G. Bonisch, and T.S. Hopkins. 2000. Renewal and circulation of intermediate waters in the Canadian Basin ob-

served on the SCICEX 96 cruise. Journal of Geophysical Research 105:1,105–1,121.SCICEX Science Advisory Committee. 2010. SCICEX Phase II Science Plan, Part I: Technical Guidance for Planning Science Accommodation

Missions. US Arctic Research Commission, Arlington, VA, 76 pp

1

2

4

5

3

Figure 9. Recommended sampling corridors within the SCICEX Data Release Area. Note their placement with respect to the receding summer ice extent as observed between September 2001 and September 2007.

Figure 10. Example SAMs cruise tracks chosen from Sampling corridors. Science cruise time needed in addition to the basic crossing time for each track varies, with a minimum requirement of up to three days. The minimum time required is referenced to the time to complete the direct crossing for either the Atlantic-Pacific transit or the ice camp transit. (SCICEX Phase II Science Plan).

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Interested participants should contact the appro-priate member of the SCICEX steering committe for further information. Detailed informationalso will soon be available on the SCICEX website -

http://nsidc.org/scicex