Award: OCE-1355833

The mission of the GEOTRACES Program (www.geotraces.org) is "to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions". This is extremely relevant to the Arctic, where rapid climate change and accompanying biogeochemical responses are occurring. This project provided the core support to carry out the US GEOTRACES transect in the western Arctic, in collaboration with pan-Arctic efforts from a large international community. These expeditions involved the deployment of ice-capable research ships from 3 nations (US, Canada, Germany) across different parts of the Arctic Ocean in 2015, and application of state of the art geochemical tracers to unravel the complex biogeochemical dynamics of the Arctic Ocean and its continental shelves. Scientists from countries without icebreaker capability also participated in this endeavor. This project provided the essential support for other investigators who were funded through individual science proposals. Support was used to (1) plan and coordinate a 65 day research cruise; (2) obtain samples for a wide variety of TEIs using a conventional CTD/rosette, the contamination-free GEOTRACES CTD/carousel sampling system, and an atmospheric sampling system (for aerosols and precipitation); (3) acquire appropriate hydrographic data including CTD (with transmissometer, fluorometer, and oxygen sensor) and water samples for salinity, dissolved oxygen, plant pigments, and nutrients at micro- and nanomolar levels; (4) acquire TEI samples from the ice environment, (snow, melt pond, and ocean-ice interface); (5) collect surface sediment samples for TEI analyses; (6) ensure proper QA/QC and GEOTRACES inter-laboratory calibration protocols are followed and reported; (7) prepare and deliver all hydrographic data to the GEOTRACES Data Center and US data centers; and (8) coordinate cruise communications among investigators, including preparation of a hydrographic report/publication. This expedition was historic for two reasons. It marked the first time a US surface ship arrived unaccompanied to the pole. Second, this project involved the deployment of three ice-capable research ships from three nations (the U.S., Canada, and Germany) to sample concurrently across different regions of the Arctic Ocean. Bill Schmoker, our on-board PolarTREC science teacher, posted over 65 blogs (with descriptive text and photos) to the PolarTREC web site: www.polartrec.com/expeditions/us-arctic-geotraces/ and https://www.youtube.com/user/PolarTRECProgram/ Florida International University produced a very high quality video of the research expedition. Journey to the top of the world http://arctic.fiu.edu/ We engaged hundreds of young students through our Float Your Boat outreach project. Over 1200 small wooden drifter boats were decorated by students from around the US with their names and contact information, then deployed on the ice in the Arctic along with satellite tracking buoys so they could be followed as the ice moves through the Arctic. Eventually, the ice melted and the boats and buoys were released into the water. Two of the buoys ran aground in the high Canadian Arctic. One of the boats was recently recovered from a beach in Iceland. http://www.geotraces.org/news-50/news/116-news/1588-float-your-boat Last Modified: 03/05/2019 Submitted by: William M Landing