USVI Public Records

Document text

ACTS UPDATE -- The Anegada Climate Tracers Study v. 3, # 3, August 6, 1998 ACTS-9 The ninth ACTS station occupation will occur as part of a cruise for NOAA's Atlantic Climate Change Project, which takes place from September 22 to October 2. This cruise brings the presence of Doug Wilson and the use of the NOAA CTD rosette and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler aboard the R/V Seward Johnson from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. The scientific party is likely to include Barry Volson, Ronald Olivaccé and other ACTS-experienced UVI graduates. Other participants will be Kevin Brown, a member of the technical staff of the UVI's MacLean Marine Science Center, UVI/Eastern Caribbean Center Researcher Dr. Rick Nemeth, and Dr. Kenneth Challenger, head of the Science Department at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. Dr. Challenger shall be participating as an academic partner from the British Virgin Islands. The cruise will begin at Fort Pierce, Florida, and travel through the Bahamas, the Windward, Mona and Anegada Passages, as well as the passages separating the Windward Islands -- all the way to Trinidad. ACTS participants will disembark in Barbados on October 2, 1998. The R/V Seward Johnson The Director of Marine Operations at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Tim Askew, has issued the preliminary schedule of the R/V Seward Johnson for the voyage that will include ACTS-9. The R/V Seward Johnson, namesake of Harbor Branch founder J. Seward Johnson Sr., is a 204-foot oceanographic and submersible-support research vessel built in 1984 and commissioned in 1985. It was extensively rebuilt and stretched in 1994. With an 8000 nautical mile range and a speed of 13 knots, the vessel is capable of traveling and working in any of the world's oceans, while accommodating up to 40 people. With 360 degree bow and stern thrusters, twin propellers and rudders, dynamic positioning and state-of-the-art precision navigation, this vessel has the capability to maneuver and position easily and efficiently. R/V Seward Johnson is part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet. Typical applications of the vessel include submersible/ROV support, large towed systems support, deployment and retrieval of moored devices, surface oceanographic/hydrographic applications, and diving support with optional recompression chamber facilities. For more information on the vessel, visit the website, http://www.hboi.edu/marops/rvsj.html. ACTS CTD SOON TO ARRIVE! UVI has received confirmation that its CTD (conductivity-temperature- depth) electronic instrument (model SBE-25), will be arriving at the end of September from Sea-Bird Electronics in Bellevue, Washington. The ACTS CTD will increase the University's oceanographic capability beyond the level achieved now through collaboration with the National Oceanographic and Administration (NOAA) and others. The newly purchased CTD's data processing algorithms will be interchangeable with the instruments and/or processing algorithms of our partners in this study -- primarily NOAA, Brookhaven National Laboratory (Department of Energy) and the University of Miami. ACTS Principal Investigator, Roy Watlington, and ACTS scientific technicians have received extensive training, and are still acquiring techniques in the operation and analysis of CTD data. The scheduling of ACTS' s activities will therefore not always be linked to the availability of NOAA 's equipment. The purchase the CTD was made through the continued support of the US Department of Energy’s Minority College and University Program, which recently funded the purchase of a PORTASAL salinometer for ACTS. The analysis of dissolved oxygen content as well as of salt content and temperature helps in the rapid characterization of the Deep Western Boundary Current and its effects on global climate change. The SBE-25 CTD will greater enhance the University of the Virgin Islands' in-house capability of seawater analysis. The R/V Seward Johnson VOLSON CONDUCTS HYDROGRAPHIC STUDY OF JOHN BREWERS BAY ACTS intern Barry Volson conducted a study this summer of John Brewers Bay and wrote a paper for an independent study class. The study and paper were entitled " Variability of dissolved oxygen and salinity along a transect at John Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands." This study, conducted by the Marine Biology Junior, made use of the new ACTS salinometer and dissolved oxygen analytical instruments. The study was assisted by a fellow student who provided the use of a dingy and by colleagues and technicians, who provided help in the use of the instruments. Volson's study comes more than twenty years after the last major studies of this type in Brewers Bay (by Grigg, et al., in 1971 and by Insular Environments in 1974). These took place before the 1500 foot extension of a runway across the mouth of the bay. The jetty created is believed to have altered the bay's circulation. The study sheds light on the effects of tides and precipitation on salinity and dissolved oxygen within the bay. It also adds data to the profile of the bay's topography. MARE NOSTRUM AT UVI The above study by Barry Volson is the first in a series of planned studies by UVI students and faculty of John Brewers Bay, the University's local bay and beach on St. Thomas. These assessments of the physical properties of the bay are intended to assist the University in its stewardship of the attractive and popular beach. Earlier UVI Marine Biology classes have already gathered much knowledge about the bay. The concept of "Mare Nostrum" (Latin, meaning "our sea") was instituted by the ancient Romans to describe their sense of ownership of the Mediterranean Sea. The involvement of ACTS students and facilities in particular, however, has a more pragmatic purpose: With only four station occupations for ACTS annually, exercises are needed to keep ACTS interns and scientists well practiced in the high-caliber use of ACTS analytical instruments that are so important to the credibility of a long-term serial station. By frequently analyzing salinity, dissolved oxygen and other properties for Mare Nostrum with great precision, ACTS personnel can remain confident of the quality of their contributions to the international monitoring of global climate. ________________________________________________________________________ *ACTS is a research project of the University of the Virgin Islands hosted by the Eastern Caribbean Center (ECC). It is funded by a Global Change Award from the US Department of Energy’s Minority College and University Program under the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education. The University is located in the United States Virgin Islands near the Anegada Passage, through which significant surface transport as well as the deepest inflow of mid-depth North Atlantic water enter the Caribbean Sea. The serial station periodically occupied for this study is within the sovereignty of the United Kingdom (specifically, the British Virgin Islands.) ACTS enjoys collaborative partnerships with Brookhaven National Laboratory, NOAA/AOML, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, and the University of Puerto Rico. For additional information, NOAA, AOML, WIMP, UVI, the Eastern Caribbean Center and ACTS all have individual home pages on the INTERNET. Access to ECC, ACTS and all UVI homepages is available through the following URL: “http://www.uvi.edu/organizations.html”. -- Barry Volson (Issue Editor) Phone: (340) 693-1391 Fax: (340) 693-1385 e-mail rwatlin@uvi.edu Eastern Caribbean Center, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, 00802