A shrinking problem Climate changes shifting phytoplankton
community to smaller cells Posted June 18, 2010 The ARSV
Laurence M. Gould has just pulled up to the Palmer Station pier.
The vessel will be at the research base for less than 48 hours
before heading out on a 28-day science cruise along the western
edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. Meanwhile, Tina Haskins is
elbow-deep into the electronic guts of a Slocum glider in one of
the station’s labs. A torpedo-shaped robot capable of traversing
enormous stretches of the ocean, the glider is one of the newest
and most important tools for the Palmer Longer Term Ecological
Research (PAL LTER) program. Unfortunately, two of the three
autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that the Rutgers
University group brought down to Antarctica are having technical
problems. The deep glider, capable of diving to 1,000 meters,
experienced a leak and had to be rescued by the RVIB Nathaniel
B. Palmer a few weeks earlier. A second AUV has a faulty “FIRe”
(fluorescence, induction and