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U.S.: Latest “Aquarius” Mission to Study Coral Reefs in Florida |
| June 17, 2004 |
Source: Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
 | | An exterior view of Aquarius, the underwater research station in the Florida Keys that house the researchers over their ten-day study. Photo: NOAA/UNC Wilmington |
A team of researchers began a 10-day underwater mission this week to study economically important coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The study will be conducted from Aquarius, an undersea research platform in the Florida Keys.
The team, led by Dr. James Leichter of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, will study an important underwater process called upwelling, a process in which colder, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean moves up onto the reef in dramatic pulses.
The purpose of the mission is to understand how upwelling affects the condition of Florida’s coral reefs. By studying the movement of water and nutrients from the deep ocean to the reef, the researchers hope to be able to better evaluate whether or not sewage pollution from the mainland poses a significant threat to the reef.
“If you could take a slice of the ocean and see it in three dimensions, from the surface to say 1,000 feet deep, you would be amazed at how things like temperature, dissolved nutrients, currents, and life itself, change as you go from shallow to deep,” said Dr. Leichter. “The changes are sometimes all mixed up and not easily explained by just looking at the slice.”
Aquarius is the only undersea research platform of its kind in the world. It rests 63 feet underwater and 3.5 miles offshore at Conch Reef in the Florida Keys. Aquarius "aquanauts" live and work on the seafloor for extended periods using a special diving technique called saturation diving. The station is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
The upwelling process is important for circulating nutrients from the deep ocean to waters near the surface. The mass movement of large quantities of cold water sometimes drops water temperatures by as much as 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. Surprisingly, this “underwater weather” largely goes unnoticed because it typically happens in depths greater than 60 feet. It is for this reason that Aquarius will provide researchers with an ideal vantage point for their study.
According to Dr. Leichter, physical and biological oceanographers spend much of their time trying to understand how the ocean’s variable properties change with depth and time, as well as how they affect the ocean’s inhabitants. “Ultimately,” he said, “these processes affect everything from the fish we eat to our climate and weather.”
During each Aquarius mission, anyone with Internet access can watch live Web cameras, read expedition journals from the aquanauts, view project summaries and pictures and much more at the NURC/UNCW Aquarius website.
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