Total Funding Requested From NPRB:

• Main Author: Tara Borland
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Short Title; WEBSEC-72 zooplankton 6; Arctic; Beaufort Sea; Zooplankton
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.501.8596; http://doc.nprb.org/web/09_prjs/929_app1_web.pdf

Summary of Proposed Work: This proposal seeks to rescue zooplankton data collected in Beaufort Sea during August 1972 on the US Coast Guard’s Western Beaufort Sea Ecological Cruises (WEBSEC).A major challenge in climate-related studies is the lack of historical data against which to assess biological response to changes in the physical environment. This data, along with that recently rescued from WEBSEC-71, plus those collected as part of the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) in 1976, 1977 and 1978, will form a solid historical reference point for the 1970’s.This lays the foundation against which change in the zooplankton communities of the Beaufort Sea could be assessed now or in the future.New observation programs in the region become increasingly likely as leases are opened up for Oil and Gas exploration of the Beaufort Sea in the near future.This data rescue involves the analysis of ~225 zooplankton samples recently obtained by Hopcroft from WEBSEC-72’s 11 cross-shelf transects collected using predominately 0.57 mm mesh NorPac nets.The analysis of this data will become an element of the dissertation of Ph.D. student Imme Rutzen looking at long-term pan-arctic patterns in zooplankton communities. Outreach efforts will leverage on efforts currently underway by the ArcOD (Arctic