Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Research Articles

Thyroid Bioassay and Dose Assessment System for 125I at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) conducts research involving 125I. When an individual handles or works near unsealed radioiodine, including 125I, above certain activities bioassays are required or may be required. Because of the quantities of 125I being used for a research protocol, a thyroid bioassay and dose assessment system and procedure was developed to comply with this requirement. This procedure includes detector calibration, quality control, determination of recording level, determination of minimum detectable activity, thyroid bioassay (baseline, routine, special, and termination measurements), and intake and dose assessment calculations.

Longwave Radiation Corrections for the OMNI Buoy Network

Abstract The inception of a moored buoy network in the northern Indian Ocean in 1997 paved the way for systematic collection of long-term time series observations of meteorological and oceanographic parameters. This buoy network was revamped in 2011 with Ocean Moored buoy Network for north Indian Ocean (OMNI) buoys fitted with additional sensors to better quantify the air–sea fluxes. An intercomparison of OMNI buoy measurements with the nearby Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) mooring during the year 2015 revealed an overestimation of downwelling longwave radiation (LWR↓). Analysis of the OMNI and WHOI radiation sensors at a test station at National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) during 2019 revealed that the accurate and stable amplification of the thermopile voltage records along with the customized datalogger in the WHOI system results in better estimations of LWR↓. The offset in NIOT measured LWR↓ is estimated first by segregating the LWR↓ during clear-sky conditions identified using the downwelling shortwave radiation measurements from the same test station, and second, finding the offset by taking the difference with expected theoretical clear-sky LWR↓. The corrected LWR↓ exhibited good agreement with that of collocated WHOI measurements, with a correlation of 0.93. This method is applied to the OMNI field measurements and again compared with the nearby WHOI mooring measurements, exhibiting a better correlation of 0.95. This work has led to the revamping of radiation measurements in OMNI buoys and provides a reliable method to correct past measurements and improve estimation of air–sea fluxes in the Indian Ocean. Significance Statement Downwelling longwave radiation (LWR↓) is an important climate variable for calculating air–sea heat exchange and quantifying Earth’s energy budget. An intercomparison of LWR↓ measurements between ocean observing platforms in the north Indian Ocean revealed a systematic offset in National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) Ocean Moored buoy Network for north Indian Ocean (OMNI) buoys. The observed offset limited our capability to accurately estimate air–sea fluxes in the Indian Ocean. The sensor measurements were compared with a standard reference system, which revealed problems in thermopile amplifier as the root cause of the offset. This work led to the development of a reliable method to correct the offset in LWR↓ and revamping of radiation measurements in NIOT-OMNI buoys. The correction is being applied to the past measurements from 12 OMNI buoys over 8 years to improve the estimation of air–sea fluxes in the Indian Ocean.

Biomaterials Science Can Offer a Valuable Second Opinion on Nature's Plastic Malady.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEViewpointNEXTBiomaterials Science Can Offer a Valuable Second Opinion on Nature’s Plastic MaladyBryan D. James*Bryan D. JamesDepartment of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, United States*Email: [email protected]More by Bryan D. Jameshttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6104-8310, Mark E. HahnMark E. HahnDepartment of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, United StatesMore by Mark E. Hahnhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4358-2082, and Christopher M. ReddyChristopher M. ReddyDepartment of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, United StatesMore by Christopher M. Reddyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7814-2071Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, 56, 3, 1475–1477Publication Date (Web):January 7, 2022Publication History Received6 November 2021Published online7 January 2022Published inissue 1 February 2022https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c07569Copyright © 2022 American Chemical SocietyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views3252Altmetric-Citations1LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (1 MB) Get e-Alerts Get e-Alerts

Art Feature: “Precipice of Discovery”

Aboard the R/V Atlantis, ALVIN awaits deployment with one pilot and two scientists within its hull excited for the unknowns they may encounter on the sea floor. ALVIN, a human-occupied submersible owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, represents the leading edge of exploration. This is exemplified by its use in the discovery of the Titanic’s location and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, key habitats in an environment without light. Our understanding of the deep sea and its inhabitants remains limited, especially compared to more accessible marine communities. Fortunately, there are marine biologists, including those at the University of Oregon, dedicated to exploring and advancing our knowledge about the deep sea. The Young Lab at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, the UO’s satellite campus in Coos Bay, Oregon, is dedicated to bringing undergraduates on research cruises that use ALVIN and other deep sea exploration vehicles to participate in multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research. Undergraduate research allows students the opportunity to gain invaluable skills in bench work, scientific writing, networking, and field-specific methodologies, but it can also instill wonder. Working at sea with leading scientists, I have realized that there is so much we don’t know and that there are so many questions left to be answered by the next generation of researchers. By conducting research as undergraduates, we are developing our skills and curiosity to be trailblazers in our respective fields at the precipice of discovery, just like ALVIN has been for the last 58 years.

Offshore wind: Poised for the big time. An interview with Anthony Kirincich

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution physicist Anthony Kirincich has made a specialty of studying the conditions necessary for offshore wind power to succeed in the United States and was the lead a...

Estimation of seabed attenuation in the New England Mud Patch

Measurements of acoustic pressure and particle velocity were made during the Seabed Characterization Experiment (SBCEX-2017) in the New England Mud Patch south of Cape Cod in about 70 m of water. This experimental location is characterized by a “soft” layer of surficial sediment consisting of mud. University of Rhode Island and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution deployed the “geosled” with a four-element geophone array, a tetrahedral array of four hydrophones, and several hydrophone receive units (SHRUs) as data acquisition packages. In addition, a new low frequency source, interface Wave Sediment Profiler (iWaSP) was deployed to excite interface waves (Scholte waves). The geophone array was localized using the known locations of the acoustic sources and noise from the research vessel. Modal arrivals from broadband sources on geophones and hydrophones were used to invert for compressional and shear wave speeds and attenuation in the mud layer and the underlying sand layer. Effect of shear conversion effects on the modal attenuation estimates and it’s frequency dependence will be explored. The role of shear conversion along the mud-sand interface will be discussed. [Work supported by the Office of Naval research, code 322 OA.]

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

Vocal learning in animals and humans.

The future of autonomous underwater vehicle control

The future of autonomous underwater vehicle control

Underwater ultra-low frequency seismic source.

The ultra-low frequency band (2-8 Hz) is of interest for geophysical research due to advances in the field of full waveform inversion and elastic impedance measurements. Generating sound in the ultra-low frequency range is a difficult task. A powerful source with an ultra-low frequency should be able to displace hundreds of liters of water per cycle. The amplitude of internal pressure fluctuations is comparable to the difference in buoyancy forces on the radiation aperture, and acoustic-gravitational effects are part of its hydrodynamics. The source described in this article has a pneumatically driven bubble resonator and provides a volume displacement and radiation area that are larger than other known prototypes. The article examines the acoustic physics of a large underwater bubble resonator and a seismic bubble source with an internal Helmholtz resonator. A finite element analysis of the transition of near-field hydrodynamics to a pressure wave is included, as well as a treatment of transition loss and broadband radiation methods. The study concludes with the creation and testing of an ultra-low frequency seismic source. Experiments carried out at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution showed that the prototype has a source level high enough for full waveform inversion in geophysical surveys.

Estimation of bottom parameters in the New England Mud Patch using geophone and hydrophone measurements

Measurements of acoustic pressure and particle velocity were made during the Seabed Characterization Experiment (SCEx) in the New England Mud Patch south of Cape Cod in about 70 m of water. The University of Rhode Island and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution deployed the “geosled” with a four-element geophone array, a tetrahedral array of four hydrophones, and Several Hydrophone Receive Units (SHRUs) as data acquisition packages. In addition, a recently developed low frequency source, the interface Wave Sediment Profiler (iWaSP), was deployed to excite interface waves (Scholte waves) on the seabed. The geophone array was localized using the known locations of the small explosive sources and noise from the research vessel. Modal arrivals from broadband sources on geophones and hydrophones were used to invert for compressional and shear wave speeds and attenuation in the mud layer and the underlying sand layer. The Scholte wave arrivals from the iWaSP source measured by the geophone array also provided estimates for these parameters. The inversion results are compared to modeling using the viscous grain shearing (VGS) theory. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research, Code 322 OA.]

Silicate melt inclusions in the new millennium: A review of recommended practices for preparation, analysis, and data presentation

Mineral-hosted melt inclusions have become an important source of information on magmatic processes. As the number of melt inclusion studies increases, so does the need to establish recommended practice guidelines for collecting and reporting melt inclusion data. These guidelines are intended to ensure certain quality criteria are met and to achieve consistency among published melt inclusion data in order to maximize their utility in the future. Indeed, with the improvement of analytical techniques, new processes affecting melt inclusions are identified. It is thus critical to be able to reprocess any previously published data, such that reporting the raw data is one of the first “recommended practices” for authors and a publication-criteria that reviewers should be sensitive to. Our guidelines start with melt inclusion selection, which is a critical first step, and then continue on to melt inclusion preparation and analysis, covering the entire field of methods applicable to melt inclusions. DedicationIn March of 2000, a melt inclusion workshop was held at the Chateau de Sassenage in Grenoble and a companion issue of Chemical Geology entitled “Melt Inclusions at the Millennium” was published. Erik Hauri was heavily involved with the meeting and contributed two landmark papers to the topical issue of Chemical Geology on the use of secondary ion mass spectrometry to analyze volatiles in melt inclusions. When the melt inclusion community re-convened at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in August of 2018, we were saddened that Erik was unable to join us due to his failing health. Less than a month later came the devastating news of his passing at only 52 years of age. In recognition of his incredible contributions to science in general and to the in situ analysis of melt inclusions in particular, the participants and organizers of the WHOI melt inclusion workshop dedicate this collegial paper to Erik Hauri, our colleague, mentor and friend. Thank you Erik.

Harmful diatoms and dinoflagellates in the Indian Ocean: a study from Southern coast of Sri Lanka

Harmful diatoms and dinoflagellates in the Indian Ocean: a study from Southern coast of Sri Lanka

Summertime variability of Mediterranean evaporation: competing impacts from the mid latitudes teleconnections and the South Asian monsoon

Interannual variability of Mediterranean evaporation and its links to regional climate during summer are investigated based on evaporation data from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution dataset. An EOF (Empirical Orthogonal Function) analysis performed on the monthly means (i.e., separately for June, July, August, and September time series) revealed two leading modes of evaporation variability, characterized by the monopole (EOF-1) and zonal dipole (EOF-2) patterns. These modes explain altogether more than 60% of the total variability of Mediterranean evaporation for each month. In all summer months, the EOF-1 reflects an interdecadal change signal characterized by below normal evaporation in 1970–2000 and above normal evaporation before and after this period. This mode is associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The EOF-2 pattern reflects interannual variations of Mediterranean evaporation that differ significantly from month to month. The reason for this difference is the changing roles of regional teleconnections, such as the summer North Atlantic Oscillation (SNAO), the Scandinavian and East Atlantic teleconnections, and the Asian monsoon. The impacts of these teleconnections on Mediterranean evaporation are highly variable both in space and time. The largest impact of the SNAO on Mediterranean evaporation is detected in early summer, but its impact weakens and disappears towards the end of the summer season. An opposite tendency is obtained with the Asian monsoon, having the strongest impact on evaporation in late summer. The study suggests that these teleconnections impact Mediterranean evaporation mostly through atmospheric dynamics (the SNAO) and thermodynamics (the Asian monsoon) in early and late summer respectively.

Advancing Offshore Wind Resource Characterization Using Buoy-Based Observations

AbstractAs countries continue to implement sustainable and renewable energy goals, the need for affordable low-carbon technologies, including those related to offshore wind energy, is accelerating. The U.S. federal government recognizes the environmental and economic benefits of offshore wind development and is taking the necessary steps to overcome critical challenges facing the industry to realize these benefits. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is investing in buoy-mounted lidar systems to facilitate offshore measurement campaigns that will advance our understanding of the offshore environment and provide the observational data needed for model validation, particularly at hub height where offshore observations are particularly lacking. On behalf of the DOE, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory manages a Lidar Buoy Program that facilitates meteorological and oceanographic data collection using validated methods to support the U.S. offshore wind industry. Since being acquired in 2014, two DOE lidar buoys have been deployed on the U.S. east and west coasts, and their data represent the first publicly available multi-seasonal hub height data to be collected in U.S. waters. In addition, the buoys have undergone performance testing, significant upgrades, and a lidar validation campaign to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the lidar data needed to support wind resource characterization and model validation (the lidars were validated against a reference lidar installed on the Air-Sea Interaction Tower operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution). The Lidar Buoy Program is providing valuable offshore data to the wind energy community, while focusing data collection on areas of acknowledged high priority.

90 years of Arctic Ocean Exploration at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

In 2020, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) celebrates 90 years of research, education, and exploration of the World Ocean. Since inception this has included Arctic studies. In fact, WHOI’s first technical report is on the oceanographic data obtained during the submarine “Nautilus” polar expedition in 1931. In 1951 and 1952, WHOI scientists supervised the collection of hydrographic data during the U.S. Navy SkiJump I & II expeditions utilizing ski-equipped aircraft landings in the Beaufort Sea, and inferred the Beaufort Gyre circulation cell and existence of a mid-Arctic ridge. Later classified studies, particularly concerning under-ice acoustics, were conducted by WHOI personnel from Navy and Air Force ice camps. With the advent of simple satellite communications and positioning, WHOI oceanographers began to deploy buoys on sea ice to obtain surface atmosphere, ice, and upper ocean time series data in the central Arctic beginning in 1987. Observations from these first systems were limited technologically to discrete depths and constrained by power considerations, satellite throughput, as well as high costs. As technologies improved, WHOI developed the drifting Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) to obtain vertically continuous upper ocean data several times per day in the ice-covered basins and telemeter the data back in near real time to the lab. Since the 1980s, WHOI scientists have also been involved in geological, biological, ecological and geochemical studies of Arctic waters, typically from expeditions utilizing icebreaking vessels, or air supported drifting platforms. Since the 2000s, WHOI has maintained oceanographic moorings on the Beaufort Shelf and in the deep Canada Basin, the latter an element of the Beaufort Gyre Observing System (BGOS). BGOS maintains oceanographic moorings via icebreaker, and conducts annual hydrographic and geochemical surveys each summer to document the Beaufort Gyre freshwater reservoir that has changed significantly since earlier investigations from the 1950s–1980s. With the experience and results demonstrated over the past decades for furthering Arctic research, WHOI scientists are well positioned to continue to explore and study the polar oceans in the decades ahead

Characterization of offshore vertical wind shear conditions in Southern New England

AbstractVertical wind shears could have a significant effect on the energy produced by a wind turbine and on its loads. Although the development of several wind farms has been planned on the East Coast of the United States, there are no studies that characterize the vertical wind shear over this area. This study focuses on characterizing wind shears in the marine boundary layer in Southern New England and along the East Coast of the United States. The analysis looks at the statistical distribution of vertical wind shear values and at their associated meteorological conditions. The analysis relies on remote‐sensing wind measurements and other meteorological data recorded at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Air–Sea Interaction Tower located 3 km to the South of Martha's Vineyard, together with buoy measurements and ERA5 reanalysis data. This work shows that large vertical wind shear values (>0.05 m/s/m) calculated using wind measurements at 60 and 53 m were often observed (≈25.3% of all the valid wind profiles analyzed) for South‐Westerly winds within a range of positive bulk Richardson numbers 0–0.1. These large‐shear values are the result of the presence of a strong high‐pressure system (Bermuda‐Azores High) over the North Atlantic basin and low pressures over land, which result in warm Southerly winds flowing over the cold waters of the Labrador current. The power density computed considering the vertical wind shear by means of the rotor equivalent wind speed is 5.5% smaller than that considering wind speed measurements at 110 m only.

Research sub buoys prospects for 3D map of marine microbial communities

Marine microbes are the foundation of ocean food webs; they are the workhorses that convert carbon, nitrogen, and other essential nutrients into bioavailable forms for all other life in the oceans (1, 2). But only about 10% of these bacteria, archaea, viruses, protists, and fungi can be cultured in the lab—the vast majority must be sampled directly from the ocean (3). Since sampling is expensive and time consuming, research is limited on most ocean microbes. As a result, the water column locales of microbe-driven biogeochemical processes haven’t been thoroughly mapped. The Clio autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, is already unlocking secrets of the ocean’s microbial and chemical composition. The AUV’s unusual shape is streamlined for vertical motion through the water column. Image credit: Mak Saito (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA). Thus far, the tools at researchers’ disposal have fallen short. Researchers would like to analyze microbial proteins, DNA, and RNA, as well as sugars, vitamins, and other small organic molecules. And because microbial communities vary at fine spatial scales and can change rapidly from meter to meter throughout the water column, researchers need to be able to sample seawater from precise depths. An autonomous submarine called Clio could be the answer. Biogeochemist Mak Saito at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA, and his collaborators developed the 6-foot-tall, bright yellow, refrigerator-shaped submarine beginning in 2014. Unmanned and untethered, the autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, is among the first specifically designed to sample microbes for studies of marine biogeochemistry. Saito hopes the coming years will reveal a wealth of data that allow researchers to explore the ocean’s changing microbial and chemical composition in high resolution. Clio could become an integral tool for BioGeoSCAPES, a nascent program planning to study microbial, biological, and chemical oceanography, including making …

Puffin hearing unaffected by amphibious lifestyle

My diving is terrible – I can never clear my ears properly, even within 1 m of the surface – which makes the achievements of diving Atlantic puffins even more impressive, plummeting 150 m down with no apparent concern for their ears. ‘It is conceivable that the air-filled sinuses and auditory abilities are modified in auks, perhaps to withstand deep dives or enable underwater hearing’, says Aran Mooney, from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA. Yet, it wasn't clear how the puffins’ amphibious lifestyle might impact their hearing out of water and whether they are distressed by noise. Mooney explains that other species are clearly disturbed by human noise, spending less time on the nest when people are around. Joining Ole Larsen and Kirstin Hansen, from the University of Southern Denmark, and Marianne Rasmussen, from the University of Iceland, Mooney and Adam Smith travelled to northern Iceland to collect puffins as they emerged from their burrows, to test their hearing.‘The burrows are often on high cliffs, so are a bit perilous to approach and work near, given the sheer drop and potential instability’, says Mooney, who eventually captured nine birds. After transporting them to an improvised lab in a nearby farm shed, the team gently sedated the animals and inserted fine electrodes beneath their skin before recording their responses to clicks ranging from low-pitched 125 Hz tones to 8 kHz beeps at a 20 dB whisper up to 100 dB to find out which frequencies the puffins were most sensitive to. Although the birds could hear sounds up to 6 kHz, their hearing was sharpest between 750 Hz and 3 kHz. And, when the team compared the birds’ hearing with that of other similarly sized birds, it seemed that their aquatic lifestyle has not affected their hearing at all: it's just as good as that of birds that never plunge beneath the waves. However, the team suspects that the windswept locations of the birds’ nesting sites with the noise of waves crashing below could limit their hearing above ground.The hearing of these charismatic birds is probably fine-tuned to the cries of their own chicks and other puffins. In addition, they are also less likely to be disturbed by their noisy surroundings when secluded in their burrows. However, Mooney believes that the thud of approaching human feet is likely to penetrate their otherwise peaceful homes. ‘Given the influence of human encroachment on bird colonies, the sensitive hearing of these animals and the fact that puffins are a major tourist attraction in many countries, we suggest that human disturbance noise, even low-level sounds from hikers and visitors, has the potential to disturb puffins’, he says.

Annotation-free learning of plankton for classification and anomaly detection

The acquisition of increasingly large plankton digital image datasets requires automatic methods of recognition and classification. As data size and collection speed increases, manual annotation and database representation are often bottlenecks for utilization of machine learning algorithms for taxonomic classification of plankton species in field studies. In this paper we present a novel set of algorithms to perform accurate detection and classification of plankton species with minimal supervision. Our algorithms approach the performance of existing supervised machine learning algorithms when tested on a plankton dataset generated from a custom-built lensless digital device. Similar results are obtained on a larger image dataset obtained from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Additionally, we introduce a new algorithm to perform anomaly detection on unclassified samples. Here an anomaly is defined as a significant deviation from the established classification. Our algorithms are designed to provide a new way to monitor the environment with a class of rapid online intelligent detectors.

The Neutrally Buoyant Sediment Trap: Two Decades of Progress

AbstractThe biological carbon flux from the ocean’s surface into its interior has traditionally been sampled by sediment traps, which physically intercept sinking particulate matter. However, the manner in which a sediment trap interacts with the flow field around it can introduce hydrodynamic biases, motivating the development of neutral, self-ballasting trap designs. Here, the performance of one of these designs, the neutrally buoyant sediment trap (NBST), is described and evaluated. The NBST has been successfully used in a number of scientific studies since a prototype was last described in the literature two decades ago, with extensive modifications in subsequent years. Originated at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the NBST is built around a profiling float and carries cylindrical collection tubes, a feature that distinguishes it from other neutral traps described in the literature. This paper documents changes to the device that have been implemented over the last two decades, including wider trap tubes; Iridium Communications, Inc., satellite communications; and the addition of polyacrylamide gel collectors and optical sedimentation sensors. Information is also provided with the intent of aiding the development of similar devices by other researchers, including the present adaptation of the concept to utilize commercially available profiling float hardware. The performance of NBSTs built around commercial profiling floats is comparable to NBSTs built around customized floats, albeit with some additional operational considerations. Data from recent field studies comparing NBSTs and traditional, surface-tethered sediment traps are used to illustrate the performance of the instrument design. Potential improvements to the design that remain to be incorporated through future work are also outlined.