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Journal 12a
- Mark Patterson: Mission Day 6: Saturday, November 16, 2002
Day 6 and we still can't get enough of the reef. My aquanaut team comes back from excursions of many hours and then they pester the outstanding habitat techs, Jim Buckley and Byron Croker, to let them stay out in the water column on the hookah rig! Today we left the habitat at 0 dark hundred to measure the oxygen in the water over the reef after a night of respiration. We made our way down the excursion line to 110 feet. On the way we spotted a fantastic reef organism, the basket star, a relative of the starfish, that has dozens of lacy tendrils for arms, with which it catches plankton and creeps over the soft corals, upon which it perches like some alien life form. We found a sky blue parrotfish, asleep in a crevice, near where Jo and Janet set up the profiling wand, a contraption of PVC pipe, which they use to make measurements of oxygen and pH at precise heights over the coral bottom. To properly take these readings requires great control of buoyancy. They stream away from the PVC stand like weightless ballerinas, arms outstretched, breathing perfectly under control, as they float upward to the top of the wand, 2 meters above the seafloor. It's really quite mesmerizing to watch. Today we surpassed 100 profiles of oxygen in the bottom layer of water right next to the reef. The differences we see on the instrument read-out are dramatic, with the concentration changing substantially in distances smaller than a yard. These measurements will help advance our understanding of how the entire coral reef ecosystem uses energy, as oxygen is produced during the day by photosynthesis, and consumed at night, as the plants and animals burn their cellular fuels of fat, carbohydrate, and protein. The later part of the morning, Beth and I tended our bleaching experiments near the habitat and prepared the coral specimens for sampling by the surface team of Lauren, Danny, and Kristen. They arrived mid-morning, finished their work, and then returned briefly to the surface before visiting us inside Aquarius for less than an hour. We treated them to hot chocolate and lame narcosis-induced humor. Our only regret was that the surface team leader, Lawrence couldn't be with us. We're looking forward to seeing him soon. I think our team was impressed with the spacious and comforts of our underwater home, and they might have stayed permanently had our vigilant topside team not kept everyone on schedule. In the PM, we had an enjoyable half hour visiting with members of the public at the Orlando Science Center, hosted by former aquanaut, and JASON co-host Dr. Ellen Prager. She gave her studio audience an excellent overview of the Aquarius program and then the public was able to ask us questions about our expedition over a high speed video/audio connection, while Jim and Mark gave them a video/audio tour inside. Aquarius is truly a 21st century outpost, which we are using to our advantage to do several outreach programs for the K-12 crowd. After some hasty naps, hot soup and chocolate, Beth and Mark ventured out again to work on the bleaching experiment. We are using a unique device called a PAM, made by Walz in Germany, who have kindly loaned us this equipment to try out from Aquarius. The PAM is a diver-operated underwater fluorometer, a specialized high tech instrument that examines how the photosynthetic machinery inside plants, the chlorophyll molecules, are working. We are using the PAM to see if individual polyps on a coral colony, that are bleaching in our chambers, show differing abilities to photosynthesize as they bleach as a function of the flow over the polyps. Flow can vary quite a bit from the upstream to downstream side of a coral colony and we want to see how the process of photosynthesis changes within a single colony under different flows. The answer to our question may help explain why some parts of a coral reef bleach sooner than other parts during real bleaching events. Meanwhile, Jo and Janet ventured to another part of the Conch Reef and
made profiles of oxygen as the sun set. We all returned within minutes
of each other in time to eat dinner together and trade amusing stories
as the ever changing predator show unfolded outside the kitchen table.
Everyone is hitting the sack early as tomorrow is another early morning
dark dive. As I sign off, barely able to stand up, Jim sees a shark cruise
by the habitat window. The cycle of life, and saga of Aquarius, continues.
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Mission
Date: November, 2002 Mission Summary Aquanaut Profiles Expedition Journals Mission Pictures |
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