A SAFE vessel: Advancing research capabilities to the Gulf Stream

杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院的海洋实验室获得了一笔拨款，用于购买一艘27英尺长的研究船，每天从北卡罗来纳州博弗特到哈特拉斯角外的墨西哥湾流进行近岸和近海水域的研究。这艘船也可以被拖到北卡罗莱纳海岸和其他地方的接入点，并将供海洋学研究界在东海岸进行研究。从船上进行的科学研究将集中在哈特拉斯角近海地区和沿海海洋以及阿尔伯马尔-帕姆利科海湾系统。拉布拉多洋流和墨西哥湾流在哈特拉斯角交汇，形成了一个动态的海洋学特征，在这里，冷暖水混合在一起。哈特拉斯角地区作为北大西洋西部暖温带（卡罗莱纳）和北方省份之间的生物地理屏障，作为初级生产力高和小型浮游动物放牧的地区，作为斜坡沉积物碳通量的来源，以及作为一个正在进行和预计的商业利益地区，继续受到科学界的关注。使用该船的研究项目包括研究哈特拉斯地区上层鲸类的分布、丰度、种群结构、声学生态学和行为，透明中水生物的生态生理学，以及商业上重要的物种从近海繁殖到近海苗圃的运输机制，以及从近海活动到敏感的近海栖息地的污染物运输。更广泛的影响从新船上进行的研究将集中在生物物理研究上，这些研究可用于跨管辖边界的环境影响评估，并为管理和政策决策提供信息。风电场、军事训练、渔业、航运、油气开发、矿产开采、生物资源保护等继续向近岸和近海拓展；该船将能够研究这些活动和其他人类活动的生物后果以及远洋和底栖生态系统的动态和过程。近岸和近海研究将通过研究海洋物种（包括濒危海洋哺乳动物和海龟）的丰度和分布、它们与栖息地和其他物种的关系，以及人类活动对这些分类群的影响，特别是在响应环境变化的预测建模的背景下，解决与自然海洋资源管理有关的国家优先事项。海洋实验室有强有力的本科生和研究生培训计划，这些计划的大多数学生都与他们的教师导师一起进行实地研究。从事近岸和近海研究的学生将使用该船接受航海技术和海上研究方法的培训。杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院海洋实验室：http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/

Intellectual MeritThe Marine Laboratory of the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, is awarded a grant to purchase a 27' research vessel to access near-shore and offshore waters from Beaufort NC to the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras on a daily basis. The vessel can also be trailered to access points along the North Carolina coast and beyond and will be available to the oceanographic research community at large for research on the eastern seaboard. Scientific research conducted from the vessel will focus on the Cape Hatteras offshore region and the coastal ocean and the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound estuarine system. The Labrador Current and Gulf Stream converge at Cape Hatteras, creating a dynamic oceanographic feature in which warm and cool waters mix. The Cape Hatteras region continues to receive scientific attention as a biogeographic barrier between the Western North Atlantic Warm and Temperate (Carolina) and Boreal provinces, as a zone of high primary productivity and micro-zooplankton grazing, as a source of carbon flux to slope sediments, and as an area of on-going and projected commercial interests. Research projects using the vessel include study of the distribution, abundance, population structure, acoustic ecology, and behavior of pelagic cetaceans in the Hatteras region, the ecological physiology of transparent midwater organisms, and transport mechanisms of commercially important species spawned offshore to inshore nursery grounds and transport of pollutants from offshore activities into sensitive inshore habitats.Broader ImpactsResearch undertaken from the new vessel will focus on biophysical studies that can be used to inform assessment of environmental impacts across jurisdictional boundaries and inform management and policy decisions. Wind farms, military training activities, fisheries, shipping, oil and gas development, mineral extraction, and living resource protection continue to expand into near-shore and off-shore waters; the vessel will enable studies of the biological consequences of these and other human activities and of the dynamics and processes of pelagic and benthic ecosystems. Near-shore and off-shore research will address national priorities relating to stewardship of natural ocean resources through studies of the abundance, and distribution of marine species (including endangered marine mammals and sea turtles), their relationships to habitats and other species, and the impacts of human activity on these taxa, especially within the context of predictive modeling in response to environmental change. The Marine Laboratory has vigorous undergraduate and graduate training programs and most students in these programs engage in field research with their faculty mentors. Students working on near-shore and offshore studies will be trained in seamanship and at-sea research methods using this vessel.Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/