A SAFE vessel: Advancing research capabilities to the Gulf Stream

智力优势杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院的海洋实验室获得一笔拨款，用于购买一艘 27 英尺长的研究船，以便每天进入从北卡罗来纳州博福特到哈特拉斯角附近的墨西哥湾流的近岸和近海水域。该船还可以拖到北卡罗来纳州海岸及其他地区的接入点，并将供整个海洋学研究界在东部沿海地区进行研究。 该船进行的科学研究将重点关注哈特拉斯角近海地区、沿海海洋以及阿尔伯马尔-帕姆利科海峡河口系统。 拉布拉多洋流和墨西哥湾流在哈特拉斯角交汇，形成了温暖和凉爽海水混合的动态海洋特征。哈特拉斯角地区作为北大西洋西部暖温带（卡罗莱纳州）和北方省份之间的生物地理屏​​障，作为初级生产力高和微型浮游动物放牧的区域，作为斜坡沉积物碳通量的来源，以及作为正在进行和预计的商业利益的区域，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中上层鲸类的分布、数量、种群结构、声学生态和行为、透明中水生物的生态生理学、近海产卵到近海育苗地的商业重要物种的运输机制以及近海活动污染物运输到敏感的近海栖息地。更广泛的影响新船进行的研究将侧重于生物物理研究，这些研究可用于评估跨司法管辖区边界的环境影响，并为管理和政策提供信息决定。风电场、军事训练活动、渔业、航运、油气开发、矿产开采、生物资源保护等不断向近岸和近海海域拓展；该船将能够研究这些和其他人类活动的生物后果以及中上层和海底生态系统的动态和过程。 近岸和离岸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类群的影响，特别是在响应环境变化的预测模型的背景下，解决与自然海洋资源管理有关的国家优先事项。 海洋实验室拥有活跃的本科生和研究生培训项目，这些项目的大多数学生与导师一起参与实地研究。 从事近岸和近海研究的学生将使用这艘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/