A SAFE vessel: Advancing research capabilities to the Gulf Stream

智力价值杜克大学尼古拉斯环境学院海洋实验室获得拨款，购买一艘27英寸的研究船，每天进入从北卡罗来纳州波弗特到哈特拉斯角附近的墨西哥湾流的近岸和近海水域。这艘船还可以拖曳到北卡罗来纳州海岸和更远的地方的接入点，并将提供给整个海洋研究社区，用于东海岸的研究。这艘船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贝马勒-帕米利科海湾河口系统。拉布拉多洋流和墨西哥湾流在哈特拉斯角汇合，形成了一个温暖和凉爽的海水混合的动态海洋学特征。哈特拉斯角地区继续受到科学关注，因为它是北大西洋西部暖温带(卡罗莱纳州)和北方省之间的生物地理屏障，是初级生产力高和微型浮游动物放牧的地带，是斜坡沉积物碳通量的来源，也是目前和预计具有商业价值的地区。使用该船的研究项目包括研究Hatteras地区中上层鲸目动物的分布、丰度、种群结构、声生态和行为，透明中水生物的生态生理学，近海产卵的重要商业物种到近岸育苗场的运输机制，以及从近海活动向敏感近岸生境的污染物运输。风力发电场、军事训练活动、渔业、航运、石油和天然气开发、矿物开采和生物资源保护继续扩展到近岸和近海水域；该船将能够研究这些活动和其他人类活动的生物后果，以及中上层和海底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类群的影响，特别是在针对环境变化的预测性建模的范围内，处理与管理自然海洋资源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，这些计划中的大多数学生都在他们的教师导师的指导下从事实地研究。从事近岸和离岸研究的学生将使用这艘船接受航海和海上研究方法方面的培训。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/