Project: RAPID: High-resolution sampling of plankton taxa, marine snow, and environmental variables across the north Atlantic subpolar gyre

This project used the opportunity of a ship crossing the North Atlantic at high latitude to conduct a high-resolution sampling transect of mesozooplankton, marine "snow" (biogenic aggregates), and environmental variables from the northwestern UK shelf to southern Greenland via a route south of Iceland, thence south across the Labrador Sea and the Grand Banks to the slope water south of Nova Scotia, Canada. Sampling was done with the fast-tow Video Plankton Recorder II (VPRII).  The VPR enables non-destructive sampling of fragile plankton in situ, and through rapid towyo deployments (continuous raising and lowering while under way), it provides high vertical (top 150 m) and horizontal (1km towyo spacing) resolution of robust as well as fragile plankton and aggregates and numerous environmental variables. The VPRII had been deployed in several locations around the world, but, until this cruise, there was no comparable data set for the far North Atlantic, an area of intense ecological interest. This opportunity arose from the transatlantic maiden voyage of the Schmidt Ocean Institute's (SOI) new research vessel, R/V Falkor, from the UK to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from July 2-28, 2012.  SOI funded ship costs for the transit, making the underway VPR survey a cost-effective way to sample.  This project collected a major data set that can be quickly processed (acoustic, hydrographic, automated image analysis) and will be available to the community soon. Two Ph.D. students participated in the cruise, adding to their training in oceanography and high latitude marine science. 

This project was funded by the National Science Foundation. In addition, the VPRII upgrade was supported by the Marine Science and Technology Foundation (WHOI #17073) and the Schmidt Ocean Institute provided the ship itself, the R/V Falkor.