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Cruise: Searching for the Asgards

Almost all visible life on Earth is eukaryotic. Trees, fish, humans, kelp, flowers, and mushrooms all share one thing: they are built from eukaryotic cells. Unlike prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells contain a nucleus and mitochondria, the powerhouses that facilitate cellular functions such as eating, breathing, and physical appearance. Yet, where and how the first eukaryote came into existence is still one of biology’s greatest unknowns. Dr. Brett Baker, of the University of Texas at Austin, and an international team of scientists are working to resolve this mystery.

Cruise: A Tale of Two Submarine Canyons

The Malvinas Current offshore of Argentina — a branch of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current — carries nutrients and cold water from the south, boosting primary productivity in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. Underwater canyons along Argentina’s continental slope create irregularities in the seafloor that could change the path of this powerful current, facilitating an exchange of water masses between the shelf and the open Ocean. Scientists hypothesize that, as a consequence of this dynamic, massive phytoplankton blooms and biodiversity hotspots are present near the canyon heads in these waters.

Cruise: Visualizing the Deep off Uruguay

The Rio de la Plata drains into the Atlantic Ocean, delivering sediment-rich contents from the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers, each fed by myriad streams and tributaries. The mixing of fresh water with the nutrient-rich seawater upwelled along the continental shelf fosters remarkable biodiversity. Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems, or VMEs, are critical yet fragile habitats that support a diverse array of species, and human activities pose a significant threat to these ecosystems. Currently, there is only one reported VME in Uruguay. It is home to cold-water coral reefs formed by Desmophyllum pertusum, a slow-growing coral that grows throughout the Atlantic Ocean; experts suspect this ecologically important animal is threatened and in decline. Scientists believe there are more vulnerable ecosystems, but have not had access to the technology needed to describe deep-water areas in Uruguayan waters.

Cruise: Underwater Oases of the Mar Del Plata Canyon

Two powerful currents converge in the Mar del Plata Submarine Canyon in Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone. One is warm and salty; the other is nutrient-rich and cold. Together, they form the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence, one of the most energetic regions in our global Ocean. These currents help to redistribute heat from the tropics to the poles and play a prominent role in the Earth’s climate. While scientists know these currents support submarine canyon ecosystems, their effects have never been visualized. This expedition will explore the diversity and distribution of seafloor communities in one of the country’s largest deep-sea canyons.

Cruise: Deep-Sea Expedition Leadership Master Class

The closest human beings to the Research Vessel Falkor (too) during this expedition might be orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station. The South Sandwich Islands is one of the most remote island chains in the world. It is a volcanic archipelago created by the South American Plate subducting beneath the South Sandwich Plate. Situated between the Southern and Atlantic Oceans, these islands are part of a rich mosaic of tectonic forces that create geologic features such as hadal zone trenches, underwater volcanoes, and spreading centers. These features facilitate high levels of endemism, supporting species found nowhere else.

This Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census Flagship Expedition will be led by Dr. Michelle Taylor, president of the Deep-Sea Biology Society and Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex; her team will locate and describe new species. Dr. Jenny Gales will lead GoSouth, a collaboration between the University of Plymouth, GEOMAR, and the British Antarctic Survey; her team will survey volcanic flanks with ROV SuBastian to determine the impacts of volcanism and earthquake activity on marine ecosystems. The science teams will also seek out deep-sea volcanoes and venture into the 8000-meter-deep South Sandwich Trench, the most geographically isolated and coldest trench on Earth.

Cruise: Searching for New Species in the South Sandwich Islands

Cruise: Into the Southern Ocean

Research and conservation in the Southern Ocean has never been more urgent. The region is home to some of the planet’s most bio-abundant marine ecosystems, including 10,000 endemic species. It occupies a quarter of the global ocean surface and plays an outsized role in regulating the Earth’s climate systems, absorbing 40% of anthropogenic carbon emissions and 72% of excess heat in the atmosphere yearly. The Southern Ocean’s biological systems largely enable this remarkable climate regulation. However, only 5% of the Southern Ocean is protected, and much of it remains understudied.

The Antarctic Peninsula, which borders the western edge of the Weddell Sea, has undergone some of the most rapid warming of any area on Earth, driving a massive loss of ice on land and at sea. This loss of ice coverage is reshaping the Weddell Sea’s marine communities by opening up newly ice-free areas for species to colonize and inhabit. However, scientific understanding of how Antarctic marine life is responding to this unprecedented warming is minimal.

Cruise: Climate Connections at the Ice-Sea Interface

In austral summer, the Antarctic sea ice recedes, allowing scientists to map and study parts of the seafloor typically covered in ice. But the waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula in the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica have not been well mapped and studied. It’s not easy to get there, after all. Drs. Patricia Esquete from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and Aleksandr Montelli from the University College London, UK, will travel to this remote region with an international team of scientists to create the first high-resolution maps of this region and study the animals that dwell here.

Cruise: Canyons, Vents, and Seeps of the Chile Margin

On May 2, 2008, Chile’s Chaitén volcano erupted without warning, spewing ash 30 kilometers into the air. This ash blanketed the landscape, and heavy rain in the following days triggered devastating volcanic mudflows that flowed down mountainsides and into the fjords below. The nearby town of Chaitén evacuated as the volcano completely transformed the surrounding landscape. While the destruction was easy to observe on land, scientists have not yet closely examined the impacts the eruption had on the surrounding ocean environments. Dr. Sebastian Watt of the University of Birmingham, UK, will lead an international team to study the underwater effects of the Chaitén eruption from the research vessel Falkor (too). Understanding the imprint of the Chaitén eruption in the marine environment will also help unlock deeper-time records of major volcanic eruptions in the region, allowing scientists to reconstruct volcanic behavior in Southern Chile over geologic time.