The Johnson Lab of the Duke Marine Laboratory is leading an open ocean expedition from Honolulu, Hawaii to the North Pacific Ocean from Jan 10 to Feb 7, 2012 aboard the Kilo Moana a major research vessel of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The goal of the research cruise is to measure the abundance, diversity and activity of phytoplankton (the base of the food web in the ocean) and associated bacterial and viral communities across temperature (and other environmental) gradients to understand how climate change may impact ocean ecology and biogeochemistry. The project is officially titled “Collaborative Research: Seasonal and decadal changes in temperature drive Prochlorococcus ecotype distribution patterns” and funded in part by NSF to Duke University. This is the second in a series of three research cruises under the POWOW (Plankton Of Warming Ocean Waters) acronym. The team is blogging during the trip.
