26 March, 2002

After spending time at the lab yesterday, we moved to the University of Tennessee campus today. In the morning, I attended Dr. Grebmeier's oceanography class to hear about the biological impact of El Nino. Did you know that the anchovy fishery in Peru has never recovered from the combined impacts of over fishing and the lengthy El Nino of the early 1970's? In the afternoon, during the lab portion of the class, students presented the results of their research on oceanography topics. Oceanography covers a wide range of topics. It is truly an interdisciplinary science, and the SBI project is a great example. In order to study carbon cycling in the Western Arctic ocean, teams of scientists will study biological, physical, geological, and chemical aspects of the shelf, slope, and basin areas of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The cruise I will be on is one of several in the five year long Phase II portion of the SBI project. Phase I (1998 - 2001) involved analyses of historical data, a few field investigations, and modeling of specific regions and processes. SBI II will include the main field program which will take place in the Bering "Strait region and over the outer shelf, shelf break and upper slope of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The planned Phase III will focus on development of Pan-Arctic models suitable for simulating the impacts of climate change on shelf-basin interactions.

The subject of Dr. Grebmeier's oceanography class was El Nino and its impact on the anchovy industry of Peru.