{"images":[{"fid":527726,"uid":"218","filename":"naames_high-res.jpg","uri":"public://thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg","filemime":"image/jpeg","filesize":"8154685","status":"1","timestamp":"1447949718","uuid":"773faf44-8df8-4684-b90c-920afe0ed938","alt":"NAAMES banner","title":"","width":"5400","height":"3600","crop1x1":"/sites/default/files/styles/1x1_cardfeed/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=3ORG_Y57","crop2x1":"/sites/default/files/styles/2x1_cardfeed/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=6cvdlovw","crop2x2":"/sites/default/files/styles/2x2_cardfeed/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=bpFLOags","crop3x1":"/sites/default/files/styles/3x1_cardfeed/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=xYFASYdm","crop1x2":"/sites/default/files/styles/1x2_cardfeed/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=UdRJF4NV","crop4x3ratio":"/sites/default/files/styles/image_card_4x3_ratio/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=SsoqNWQN","cropHumongo":"/sites/default/files/styles/4x1_cardfeed_humongo/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=xtiaOyjk","cropBanner":"/sites/default/files/styles/card_page_banner/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=a8iBmmDE","cropUnHoriz":"/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_horiz/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=ozea6s9t","cropUnVert":"/sites/default/files/styles/ubernode_alt_vert/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=q7wosOK0","fullWidthFeature":"/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=lWF1Jbsm","lrThumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/lr_thumbnail/public/thumbnails/image/naames_high-res.jpg?itok=DkyWfDik"}],"ubernode":{"title":"Five-Year NASA Study to Look at the Immense Influence of Petite Plankton","nid":"373964","type":"ubernode","changed":"1458584989","uuid":"03c834b4-7140-453a-8c5c-c36169963e06","body":"
Plankton: They're the tiniest of sea creatures, the bottom of the ocean's food chain.
\n\n\n\nBut when those pee-wees of the sea multiply in what's known as a bloom, they can, collectively, have an enormous and far-reaching impact on the planet.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThat's why another collective \u2014 of humans, specifically researchers and scientists from NASA and academia \u2014 have taken a distinct interest in the diminutive organisms.
\n\n\n\nIn fact, the folks from NASA and academia are so interested in plankton that they recently launched something called the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study, or NAAMES, an intensive, five-year investigation of what's happening at the bottom of the food chain and how that will evolve as climate changes.
\n\n\n\nMike Behrenfeld, the principal investigator for NAAMES and a senior research scientist and professor at Oregon State University, explains in more detail:
\n\n\n\n\"NAAMES is a study to understand the annual cycles of ocean plankton, how they are recreated each year, and how they give rise to seasonal plankton blooms that support the world's great fisheries and take up massive amounts of carbon.\"
\n\n\n\nWhen Behrenfeld says \"massive,\" he isn't kidding. About half the carbon dioxide emitted into Earth's atmosphere every year ends up in the ocean. Plankton absorb a lot of it. The thing that makes the North Atlantic plankton bloom so special and so ripe for study is that it's the largest bloom in the world \u2014 a veritable \"plankton pageant,\" according to Behrenfeld.
\n\n\n\n\n\nThere's some controversy, though, over when that pageant begins. It was traditionally thought to kick off in the spring, but recent satellite data may point toward an autumn origin. Behrenfeld and his fellow scientists hope to discover the true answer.
\n\n\n\nBut this study is about more than just understanding what that plankton pageant is doing underwater.
\n\n\n\n\"NAAMES is also a study investigating how these plankton populations give rise to small organic particles that leave the ocean and get injected into the atmosphere to ultimately influence the clouds and climate,\" Behrenfeld said.
\n\n\n\nWhen those organic particles leave the ocean, they do so as aerosols, some of which can be detected in the wind as far away as Ireland.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\"Aerosol particles are important because they are the nuclei on which cloud droplets form,\" said Rich Moore, a researcher at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and deputy project scientist for NAAMES. \"Higher droplet concentrations in the clouds make them more dense and more reflective, which increases their cooling effects on the climatic thermostat.\"
\n\n\n\nSo if NAAMES sounds like a complex study with a lot of different facets, that's because it is. During the field campaigns \u2014 four total, about a month each, all scheduled to coincide with critical phases of the bloom \u2014 researchers will take measurements by sea and by air. Satellite data will fill in the gaps between campaigns and help provide a big-picture view.
\n\n\n\n\u200bNAAMES kicked off Nov. 6 when the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis, which is operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, left Woods Hole, Massachusetts, for the first of the four campaigns.
\n\n\n\nThe Atlantis is carrying a wide range of instruments that will help Behrenfeld and his ocean-going team measure everything from the types of organisms present in the bloom, to the rates of plankton growth and photosynthesis, to the relationships between predators and prey.
\n\n\n\n\n\nNASA's C-130H Hercules airborne laboratory, based out of Wallops Flight Facility, will complement the Atlantis's research by collecting airborne data. Research flights, which are being coordinated with the movements of the Atlantis, began Nov. 12 out of St. John's, Newfoundland.
\n\n\n\n\"The aircraft will overfly the ship and surrounding waters to provide the full range of atmospheric altitudes as well as remotely sense the ocean surface waters,\" Moore said. \"Since the aircraft is much faster than the ship, we can cover more ground quickly and provide the regional spatial context for the single-point ship measurements.\"
\n\n\n\n\n\nThe C-130 is carrying instruments like the Langley Aerosol Research Group (LARGE) suite of instruments and the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) that is also from NASA Langley. The NASA Goddard ocean color sensor (GCAS), the GISS Research Scanning Polarimeter (RSP) and the PTR mass spectrometer round out the mix. The airborne researchers will use these instruments to characterize the oceanic and atmospheric properties of the North Atlantic region during each of the deployments and link the Atlantis's detailed ocean biology measurements to those relevant for current and next-generation satellite instruments.
\n\n\n\nThe whole operation is a bit like an intense, intricate dance, which Moore finds invigorating.
\n\n\n\n\"Deployments can be grueling in terms of schedule, but I find that many wonderful science and research ideas come out of this sort of pressure cooker-like environment,\" he said. \"Plus, being around all these really smart people all the time gives me a chance to really nerd out and have stimulating, intellectual conversations with other people in different research fields.\"
\n\n\n\nNAAMES is part of NASA\u2019s second series of Earth Venture suborbital investigations recommended by the National Research Council in 2007. Earth Venture investigations are part of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program managed at Langley for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
\n\n\n\nThe entire endeavor has been a labor of love for Behrenfeld, who sees great potential for discovery.
\n\n\n\n\"I don't know exactly what we're going to find out \u2014 and that's the exciting part,\" he said. \"The project has brought together diverse science disciplines, a wide range of measurements, observational platforms ranging from floats, to ships, to aircraft, satellites, and models \u2014 and it's doing all of this at four different parts of the annual plankton cycle.\u00a0How can we possibly not learn something new.\"
\n\n\n\nSo yes, Behrenfeld is, in a sense, turning to the bottom of the food chain to feed his own passion for discovery, but he hopes there will be significant ramifications for the world at large.
\n\n\n\n\"If we can understand how this critical region behaves today,\" he said, \"we can make better predictions of how this massive ecosystem might change in the future, and make informed decisions on how to respond to these changes, and understand more about ocean ecosystems in other regions around the world.\"
\n\n\nFor more information and updates on the study, visit the NAAMES website.","name":"Joe Atkinson","uri":"/feature/five-year-nasa-study-to-look-at-the-immense-influence-of-petite-plankton","collections":["5114","5215","5327"],"credits":"Joe Atkinson
\nNASA Langley Research Center