The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is undergoing some of the most dramatic climate changes on Earth. The WAP region has experienced a winter warming trend during the past half century that is ~5.4 times the global average. Understanding these changes is extremely difficult to unravel and the unprecedented changes we are observing might be a harbinger of the potential changes in the future oceans.
As ocean ecosystems are changing and developing the capacity to resolve those changes and understand the implications for humanity is a clarion call for oceanography. Traditional modes of sampling will not suffice and efforts must be focused on developing networks capable of operating in a harsh environment and maintaining themselves for sustained periods at sea. The proposed robotic network will provide the critical advance needed by the community. We also emphasize that the proposed network is modular and could be relocated to any coastal shelf and scaled up to basin scales.
We will combine physical/biogeochemical robotic sampling to enable ship-based adaptive sampling over ecologically relevant spatial scales. The robotic network will also provide ecosystem data when ships are not available. We call this flexible and smart network a Darwin cluster. Over the relevant scales, the Darwin cluster will provide a long-term in situ network of sensors and instruments that operates in a manner similar to an insect hive with a distributed network of “worker” robots, all of which have specific capabilities that collectively and cooperatively serve the specified needs of a centralized, shore-based “brain.”
The data collected will provide critical spatial data for numerical ecosystem modeling. We propose to use the robots to study the dynamical interaction between the atmospheric forcing, physical mixing and phytoplankton concentration, metabolism and diversity. These data will be combined with active and passive acoustic sampling of higher trophic levels. This robotic network will be flexible in its sampling strategies in order to adjust on the fly as the ecosystem evolves in response to the physical forcing of the ocean. Initial priority will be given to ‘biological hotspots” along the Antarctic peninsula which are key areas for biogeochemistry, phytoplankton productivity, and higher trophic level feeding (zooplankton, penguins, whales, seals). The robotic networks data will also allow for adaptive sampling when ships are in the vicinity. This effort will directly leverage off an NSF sponsored Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program being conducted along the WAP.

Two Rutgers gliders patrolling coastal waters. This project will result in the construction of a Darwin cluster to study climate change along the West Antarctic Peninsula.

Project Resources and Results

• Grant Summary
• Palmer Station, Antarctica
• Palmer Station LTER - PAL
• Palmer Station Outreach Program

The Science of the Palmer LTER (publication lists)

• Publications

Interesting Links

• "Antarctic Peninsula glaciers are flowing faster" - article on MSNBC
• Antarctic Peninsula- Wikipedia
• Retreating Glacier Fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the Past Half-Century - Realclimate.org
• Climate Change - Our View - British Antarctic Survey