Cruise report: JGOFS Leg I International study of the North Atlantic Bloom : R/V Atlantis II Voyage 119.2, Funchal to Reykjavik, March/April 1989

Abstract

With the support of the National Science Foundation, we have completed the first cruise devoted to the GOFS and JGOFS program for the North Atlantic Bloom studies between March 28 and April 6 on board R/V Atlantis II. The major task of this cruise, to deploy bottom-tethered mooring arrays with time-series sediment traps along with current meters at two critical stations, 34°N and 47°N along 20°W, was accomplished. All 6 sediment traps, 3 on each array, were set at 14-day intervals for 13 periods from April 3 to September 26, 1989. Their opening and closing times were synchronized throughout the period of deployment. The arrays and instruments will be recovered and redeployed in September/October, 1989. Ancillary water column data, such as CTD, fluorometry, pigments, and major nutrient distribution, were also successfully completed (except for transmissometry profiling at the 47°N station) in order to understand the prebloom setting at JGOFS 34°N, 47°N, and 60°N stations. At the 47°N station on April 2, the mixed layer depth was 248m.