The Rowan University scholars are faculty, recent graduates, and Ph.D. Student – Participated in a North Atlantic research expedition from August to September to study global climate change and the depths to which it is becoming increasingly severe.
Beth Christensen, Ph.D., professor and founding chair of Rowan’s School of Earth and Environmental Studies (SEE) Department of Environmental Sciences, said 15 international scientists will participate in the deep-sea trip aboard the Spanish research vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa. He said he did. Its mission is to address one central question: how global climate change is affecting the marine life that regulates the climate and provides information about the health and history of our oceans. was to collect data.
Some of these creatures, such as single-celled foraminifera, leave behind tiny calcium carbonate shells that act as data recorders of ocean conditions. Collected on the ocean floor over thousands of years, these shells record detailed information about the ocean’s health and history.
“What they give us is a continuous record of time that goes back millions of years,” Christensen says.
Christensen is a veteran marine researcher with 17 trips under his belt and has deep expertise in studying ocean currents and their interconnections around the world. Joining her on her latest research cruise was doctoral student Corey DeBellis. Students working on campus with Dr. Gerald Rustic and students working on campus with recent Environmental Science (BS 2024) graduate Joanna Gardin in collaboration with Dr. Lauren Kipp.
Christensen said ocean research expeditions have yielded vast amounts of information, from how earthquakes work to a deeper human understanding of the frequency of El Niño weather patterns to a better appreciation of how the climate has changed over time. He said that information was obtained.
Her research on the Sarmiento de Gamboa, which sailed from Spain to the North Atlantic, included studying water currents in the area.
“We wanted to focus on the North Atlantic because it drives all ocean currents,” Christensen said.
rising tide and temperature
Some of the data points she and her collaborators collected confirmed a spike in ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic.
“Normally there is a large difference in water temperature between the equator and the North Atlantic, but that temperature difference is narrowing,” Christensen said.
This is important, she says, because warmer water traps less oxygen on the ocean floor, which can support marine life at all depths.
Christensen, whose previous research has included studying sediment cores drilled from the ocean floor, said this trip focused on samples from the entire water column.
The website, which details the daily musings of scientists, featured shipboard research that explains some of the human factors that influence the oceans and overall global climate.
The expedition included researchers from Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Greece, and the United States. Most of their 30 days at sea after leaving the Azores were rough, with swells up to 20 feet high.
Clues to past and present climate
Part of Guldin’s mission is also to collect water samples to support Kipp’s research, some of which include naturally occurring water samples to measure environmental changes that may be caused by global warming. It said it also included measuring the concentration of radium present.
Guldin, who is currently considering master’s programs in environmental science and oceanography, said it was “beyond amazing” to be able to take part in an ocean research trip around Rowan before completing his graduate studies.
“We collected 60 liters of water and filtered it through a cartridge to capture the radium in the fibers for Dr. Kipp to analyze,” Gardin said.
The paleoceanography researcher at DeBerry Rowan University, where she started her Ph.D. this semester, will collect sediment from the ocean floor on her first ocean research trip and compare past biodiversity with present-day samples. He said he was able to do so.
“We want to reconstruct what the ocean looked like hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago,” DeBellis said. “We are trying to reconstruct surface ocean temperatures and better understand El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather patterns.”
According to NOAA, ENSO is one of the most important climate phenomena because it alters global atmospheric circulation and can affect temperature and precipitation around the world. Clear clues about how ENSO works can be gleaned from studies of foraminifera and other biodiversity within sediment cores.
Christensen said the trip was largely funded by the Spanish government, which owns and maintains the research vessel. Christensen and DeBellis’ travel expenses were covered by funds through the SEE Dean’s Office, while Grudin was supported by funds through Kipp’s National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
Christensen is writing about his findings from the trip in a book he hopes to publish soon, which he hopes will be used to strengthen his application for funding to continue ocean research.
“We plan to submit a research proposal to NSF to compare foraminiferal assemblages collected on the ocean floor with material we collected with nets 200 meters below the surface,” she said. “This will help us better understand the ecology of benthic foraminifera and where they feed in the water column.”
