I have active projects and collaborations in several of the worlds oceans. Navigate to backgrounds and detailed explanations with the links below.
Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System
The NABOS Project is a multidisciplinary, multinational collaboration to study ocean and climate processes in the Nansen, Amundsen, and Makarov sectors of the Arctic Ocean. These areas are influenced by circulation of warm Atlantic seawater around the boundaries of the Arctic Ocean and by large amounts of freshwater and shelf-modified waters from the East Siberian and Laptev Seas. NABOS has been operating in this region since 2002 and is the longest established observing system in these sectors of the Arctic Ocean. Mooring data are available nearly continuously at a couple stations, and in recent years the number of moorings along the continental shelf break has increased allowing better analysis of the connectivity between ocean basins, between the shelf and the basins, and between the ocean surface and the deep ocean. Mooring data has been complemented by surveys roughly every two years, and hydrochemical data has been a major part of the observing system since 2013.
The Biogeochemistry and Tracer Lab at the International Arctic Research Center is committed to providing quality nutrient (nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, and silicate) data from NABOS cruises and is working to understand if and how nutrient dynamics have changed since 2013 and how to best apply nutrients as tracers of different water types in the Arctic.
Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate
MOSAiC is a cross-disciplinary study of the central Arctic Ocean. A one-of-a-kind field campaign was conducted from September 2019 to September 2020, documenting for the first time the annual dynamics of atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, ecosystem and biogeochemical processes. The study uses a Lagrangian-framework, drifting with the sea ice from the central Arctic, riding the Transpolar drift across the North Pole and into the Greenland Sea.
The Biogeochemistry and Tracer Lab at the International Arctic Research Center is studying the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients in sea ice in collaboration with sea ice experts, biogeochemistry teams, and ecologists. The MOSAiC campaign was logistically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the month of the melt was not able to be studied due to crew changes. In an effort to assess this critical period, our group investigated nutrient and trace metal dynamics in landfast sea ice during the 2021 spring melt.
Seas the Change
Seas the change is a data synthesis project funded by the North Pacific Research Board. We are leveraging physical models and linear inverse models to assess the supply and movement of nutrients through the lower trophic level ecosystem. By launching an extensive data compilation and quality control effort, we aim to assess nutrient change in the Bering in and Chukchi Seas.
This project has an outreach component to demystify models. The team is building a simple module that users can make hypotheses about change in the arctic and force those changes in a user interface. Through this work we aim to increase the dialogue about what models can offer scientists and the public and how to interpret model-derived data.
GEOTRACES
GEOTRACES is an international program that aims to characterize trace element an isotope distributions in the world’s oceans to constrain supply and export of materials from ocean interfaces and internal cycling. Whitmore has worked extensively with data from the US Arctic GEOTRACES campaign and the international Arctic GEOTRACES efforts.
Recently, Whitmore is continuing work with GEOTRACES via the Antarctic US GEOTRACES campaign (Nov 2023 – Jan 2024). This project aims to use gallium, vanadium, and barium to understand lateral supply (circulation) of materials, export, and sedimentary supply of materials to the Amundsen Sea. This region is undergoing rapid ice-sheet loss which decreases the surface salinity and influences downstream regions like the Ross Sea (a deep water formation site).