The University of California, San Diego proposed to operate the research vessel Melville to support NSF-funded scientific research at sea in the year 2005. NSF-sponsored projects account for 74% of the work of the vessel for the year (section 5). The ship will spend 2005 in the Pacific, supporting nine very different NSF funded scientific programs in areas ranging from Suva to Seattle and working in the southern ocean down to 55S. This award is a 5-year cooperative agreement, and funds for the years 2006 to 2009 will be negotiated as ship schedules develop to support NSF research.
Intellectual and Technical Merit: The intellectual merit of the proposed work is indirect. It derives from the intellectual merit of the individual research projects that depend upon the shipboard work at sea. For example, in February-March the ship will support a geophysical study (Lyle) using seismic and coring techniques to characterize the sedimentary structures at sites targeted for future ocean drilling under the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). In turn the IODP drilling will study the patterns of oceanic and atmospheric circulation on earth during the period of extreme warmth in the Eocene, and define differences in ocean circulation between the Eocene and Neogene periods. The sediment cores to be retrieved in the drilling program (and some to be taken in the 2005 program on Melville), when examined for the types and abundances of organisms present in different sediment layers (thus different times in the past), afford inferences about the overlying ocean conditions that nurtured those organisms in those locations prior to their sinking to the seafloor and their deposition in the sediments. The Eocene is an example of extraordinary warm periods in the absence of human interventions in the climate system; understanding the natural potential for climate variability is fundamental.
A key is that the ship, her crew and her technical support staff must be . and are - capable and ready to change between radically dissimilar scientific programs during the brief in-port periods scheduled. Extensive loading, offloading, laboratory reconfiguration and setup, and installations of heavy, project-specific deck equipment and container vans are port call commonplaces, in 2005 as in other years. Of special note is support of projects in April-June that involve the new JASON-II remotely operated, vehicle system, a demanding technical and logistical process for NSF-Ridge 2000 in the Lau Basin. Melville operations must successfully support the coring team from Oregon State University. Long-coring apparatus is heavy and potentially dangerous; safe operations require ship capability coordinated with high expertise among all crew and scientists involved.
Broader Impacts: The primary impact of ship operations is on the education of many students, principally but not exclusively graduate students in the ocean sciences. The great majority of scientific parties on Scripps (and other UNOLS) ships contain students in their ranks. They form integral parts of the research teams. By going to sea they obtain firsthand experience of the conduct of seagoing research, they learn the difficulties that surround the gathering of meaningful observations from the real ocean, and they gain valuable preparation for leading their own research projects at sea in their future careers. A second important impact is on public appreciation of ocean science. Research ships are novel, attractive venues for tours by school groups and other interested citizens. To the maximum extent feasible within the context of necessary work and constraints of new port and vessel security requirements, Scripps tries to accommodate all such outreach instances in port, in San Diego and elsewhere, since this gives positive representation to science in general and to seagoing ocean science in particular.
R/V Melville is one of the UNOLS ships equipped with C-band satellite communications (HiSeasNet), affording Internet connectivity at sea. Using this facility on a cruise near Papua New Guinea in early 2004, Driscoll was able to establish and update a project website ashore to provide a near-real-time view of the work to students and other interested parties, augmented by occasional real-time interactions via the net. Scripps also frequently receives inquiries from the public about volunteering to work at sea on a research vessel, often as a result of having browsed our marine (www.sio.ucsd.edu/shipsked/) or general institutional (www.sio.ucsd.edu/) website. They maintain information about volunteering on the site, pointing such inquirers toward scheduled chief scientists who may have need of volunteer assistance. There are university procedures in place to enroll volunteers on behalf of projects headed by UC-affiliated investigators, thereby providing appropriate insurance coverage, etc. In cases when volunteers and projects do connect successfully, strong educational experiences arise that can awaken a continuing interest in the oceans and ocean science.
Intellectual merit. At Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and throughout the U.S. oceanographic research community, the observation, measurement, and collection of samples and data are accomplished at sea on a global scale by operations aboard seagoing research vessels. National Science Foundation (NSF) support for the operations of oceanographic research vessels enables NSF-supported scientists to project their ability to observe, measure and sample the planet worldwide, facilitating scientific endeavor across a broad range of disciplines including biology, chemistry, geology, geophysics, physics, atmospheric sciences, and many others. SIO-operated ships have played a critical role in the exploration of our planet since 1907, and continue to contribute significantly to the U.S. ocean research effort. Shipboard research, such as that provided by SIO-operated vessels supported by NSF, offers the transformative potential to understand societally-relevant issues, such as global change and the health of ocean ecosystems, on which human well-being may ultimately depend. This award supported the operation of the Research Vessel (R/V) Melville during the period 01 MAR 2005 through 28 FEB 2013. During this period R/V Melville carried to sea 106 separate and distinctive scientific programs, 52 of which were NSF-sponsored projects. Each scientific program assigned aboard R/V Melville was individually selected through peer review processes, and was directed by its own Principal Investigator with unique objectives, outcomes and intellectual merit. The scheduling of scientific programs aboard the vessel was conducted collaboratively within the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), which has established a system for prudent shared use of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet by NSF as well as other federal, state, and local agencies. During this award period, R/V Melville conducted 2,164 operational research days. Of those, 1,265 (58%) supported NSF-sponsored projects, with the remainder supported by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (199 days, 9%), the United States Navy (560 days, 26%), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography programs (120 days, 6%). Broader impacts. The spectrum of research projects enabled by these improvements to NSF-supported research vessels collectively achieves far-reaching broader impacts through the enhancement of infrastructure that is critical to the promotion of training and learning, increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in research, advancing scientific and technological understanding and informing policy making for the benefit of society. For example, research and research training are fundamental elements of the SIO mission that benefit significantly from the proposed improvements. Since 1903, Scripps has awarded more than 1,500 PhD and MS degrees to women and men from more than 47 countries. Our alumni include a college president, five college deans, 21 academic directors, 234 tenure-track professors at 93 universities in 19 countries, and 142 research scientists at 32 universities in 12 countries. In the five-year period ending in 2010, 630 graduate students and 253 undergraduate students obtained first-hand experience at sea aboard SIO research vessels. Practical experience aboard research vessels is a cornerstone of SIO’s exemplary research training program, and this experience has contributed to the Institution’s success in producing outstanding new research scientists. As shared-use resources for the U.S. oceanographic research community, SIO-operated vessels host scientists from throughout the country, and contribute similarly to the education and training missions of other institutions. As a charter member of UNOLS, SIO is actively involved in coordinating research vessel operations with scientists and funding agencies so that our capabilities can best meet the current and anticipated needs of the entire community. Through UNOLS, SIO ship operations and technical support personnel collaborate with ship operations departments at other institutions to broadly communicate best practices, lessons learned, and operational practices that benefit the entire U.S. research community. During the period of this award, R/V Melville served NSF and the U.S. scientific community by safely, capably and efficiently carrying out its mission to advance our understanding of the oceans, climate, and Earth.
