Transit voyage: Brisbane to Darwin

Transit voyage from Brisbane to Darwin to relocate the vessel in preparation for its next research voyage IN2021_V04. During the transit, several research and training projects will be undertaken.

The Chief Scientist on this voyage will lead (*see note below) a project to study the movement of carbon from surface to deep water in the Coral Sea. The study will also investigate the interaction of microbes in this process. High-throughput genomic techniques will be used to generate a detailed view of the microbial communities of the Coral Sea, including both the dominant organisms and those in low abundance. These data will be used to deepen our understanding of the relationship between carbon movement and ocean microbes.

The voyage also includes the following research and training projects:

• Microplastics in the food chain: impact on the microbial and planktonic organisms (Dr Sophie Leterme, Flinders University – shore-based)
• Linking the Biological Carbon Pump flux to microbial colonisation of sinking particles in the Southern Ocean in the Coral Sea (Dr Viena Puigcorbé, Edith Cowan University – shore-based)
• Flow cytometric classification of the phytoplankton community across Australia’s top end (Dr Allison McInnes, Queensland University of Technology – shore-based)
• Dinoflagellates and broader planktonic assemblage observation (Dr Matt Gordon, Defence Science and Technology Group – shore-based)
• BGC-Argo float deployment (Prof Tom Trull, CSIRO – shore-based)
• Cosmic ray measurements (Dr Grahame Rosolen, CSIRO – shore-based)
• Indigenous Time at Sea Scholarship – ITSS (Ms Hannah McCleary, CSIRO)

The science team on this voyage includes 21 participants from 3 institutions. This will be the second voyage to include the Indigenous Time at Sea Scholarship (ITSS) Program, with the third student in this program joining the voyage.

* This voyage has been impacted by the COVID lockdown in Melbourne, with several participants unable to join the voyage. The voyage will be led ‘virtually’ by Chief Scientist Dr Viena Puigcorbé from Edith Cowan University, who will support the voyage from on shore.

Voyage outcomes

Summary of voyage outcomes will be published approximately 3-6 months after the completion of the voyage.