Advanced instrument and scientific research team working side-by-side to demonstrate the advancement of marine science in Taiwan.
R/V Ocean Researcher V, the 2,700-ton scientific research vessel designed for ocean science exploration, was set for its maiden voyage on February 18, 2013. She sailed into the South China Sea, the most fertile region among Taiwan’s territorial waters, to conduct researches on marine geology and geophysics, especially on issues of clean energy and carbon cycle. Assisted by the state-of-the-art scientific instruments onboard, the collaboration between scientists from universities and research team of Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) had brought back fruitful inspiring discoveries from its 19-day voyage on the rough waters.
The power of real-time satellite images help to unravel mysteries in marine ecology
With benefits of satellite internet equipped on board, the research team received satellite images and from which the location of internal waves in the South China Sea can be identified in near real-time. The effect of upwelling induced by internal waves is the main factor that differentiates the coverage rates of coral reefs at the east and the west side of Dongsha Atoll. The discovery also helps to understand the influence of internal waves on shaping marine environment, impact to offshore platforms, and also the operation of underwater defense such as anti-submarine warfare.
Sailing on rough waters, Ocean Researcher V discovered that extreme weather conditions promote marine fertility and make the ocean to become super carbon capturer
Ocean Researcher V was designed to be big enough to sustain the prevailing rough seas around Taiwan. In-situ measurements collected by underway pCO2 system and drifting sediment traps showed that the quantity of CO2 captured by the South China Sea was 260,000 tons under normal weather condition, which is about 35% of Taiwan’s daily CO2 emission. However, what is more surprising is that, during the first two days of the voyage when Ocean Researcher V encountered strong weather front (the wind speed as high as 15 m/s), data showed that the sequestration of CO2 was 9-fold to the normal condition, which is equal to 328% of Taiwan’s daily CO2 emission. The results suggest that extreme weather conditions could largely increase the capability of carbon sequestration of the South China Sea. Furthermore, strong northeast monsoon fertilizes the surface la
Advanced instrument helps to precisely map the underwater landscape and take samples from deep
Equipped with multi-beam echo sounder system, Ocean Researcher V is able to conduct sea-floor topography survey with high precision. Lots of submarine volcanoes and a 60-km long scarp with 300-meter fall had been identified at region southeast of the Dongsha Atoll. Pockmark features spreading over the bottom showed the evidence of the existence of natural gas hydrate were also found. In addition, sediment core samples from 8 sites were also collected precisely by Ocean Researcher V with benefit of Dynamic Positioning System equipped on board. Some sediment cores were as long as 5 meters and were sampled from the seafloor as deep as 2600 meters. Preliminary results from these core samples showed evidences of abundance of foraminifera and methane and will be further studied on methane hydrate and biogeochemical research.
