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UH professor, student study at world's only underwater laboratory

Team of six conducts acidification research at Aquarius Reef Base

Published: Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Updated: Monday, August 3, 2009

A University of Hawai'i professor embarked on a mission to study ocean acidification at the world's only underwater laboratory last week. Brian Popp was stationed at the Aquarius Reef Base in the Florida Keys from Oct. 14 to 23. Along with UH oceanography student Christina Bradley, he was among a team of four scientists and two technicians hoping to determine what role corals, sponges and other undersea organisms play in ocean acidification. Ocean acidification refers to the chemistry changes in the ocean as excess carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere. The scientists had the opportunity to do a saturation mission, which means they stayed undersea for an extended time for research by going through 17 hours of decompression at the end, instead of surfacing each day to decompress. Some of the hypotheses Popp planned on testing involved the role of sea sponges as filters in the ocean. "There's a huge number of chemical transformations that go on," Popp said. "A small sponge can filter a swimming pool." The team did face some challenges, Popp said, like 8- to 10-foot waves on the surface, which had been "shaking the habitat." The heavy wind and waves caused pressure changes. Also, one of their most vital pieces of equipment, the mass spectrometer, broke early in the saturation mission. The mass spectrometer would have been able to tell scientists how much nitrogen the sponges produced while they were stationed at Aquarius. "I'll bring them back to Hawai'i and analyze them in my laboratory," Popp said of the samples they were not able to analyze with the mass spectrometer. Despite the rigorous nature of the work, Popp feels compelled to work as hard as possible. "We are using taxpayers' money, so I have an obligation to (them)," he said. This latest expedition was Popp's third time at the undersea laboratory. Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the program is run by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

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