hello and welcome! I hope you're excited to join in on this exploration through the Arctic – this blog will be home to the many stories that transpire as we embark on this 45-day research cruise aboard the R/V Sikuliaq studying primary production in the Chukchi Sea.

Who is we? A team of oceanographers and physicists from Stanford University led by Professors Kevin Arrigo and Manu Prakash, you'll get to meet us all soon enough. But first and foremost – hi my name is Natalie Cross, I just graduated with a M.S. from Stanford's Earth Systems program and will be the primary host and writer of this blog!

Funded by the National Science Foundation, this research cruise is focused on investigating the fate of three primary production systems – (1) microalgae growing within sea ice, (2) blooms of phytoplankton underneath sea ice & (3) open water phytoplankton blooms. Don't worry if you don't know what that means, we'll try our best to explain some of the technicalities throughout these blog posts, but for now all you need to know is that these systems are at the base of the Arctic food web and it is unclear how they will be impacted by warming temperatures and melting sea ice. These next six weeks, we'll be out on the water, out and under the ice, and shifting through lots and lots of plankton (hence the profile photo) and will be sure to take you all with us every step of the way.

If you're excited to follow along go ahead and subscribe to this blog or give us a follow on Instagram @polarplankton or Tiktok @polarplankton.

More to come soon!

Natalie