Documentation of Graf-Wilczek-Knoll

During Leg ANT-XXIII/9 on the 31st March 2007 the German research vessel Polarstern mapped a significant bathymetric feature with its swath sonar system at the north-west margin of the Kerguelen Plateau. Due to the fact, that the feature was discovered just a month after the third IPY 2007/2008 has started, it was named after Graf Wilczek who, together with Carl Weyprecht, had promoted the first IPY. The undersea feature name proposal was officialy accepted by the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) at its 20th meeting in late July and was added to the GEBCO Gazetteer of UFN (http://www.iho.shom.fr/COMMITTEES/GEBCO/SCUFN/scufn_intro.htm). ______________ Graf Hans Wilczek (Notation of the name from the book of Wilczek's daughter Elisabeth Kinsky- Wilczek). The Austrian naval hero Tegetthoff in 1871 planned an expedition to the southern hemisphere. The geophysicist G. Neumayer (1826-1909) already was selected as its chief scientist. Also the naval officer Carl Weyprecht (1838-1881) and the mountaineer Julius Payer (1841-1915) were to participate. Because of the sudden death of Tegettoff the project came to a halt and eventually was cancelled. By support of the well known geographer August Petermann (1822-1878) Weyprecht and Payer made a voyage into the Barents Sea which made them believe having seen the "open polar sea". An additional undertaking to confirm and to extend the find was obvious. At this stage of the affair count Hans Wilczek (1837-1922) got involved. He not only fostered a new expedition with a considerable sum of money, but he participated in commanding a support vessel to Novaya Zemlya. Wilczek managed to get home but the expedition vessel under Weyprecht's command became imprisoned in the pack for two years and at least had to be abandoned. After an adventurous trip back to civilisation Weyprecht changed his mind in what he considered the best way of polar research. Together with Wilczek in 1875 he started the promotion of international station-based polar exploration - the IPY was born. Wilczek guaranteed the constitution of an Austrian station on Novaya Zemlya and was ready to winter over there personally. Because of several political and other obstructions the beginning of the IPY was delayed till 1882. Wilczek's friend Weyprecht had passed away already. The command of the Austrian station, eventually erected on Jan Mayen, was given to Emil v. Wohlgemuth (1843-1896). Wilczek financed the main part of the Austrian IPY participation. Wilczek is described as honest and popular. On the one hand acquainted with the most prominent persons of his days, he respected everybody and had many relationships with scientists and artists. There is a kind of autobiography under the title: Hans Wilczek erzählt seinen Enkeln Erinnerungen aus seinem Leben (Hans Wilczek tells his grandchildren reminiscences from his life); edited by his daughter Elisabeth Kinsky-Wilczek, Graz 1933, 502 p. The book is available in an English version: Happy Retrospect - the Reminiscences of Count Wilczek 1837-1922, Bell and Sons, London 1934, 295 p.

Limits of the Southern Ocean

The knowledge about processes concerning perception and understanding is of paramount importance for designing means of communication like maps and charts. This is especially the case, if one does not want to lose sight of the map-user and if map-design is to be orientated along the map-users needs and preferences in order to improve the cartographic product's usability. A scientific approach to visualization can help to achieve useable results. The insights achieved by such an approach can lead to modes of visualization that are superior to those, which have seemingly proved their value in praxis - so-called "bestpractices" -, concerning their utility and efficiency. This thesis shows this by using the example of visualizing the limits of bodies of waters in the Southern Ocean. After making some introductorily remarks on the chosen mode of problem-solution in chapter one, which simultaneously illustrate the flow of work while working on the problem, in chapter two the relevant information concerning the drawing of limits in the Southern Ocean is outlined. Chapter 3 builds the theoretical framework, which is a multidisciplinary approach to representation. This theoretical framework is based on "How Maps Work" by the American Cartographer MacEachren (1995/2004). His "scientific approach to visualization" is amended and adjusted by the knowledge gained from recent findings of the social sciences where necessary. So, the approach suggested in this thesis represents a synergy of psychology, sociology, semiotics, linguistics, communication theory and cartography. It follows the tradition of interdisciplinary research getting over the boundaries of a single scientific subject. The achieved holistic approach can help to improve the usability of cartographic products. It illustrates on the one hand those processes taking place while perceiving and recognizing cartographic information - so-called bottom-up-processes. On the other hand it illuminates the processes which happen during understanding this information in so-called top-down-processes. Bottom-up- and top-down-processes are interdependent and inseparably interrelated and therefore cannot be understood without each other. Regarding aspects of usability the approach suggested in this thesis strongly focuses on the map-user. This is the reason why the phenomenon of communication gains more weight than in MacEachren's map-centered approach. Because of this, in chapter 4 a holistic approach to communication is developed. This approach makes clear that only the map-user can evaluate the usability of a cartographic product. Only if he can extract the information relevant for him from the cartographical product, it is really useable. The concept of communication is well suited to conceive that. In case of the visualization of limits of bodies of water in the Southern Ocean, which is not complex enough to illustrate all results of the theoretical considerations, it is suggested to visualize the limits with red lines. This suggestion deviates from the commonly used mode of visualization. So, this thesis shows how theory is able to ameliorate praxis. Chapter 5 leads back to the task of fixing limits of the bodies of water in the area of concern. A convention by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) states that those limits should be drawn by using meridians, parallels, rhumb lines and bathymetric data. Based on the available bathymetric data both a representation and a process model are calculated, which should support the drawing of the limits. The quality of both models, which depends on the quality of the bathymetric data at hand, leads to the decision that the representation model is better suited to support the drawing of limits.

Registry of all samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013)

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. Data sets in this collection provide methodological and environmental context to all samples collected during the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013).

Environmental context of all samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013), about depth specific features

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set provides environmental context to all samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013), including calculated averages of mesaurements made concurrently at the sampling location and depth, and calculated averages from climatologies (AMODIS, VGPM) and satellite products.

Registry of samples and environmental context from the Ocean Sampling Day 2014

The Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) is a simultaneous sampling campaign of the world's oceans which took place (for the first time) on the summer solstice (June 21st) in the year 2014. These cumulative samples, related in time, space and environmental parameters, provide insights into fundamental rules describing microbial diversity and function and contribute to the blue economy through the identification of novel, ocean-derived biotechnologies. We see OSD data as a reference data set for generations of experiments to follow in the coming decade. The present data set includes a description of each sample collected during the Ocean Sampling Day 2014 and provides contextual environmental data measured concurrently with the collection of water samples for genomic analyses.

Environmental context of all samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013), about mesoscale features

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set provides environmental context to all samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013), about mesoscale features related to the sampling date, time and location. Includes calculated averages of mesaurements made concurrently at the sampling location and depth, and calculated averages from climatologies (AMODIS, VGPM) and satellite products.

Documentation of IPY Seamount

During Leg ANT-XXIII/9 on 2007-04-04 the German research vessel POLARSTERN mapped a significant bathymetric feature with its swath sonar system in the area of the Indian Ridge in the Southern Indian Ocean. The feature is a vulcano located 800 km northwest of Crozet Island. The vulcano with a crater has an absolute height of 1370 m, extending from 3100 m mean depth of the surrounding sea floor to a depth of 1730 m at the top of the crater rim. The crater has a depth of about 135 m. Due to the fact, that the feature was discovered just a month after the fourth International Polar Year (IPY) 2007/2009 has started, it was named "IPY Seamount". The undersea feature name proposal was submitted to the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC of UNESCO) on 2007-05-11. The name was officially accepted by the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) at its 20th meeting in July and was added to the GEBCO Gazetteer of UFN.

AWI Bathymetric Chart of the Weddell Sea, Antarctica (BCWS)

From data collected by RV Polarstern, and additional echosoundings provided by national hydrographic offices, research institutions and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Digital Bathymetric Data Center, the 1:1,000,000 Bathymetric Chart of the Weddell Sea (AWl BCWS) series has been developed. The heterogeneity of bathymetric data and the lack of observations within ice-covered areas required the incorporation of supplementary geophysical and geographical information. A semi-automatic procedure was developed for terrain modeling and contouring. In coastal regions, adjacent sub-glacial information was included in order to model the bathymetry of the transition zone along the Antarctic ice edge. Six sheets of the AWl BCWS series in the scale of 1:1,000,000 covering the southern Weddell Sea from 66°S to 78°S and from 68°W to 0°E were recently completed and included in the 1997 GEneral Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) Digital Atlas CD-ROM (http://www.gebco.net). On the basis of these six 1:1,000,000 AWl BCWS sheets, a generalized 1:3,000,000-scale bathymetric chart was compiled for the entire southern Weddell Sea.

Registry of selected samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013)

The present data set is a registry of samples from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) that were selected for publication in a special issue of the SCIENCE journal (see related references below). The registry provides details about the sampling location and methodology of each sample. Uniform resource locators (URLs) offer direct links to additional contextual environmental data and to the corresponding sequence runs used for analysis in the related literature publications in the SCIENCE journal.

Registry of all stations from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013)

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set is a registry of all stations conducted during the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013). The registry provides details about the scientific interest of each station, including (1) the geographic context, (2) legal context, (3) the environmental features that were targeted, and (4) a detailed account of devices deployed during the station. Uniform resource locators (URLs) offer direct links to the corresponding (1) physical oceanographic context reports, (2) list of samples collected during the station, (3) environmental data published at PANGAEA, and (4) nucleotides data published at the European Nucleotides Archive (EBI-ENA).