THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410170056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUCK LENGTH: Long : 163 lines
By shooting infrared beams through the ocean, Carl Miller of the Army Corps of Engineers is counting particles of sand in salt water.
By rolling an elongated tricycle along the shore and monitoring global positioning satellites 10,000 miles away, Rob Holman of Oregon State University is creating a three-dimensional profile of the beach at this Outer Banks community.
By sucking plankton off the ocean floor with a special pump she designed, Cheryl Ann Butman of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is collecting millions of microscopic clam larvae to see how they ride the waves.
These scientists are part of the world's largest near-shore research experiment - DUCK 94 - being conducted this month at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' waterways station here.
``The area between 1 and 30 meters offshore is hardly ever scientifically studied because it's so difficult to get sensitive instruments in there,'' said Butman, a lead investigator with the Massachusetts institute.
``With an experiment of this scope and the types of equipment they have here, we are finally able to get measurements of both biological and physical processes over a relatively long period of time,'' Butman said from the oceanfront research station Thursday.
``This is the best study of near-shore activities that's ever been done.''
More than 100 researchers from the United States, Canada and Great Britain are gathered at the 1,840-foot-long Duck pier this month for the three-week long conference.
The federally funded program cost taxpayers about $15 million.
Results of the research could:
Alter the way engineers design bridges.
Help people pick sites for beach nourishment programs.
Improve projections about where the coast might erode.
Determine how and why sandbars move.
Predict what effect rock jetties might have on Oregon Inlet 30 miles south of here.
``Work from this experiment will be very, very helpful in terms of figuring out how sand moves and where it might go,'' said Bill Dennis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Dennis was helping Miller create computerized graphs of the ocean floor by studying sand samples last week. An official from the Corps' Wilmington branch, Dennis designed the rock groin on the south end of Oregon Inlet.
``The more data scientists can collect,'' Dennis said, ``the better we will all be in modeling future ocean projects.''
Scientists simultaneously are conducting at least 35 separate experiments on the 176-acre federally owned facility in Duck. Researchers placed nearly 500 data collection instruments along the beach and under the ocean. High-tech devices stretch from the dunes across the continental shelf - about 60 miles offshore.
``We brought in 10 trailers and 80 computers to support everyone involved in this project,'' said William Birkemeier, chief of the Corps' 15-year-old Duck research station. ``The scientists shipped so many special instruments and equipment that the local Federal Express company had to bring in a bigger truck. This whole experiment grew much larger than we ever predicted.''
The pier's 12 full-time employees spent three years planning DUCK 94. They scheduled the conference for October, hoping for turbulent weather. But they did not expect the good fortune of having a storm blow in during the experiment.
Throughout last week, researchers retrieved buoys blown back to shore, repositioned instruments tossed about in the surf and even shimmied up 40-foot poles to clean salt spray off camera lenses.
Equipment - much of it anchored under water - had to withstand gale force winds and 10-foot waves.
``Some of the experiments will have to stay on hold until the winds die down,'' Birkemeier said as sand pummeled the beach-front station. ``But really, this is a wonderful opportunity to study storm and beach dynamics. Ultimately, we want to do better with understanding sand movement.''
An impressive array of instruments is being used to collect data. Underwater acoustic sensors record the sound of breaking waves. Dual rotating sonar beams help graph three-dimensional shifts in the ocean floor. Nine small boats, a 150-foot oceanographic research vessel, a metal surf sled and a 35-foot-tall Coastal Research Amphibious Buggy - the CRAB - all carried scientists and equipment into the sea. A researcher rode on the outside of a helicopter, dropping yellow buoys far offshore in the overhead waves to help chart current movements.
Additional data is coming from NASA's space shuttle which photographed the area.
Throughout the experiment, scientists are recording dozens of oceanographic indicators. One researcher is studying shallow capillary currents that run along the sea's surface. All data is linked to a single clock so researchers can share information - and remain completely accurate in their calculations.
``Almost all of our research is inter-related in some way,'' said Steve Elgar of Washington State University. Elgar is trying to determine whether ripples along the ocean floor move sand to and from shore. ``We can't study waves without studying water and sand. We need other researchers' data to help with our calculations.
``Plus,'' Elgar said, ``it really helps to be able to share all our perspectives, come up with different interpretations, talk about conflicting theories. We're all very competitive. But we share a single goal: to collect the best near-shore data possible.''
A second group of researchers, working on the Coastal Ocean Processes conference - CoOp - is gathering information about biological aspects of near-shore ecosystems. By studying larvae of clams, crabs, worms and snails, they hope to gain a better understanding of how ocean critters live, move and spawn.
``We're collecting more than 1,500 samples from eight separate plankton pumps. It will take up to two days just to sort the larvae from one sample,'' said Butman, one of seven investigators with the CoOp program. ``We want to understand when and how larvae settle and whether they use the ocean currents. It will help us in deciding how to preserve certain species or forecast their populations. A lot of declines in fish stocks could be because of natural variations in population - not due to over fishing.
``This research combines physics with biology and oceanography,'' Butman said. ``When applied, it will benefit fisheries managers immensely.''
Initially, each researcher will be responsible for his or her own DUCK 94 reports, which will circulate through scientific communities. Birkemeier said it might be years before all the data is even understood. But the ultimate goal is to produce one single conference paper.
``We'd like to publish one journal to include most of the scientific papers which come out of this experiment,'' Thomas Kinder said. Manager of the Office of Naval Research's Coastal Dynamics Program, Kinder helped secure funding for DUCK 94. His Naval office supplied about half of the grant money.
``The Navy wants to learn how to find mines better - that was our practical interest in this conference,'' Kinder said. ``We hope to get a better understanding of how the waves drive currents and move sediment. That way, we can learn how mines might move in the ocean, how they might become buried, how the water's visibility can be affected, whether we can use acoustic tracking methods to find them offshore.''
Results of this month's conference, Kinder said, will still be coming out 10 years from now.
``Coastal engineering research has economic and social impacts as well as scientific results,'' Birkemeier said. ``The ultimate goal of DUCK 94 is to improve our ability to predict what the ocean and beach might do.'' ILLUSTRATION: ABOUT DUCK 94
Funded with $15 million in grants from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Geological Survey
and the Naval Research Laboratory, the three-week DUCK 94 scientific
research conference is being conducted this month at the Corps'
research pier in Duck, N.C.
More than 100 scientists from the United States, Canada and Great
Britain are staying on the Outer Banks for the experiment - the
world's largest gathering of near-shore researchers.
Institutions represented include: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Naval Research, Naval Research
Laboratory, Naval Postgraduate School, National Science Foundation,
Dalhousia University in Canada, Duke University, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Memorial University of Newfoundland in
Canada, Oregon State University, Oregon Institute of Marine Biology,
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of East-Anglia in
Great Britain, University of Florida, University of Miami,
University of Rhode Island, University of Washington, Virginia
Institute of Marine Science, Washington State University and Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Scientific companies Arete Associates, Neptune Sciences, Inc.,
and SIRAD, Inc. also are participating in the experiment.
Data gathered during the conference is assimilated and graphed
almost immediately. Results are sent to Internet computer
communications and the World Web computer network daily. The Weather
Channel will air a special report on the conference during the week
of Nov. 7 to 11.
For more information, call the Duck research pier (919) 261-3511.
by CNB