Image of Statsraad Lehmkuhl a Norwegian three-masted barque on the water.
Image 1: Statsraad Lehmkuhl a Norwegian three-masted barque.

One Ocean Expedition: Interdisciplinary Research in Climate Science, Policy and Human-Nature Connections

November 7, 2025 Expeditions 2025

Expedition Location: Ponta Delgada, Azores – Nuuk, Greenland

Expedition Dates: July 2025

Field Team Members: 

Cory Limberger  (PhD Student, UMaine) , Field Trip Leaders, Kerim Nisancioglu and Endre Tvinnereim (University of Bergen).

Funding Support: The Churchill Exploration Fund and SAUNNA NRT

Background: I had the opportunity to participate in the One Ocean Expedition, conducting oceanographic research and fieldwork with an interdisciplinary group of researchers from universities around the world. Professors Kerim Nisancioglu and Endre Tvinnereim, from the University of Bergen, led the group. The researcher ranged from mathematicians studying wave anomalies to social scientists studying the theory of science. I received essential funding from The Churchill Exploration Fund and the Systems Approach to Understanding and Navigating the New Arctic National Research Traineeship, for which I am very grateful.

I joined the team of researchers and graduate students aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, for a three-week ocean expedition from the Azores to Greenland (See image 2). This was one leg in a circumnavigation of North America that the ship was undertaking over the course of the next year as a contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Schematic of sailing route from the Azores to Nuuk.
Image 2: Approximation of route starting in the Azores (1), continuing through the North Atlantic (2), and ending in Nuuk (3).

Countries around the world have established national decade committees to provide a link between their countries and the UN Decade program.  In the U.S., the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine serves as the U.S. National Committee for the Ocean Decade.

In addition to the scientific work at sea, there were also workshops hosted by the University of the Azores and Tromsø-based Arctic Frontiers, as well as on ship tour which including a public talk about the research done on this leg of the trip.

Field Work and Data Collection:

The Statsraad Lehmkuhl is equipped with a range of scientific instruments, including both autonomous sensors and manual, station-based instruments. Specifically, a FerryBox, echosounder, and hydrophone array, weather and atmospheric monitors in the rigging, and an onboard lab for microplastics, eDNA, and Water isotopes.  Station measurements were taken approximately every 2 days and included drifter and Rosette deployment. (See Image 3).

Photo of technicians deploying the Rosette.
Image 3: Deploying Rosette at the 2nd station.

Specific to this leg of the expedition, we also deployed a simple CTD sensor on a hemp rope line to recreate and recalibrate measurements taken 150 years ago aboard the HMS Challenger. (See image 4).

These data will aid in a better understanding of changes in the North Atlantic Ocean and contribute to other observations of the warming trend in the deep ocean.

Photo of several researchers pulling up a small CTD.
Image 4: Researchers hauling up a small CTD with hemp rope. The rope was made to the specifications found in journals from the HMS Challenger crew.

The sound data collected on board is being used to train a large language model so that artificial intelligence can better recognize marine mammal sounds. The long-term goal of this work is to rapidly identify mammal sounds and contribute them to a database, providing more data to learn what whales and dolphins might be saying to each other.

Dolphins breaching the ocean surface.
Image 5: Dolphins Playing and Communicating.

Sailing through the Atlantic and observing changes from 38 degrees north to 64 degrees north was an incredibly stimulating context in which to engage ocean researchers from all over the world and across disciplines ranging from philosophy to glaciology to climate policy. The conversations and collaborations that continue on land are another extremely important though less measurable result of this fieldwork expedition.

Image of a spectacular sunset on the Atlantic Ocean.
Image 6: One of the many beautiful sunsets on the Atlantic.

Acknowledgements: This project was possible thanks to the assistance of the Dan & Betty Churchill Exploration Fund and NSF SAUNNA NRT.