Icestory 2000 concentrates on a first-ever American collaboration with the Chinese Antarctic program in which American and Chinese scientists are working side by side in the Southern Indian Ocean region of the Antarctic.  Dr. Cindy Pilskaln, an oceanographer specializing in studies of carbon cycling in the ocean, is the Principal Investigator of the project, with Co-Investigators Dr. Vernon Asper of the University of Southern Mississippi and Dr. Fei Chai of the University of Maine.  The at-sea field program, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs and the State Oceanographic Administration of China, began in late Nov. 1998 when Pilskaln and Asper went to the So. Indian Ocean edge of the Antarctic aboard the Chinese polar research ship Xue Long for about 6 weeks.  During this expedition, they deployed a large oceanographic instrument mooring called a sediment trap mooring for the purpose of measuring how much organic carbon matter is sinking through the very productive waters surrounding the Antarctic.  A current meter also on the mooring will measure current speed and direction at approximately 1500 m.  The Antarctic Ocean, often called the Southern Ocean by oceanographers, has long been known to be extremely productive during the few short months of the austral summer (Dec.-March).  This period of perpetual daylight is when microscopic plants or "phytoplankton" called diatoms grow very rapidly in the nutrient-rich waters which upwell around the Antarctic and feed an extremely abundant population of the shrimp-like organism called krill.  The high diatom plant production coupled with the production of vast amounts of sinking organic carbon material resulting from abundant animal growth and feeding activities, represents a way in which the ocean takes up and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  It is in this manner that the Antarctic Ocean may play an important role in the global carbon budget by helping to reduce the potential global warming effects of increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  A scientific paper detailing the Icestory 2000 research program and objectives has been published in the Antarctic Journal of the United States In addition to completing the oceanographic mooring deployment during the 1998-99 expedition, Pilskaln and Asper also worked with the Chinese scientists aboard the Xue Long to collect data on water temperature, salinity, phytoplankton production, water clarity and nutrients (see scientific paper for more details).  The year 2000 cruise plan will involve similar marine science activities, all of which will be conducted in the Southern Indian Ocean region of Antarctica, following a transit by the ship from King George Island near the Antarctic Peninsula between the So. Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, to the Prydz Bay region in the So. Indian Ocean.  On the 2000 cruise, Pilskaln and Asper will be joined by Australian field technician and photographer Matt Cadwallader who will be assisting in the retrieval of the sediment trap mooring and photo-documenting the cruise and expedition activities.  Following the retrieval of the sediment trap mooring in January 2000, samples and data will be removed, and the mooring will be redeployed in the same location for another year.  So you can look forward to another Antarctic oceanographic expedition in Icestory 2001!