Guidance from my home Lab.

I have had the chance to chat with some of my friends back home, they are also my lab mates, to get some information on some analysis techniques down here. They answered my questions swiftly and correctly, thank you Jordan and Emily. In the process of gaining this much needed info I ask Emily what she thinks I could do to try and interest some people to continue reading my fading blog. She told me that it would be a good idea to just tell what I am doing on a daily basis and to get some background on the other projects that are being conducted here. So I am going to do just that. I need a little time to get a better idea on what the BIRDERS, BUGGERS, PHYTOS, and the KRILLERS are actually doing out there, but I will try and fill these pages with some cool stuff about what is being done here. Maybe there is something down here that you might want to do.

I have finally had the chance to run a Photolysis experiment. My personal focus on being down here in the Antarctic Peninsula was to study the effects of solar radiation on DMS. Although I am here to run analysis on many other aspects of the organic sulfur cycle a major portion of this cycle has been found to rely on my area of focus. What is photolysis you ask? This is a molecular breakdown of a substance that occurs when a photon bombards it. Photolysis is observed in daily life through the lose of color in carpet in front of the sunny window or fading of the upholstery in the car. The sun can also cause the holes that seem to just appear in the deck umbrella and can cause a plastic chair to collapse under you. The sun has the power to break down color and the actual structure of cloth fibers; it will weaken plastic and break down the integrity of many materials. The sun plays a very large role in chemistry, not to mention the huge role it plays in the breakdown of simple molecules found in the surface waters of the ocean.

The sun plays such and important role in the cycling of chemicals from the oceans due to the huge area that they cover, totaling somewhere around 75% of the surface of the Earth. This gigantic area is continuously bombarded by solar radiation and many organic compounds are being broken down and recycled to be used for another purpose. In the case of the Sulfur that we are interested in, DMS (dimethylsulfide), it is broken down into Sulfate molecules and is returned to the atmosphere. Sulfate in the atmosphere will help form water droplets and then form clouds and eventually the sulfur will be returned to the Earth. Turning into sulfate aerosols is not the only pathway that a photolized DMS molecule will take; this is a large part of my studies.

I will tell more about how the experiment was run and what it shows us tomorrow, right now it is time for bed.

Sampling introduction!

Our new comers made it out in the boats today for a deep sampling out at Station E. The purpose of this event was to try and determine where the DMS concentration in the water column drops to 0. Other side points to going out were to give everyone a good idea on how things work out on the boat and why it can take so long to complete sampling. Unfortunately this was not one of the best days we have had out at Station E, but it also gave a good perspective to what types of things can go wrong while out sampling.

A couple of the problems that occurred out here started with a malfunctioning depth sounder. The wind combined with the current was moving us off station; therefore we did not know what depth we could lower our bottles to safely. Plus we were given a new measuring pulley, called a block, for sending the bottles down to the specific depth and this block measured in feet. We have been operating with a metering block since the beginning; it gives us time to stop the winch in the correct place, it was more exact and meters are the unit of measure that all of the teams use out here. This just tested out math and ability to remember conversions. We also found out mid drop that the block was slipping and not measuring, leaving us with incorrect depths. Wait there is more… We decided that since all were feeling a little green, some more green than others, that we would head back with just a 10 meter and surface sample. In bringing up the bottles to the 10 meter point the waves picked up and the first bottle hit the side of the boat, breaking off the sampling valve and spilling the sample. We needed to come back with something so a new bottle was recocked and sent back down, even though none of us really felt like doing anything else. After much time being invested this sampling was successful. Ron performed DMSPd filtrations right on the boat to determine what type of effects can occur to the samples while they are in transit back to the lab and waiting for us to filter and prepare. On Research Vessels, where we are used to performing this analysis, we have the ability to process samples instantly, we feel this gives a much more precise measurement.

Our new members now have a great appreciation for the difficulty involved in the sampling process.

Arrival of the January Crew

Our team has arrived! The Biocomplexity group is finally together again. Ron Ray and Maria were on another trip that I took last summer to the Sargasso Sea, right in the vicinity of Bermuda. Yes we were in the Bermuda Triangle and nothing happened out of the ordinary. Back to Palmer… Everyone had a great crossing but they were all very happy to have arrived. Now it is time to try and get resituated around here. Lab space will need to be reallocated and the stations residents are in store for a lot of shuffling in their cabins. We are going to be fully loaded with 45 residents after we have moved everyone off the ship and everyone else on who is going to participate in the LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) cruise. There are some people losing a person out of their bunkroom and some will need to move to accommodate rooming situations. The most invasive switch here is a lab swap for the phytoplankton group; they have many people leaving on the cruise leaving only one behind. The Phyto group is set up in the largest lab on station to supply enough room for their people and equipment. Some equipment is leaving on the cruise but much will stay behind and will be moved to a smaller lab to open lab space for another large group. They have been working on this transition for weeks. We all have a lot of training to complete, for ourselves and for the newer people. We need to learn processes so that we can take some vacant places in the Phyto group, help our new people to understand our analysis and prep, and to start up all of our experiments that have been on the back burner while there was only two of us here. This is all going to lead to a very busy first week and a half.

New Team

The Gould is on its way to Palmer as we speak. They are bringing us freshies and much awaited people who will help make our lives easier and more interesting. Ron Kiene, Ray Najjar and Maria Vila are the support staff on route to our humble abode. Ron is one of the first people to get real in-depth with DMSP and phytoplankton. He is bringing us copious amounts of knowledge that we need of the ecology and behavior of phytoplankton, allowing us to perform better collection and analysis of our sulfur compounds. Ray is our meteorological modeler who is here to help guide us in supplying good aspects of data that will help him turn around a more representative model of this portion of the organic sulfur cycle. Maria has been working on her PhD mostly with DMSO from phytoplankton and has much experience with isotope methods to determine chemical pathways. This dynamic team is going to liven up this event tremendously. We are anxiously looking forward to their arrival.