Friday 27 May around noon part of our group gathered at Utrecht Central station to travel to Schiphol. Our journey has finally begun! While our colleagues jealously remain behind in their offices, having the plants as best office friends (as you can read in the weblog (in Dutch) of our colleague Nikki Dijkstra), we took the plane to Stockholm, from where a minibus brought us to the little town of Nynäshamn. Here, the R/V Pelagia was set to arrive that evening. In Nynäshamn we had a joint dinner with some of the other people joining the cruise, and afterwards met up with some participants of the previous cruise that had just disembarked. It was very nice to hear their experiences.
The next morning we were allowed to board the ship. From then onwards, everyone was very busy with unpacking, setting up equipment and making sure that everything was ready for the first station, which due to our earlier than expected departure was moved forward from Sunday morning to Saturday early evening. This first station was located at the Landsort Deep, the deepest and most euxinic (rich in free sulphide in the water column) station. Unfortunately, we did not manage to successfully deploy the multicorer (a corer that takes several ca. 60 cm long cores from the seafloor), meaning we did not retrieve sediments from this station. However, we did take water samples for a variety of analyses: nutrients, dissolved iron, dissolved organic carbon, and for the carbonate system. The latter meant it is was a long night for myself and Sharyn from NIOZ Texel, who has been a major help for me, while many others enjoyed watching the Champions League final.
During the night we moved to another station. This transit led to the first symptoms of seasickness for certain participants. Upon arrival, we started our more regular sampling scheme in the morning. First, landers were deployed, which are used to measure the transport of certain constituents through the boundary between the water and the seafloor . These landers will be retrieved again in the evening, and you’ll hear more about them in an upcoming blog. Then, similarly as yesterday, water samples were taken at various depths. Today, these samples will additionally be used to determine particulate iron as well as some other trace elements (chemical elements that occur in very low concentrations) and their isotopic composition. Afterwards, pumps went into the sea to pump water at various depth through filters. These filters can then be used for a variety of mineralogical and geochemical analyses. After that, the sediment team could finally start their jobs, as the first multicores were successfully retrieved. Also their work will be discussed in upcoming blogs. All in all, everyone is keeping themselves pretty busy!
Cheers,
Mathilde
During the night we moved to another station. This transit led to the first symptoms of seasickness for certain participants. Upon arrival, we started our more regular sampling scheme in the morning. First, landers were deployed, which are used to measure the transport of certain constituents through the boundary between the water and the seafloor . These landers will be retrieved again in the evening, and you’ll hear more about them in an upcoming blog. Then, similarly as yesterday, water samples were taken at various depths. Today, these samples will additionally be used to determine particulate iron as well as some other trace elements (chemical elements that occur in very low concentrations) and their isotopic composition. Afterwards, pumps went into the sea to pump water at various depth through filters. These filters can then be used for a variety of mineralogical and geochemical analyses. After that, the sediment team could finally start their jobs, as the first multicores were successfully retrieved. Also their work will be discussed in upcoming blogs. All in all, everyone is keeping themselves pretty busy!
Cheers,
Mathilde