Welcome!

This is the first official blog of our adventure and we have yet to embark on our trip! Let me fill you in on what exactly this research cruise is all about and who is involved. First of all, the purpose of this nearly 2 week excursion is to study the biogeochemistry of mercury in the oceans. Like many things about our oceans, not much is known about the behavior of mercury. Since the 1990s, a significant amount of research has been conducted on mercury and alot of progress has been made in perfecting sampling procedures, improving detection limits and increasing our understanding of its cycling in the environment. In fact, many freshwater ecosystems, the atmosphere above the Arctic, terrestrial systems, and some coastal environments have been studied. However, not much is known about mercury in the oceans. This is ironic, because, as most of you recognize, the main route of human exposure to mercury is via the consumption of fish and, yet, the majority of the fish we consume globally is derived from the oceans! Clearly, studying what happens to mercury in the oceans is an integral part of understanding potential human exposures to mercury.

Almost a dozen scientists and nearly the same number of crew members will be on board the University of Rhode Island's R/V Endeavor for the duration of our research cruise. We will be collecting water, zooplankton, and sediment samples for analysis. Those of us from Wright State University (WSU) include Dr. Chad Hammerscmidt, Katlin Bowman, Will Ehresman, and myself (Lisa Romas). Several other scientists will be joining us from various institutions, including UConn and Wesleyan University. Dr. Bill Fitzgerald (who was Dr. Hammerschmidt's graduate advisor) is the chief scientist. Many of us are novices so it should be an interesting trip. Nonetheless, it will surely be a huge learning experience!

As of lately, we have been packing hecticly for the cruise. Today at WSU, we packed a whole trailer (about 4' x 4' x 5' or so) full with supplies - everything from carboys (big plastic jugs with a spout for water, acids, etc.), incubators (we'll store water and sediment samples in them so we can control/maintain the proper conditions) and tools to I-Chem bottles, pipettes, clean Tyvek clothing and other supplies for various experiments. Katlin, Will and I have individual experiments that we will be carrying out while on board, which we will explain more once on board. For now, we have to finish tying up any loose ends and pack our own suitcases. Dr. Hammerschmidt will be driving the trailer to Univ. of RI this Thursday (Aug 14th) and Katlin, Will, and I take our flight from Dayton to Philly to RI on Friday (Aug 15th). Before we know it, we will be on board, ready to to start our journey! As you can imagine, the excitement is beginning to outweigh the anxiety! We'll be in touch.
If you would like to check out some stats on the R/V Endeavor, check out this webpage:
http://techserv.gso.uri.edu/
Enjoy!
~Lisa