Well, alot has happened since we left the port in Narragansett, RI. We arrived at station 1 around 6pm (after dinner) and began the deployment of our water sampling equipment. Will (WSU), Tristan Kading (Dr. Joop Varekamp's graduate advisee), Dr. Maria Andersson (Dr. Robert Mason's post-doctoral assistant) and Prentiss Balcom (Dr. William Fitzgerald's research assistant) are on the water team and were in charge of deploying the rosettes (which use the J-frame on the starboard or right side of the vessel). The first larger rosette (aka"senior") has one dozen 8 Liter collection bottles which Prentiss programs to open and close at various times/depths. It also has a CTD which is a multi probe that measures conductivity, temperature and depth. The smaller rosette which is deployed after the larger one is nicknamed"junior." Since it was our first station, it took a bit longer than anticipated to obtain the samples. Next, Michael Finiguerra (a graduate advisee of Dr. Hans Dam at the University of Connecticut) completed the zooplankton tow.

Then, at 4 AM, Allen Hutchins (a lab assistant with Prentiss Balcom and Dr. William Fitzgerald at the University of Connecticut), Katlin (WSU), Dr. Chad Hammerschmidt (WSU) and myself successfully completed the sediment coring in the aft of the boat (the stern or back part) using the A-frame. We started off the morning in a "star performance" huddle to boost our morale after an arduous day. We took 9 beautiful cores (there was practically no turbation at the sediment water interface) in less than 2 hours. We even noticed some interesting biota during the coring (e.g. mysid shrimp, etc.). Next, as a part of the sediment team I (as well as the rest of my team) processed samples for the next few hours. As a part of my experiment, I prepare 8 treatment solutions in 250 mL square glass media bottles for my assigned stations. Each solution contains a salt that inhibits or promotes various anaerobic bacteria that are suspected or known to play a role in methylating mercury. In other words, I am creating solutions that will kill or foster bacteria (that do not use oxygen - hence, they are anaerobic) that convert inorganic mercury into organic forms (s.a. monomethylmercury or MMHg) which are some of the forms harmful to organisms (e.g. these forms can (bio)accumulate in our bodies). Then, I pipette about 50 mL of each solution into three replicate sediment slurry samples (the bacteria live in the sediment) and spike the samples by adding Hg-200 which we will later measure on land to determine methylation. At various steps in the experiment, I also have to flush my solutions and samples with nitrogen gas (N2) to eliminate oxygen and maintain an anoxic environment. It may sound a bit complicated but it's actually straightforward and rather systematic. I'm definitely interested to see what the result are and get a better idea of who the main players are in Hg methylation in ocean sediments!
It's almost time for the sediment team to move on to station #2!!! We'll write again as soon as we get another chance.
~Lisa