Life at land

We have been back for a week now, very hectic. Some of the results have been obtained, a lot still to come. 

The EURONEWS feature was published today at: 

http://www.euronews.com/2016/04/25/improving-our-understanding-of-our-seas/

Some of the results from the flow through system along the way (thank you Riina:)

Work on board: CTD room

The CTD room is a main controlling room for the CTD operation (see post from yesterday) and quite busy during station times.

Close look to a Mysidacean

Yesterday we could observe from the benthos samples several individuals of the genus Myscis, a Crustacean from the class Malacostraca. Myscis especies are generally found in Boreal and Arctic regions, both in sea and fresh waters. 

The individual in the photos is a Myscis mixta mysidacean, which normally live during day time in deeper waters to avoid sunlight. When night darkens the skies they migrate to the superficial waters to graze. 

Photo from the mysdidacean

Janne taking a photo from the microscope camera.

Mussels for microlitter studies

 Photos: Pia Varmanen

Bivalves (Baltic clams and blue mussels) are effective filter feeders in the Baltic Sea. They filter small phytoplankton particles from the surrounding water but unfortunately also microplastic particles. This has been proved in experimental studies. To study if they also filter plastics in nature blue mussels were collected from the Åland Sea for further analysis in the lab.  

Work on board: getting the water profile

The CTD, measuring Conductivity (salinity), Temperature and Depth with the attached sampling rosette is the main method of obtaining water profiles of salinity, temperature and oxygen, and for getting water from different depths. Here is a typical sampling occasion.

Bluegreen algae prognosis

Going through the nutrient data from the Baltic Proper, it seems like it could be a year with a lot of bluegreen algal blooms. All the inorganic nitrogen has been depleted, but relatively high phosphate concentrations remain in the surface water. However, other factors such as the weather conditions during May, June and July will determine how much bluegreen algae there will be during summer. 

We have had some stations with visible blooms of bluegreen algae already. These have accumulated at the surface during the last two days when it has been sunny and calm. Today there is more wind and they will be mixed to deeper water layers.

Concentration of PO4 in µmol per liter in the surface water

The molar NP ratio in the surface water

Northern Baltic Proper

We are moving northwards all the time, now at 59°N. Diatoms are dominating and there is a lot of photosynthesis at the surface, which have reduced the CO2 concentration (pCO2 down to 175 µatm) and increased surface oxygen. Oxygen is, however, depleted below 80 m depth, and some of the old, stagnant water seem to have been pushed upwards by the new salt water pulse, as there are two peaks of toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S): at the bottom and a second peak around 100 m depth. 

Jellyfish surfed with the saline water inflow

A small jellyfish, probably Melicertum costatum was found from the zooplankton samples of the Bornholm Basin. This 1 cm sized cute medusa is common in the North Sea and is also found in the Western Baltic Sea. It has probably floated with the saline water inflow to the Bornholm Basin. 

The visitor

Today, while cruising in the Baltic flat mirrory waters, beautifully sparkling with the bright sun rays, a new crew member joined us: 
A Goldcrest (Regulus regulus) migrating northwards across the Baltic landed for a rest on Aranda's stern deck. 
Northern Goldcrests migrate north to find the ideal woodlands for the breeding season. To face the energy expediture that the migration requires, Goldcrests need to increase their body mass. Yet, it is still a very exhausting and energy-demanding journey for such a little bird! 

 Our guest sun bathing 

Kristian giving safety instructions to the new guest..

While the rest of the crew sun bathed, Tere, Antonio, Kristian and Jonna prepared a UV experiment.

The oxygen in the deep water is gone

We have reached north of Gotland and the deep water has very little oxygen left. Here from station F79: 58 27' N 20 10' E

Large dinoflagellates and Mesodinium

We are a bit north of Gotland and the phytoplankton is dominated by large dinoflagellates (Peridiniella catenata) - the light brown chains - and Mesodinium - the darker brown 'meatballs'. They have been activly removing CO2 during photosynthesis, reducing the pCO2 from ~400 to less than 200 in some locations. 

Of the life before and after Kristian

I got the inspiration for this post when Jonna explained me today how she sees her academic career divided between the time before and after the Kristian.

Before Kristian, she was studying the ice and bacteria, and after Kristian, she’s been doing everything but that, among other things, moved from fundamental research into more applied sciences.

And this made me realize that also in my life, Kristian left a permanent mark. By inviting me to take part of the first CFLUX cruise in 2013. This effect is maybe little less academic and more personal in nature, since our joint scientific affairs are still only a small part of my work.

And here’s how:

-I never took vacations before meeting Kristian (and now I’m already on my fourth holiday cruise).

-People used to call me a “a modeling person” before Kristian. Not anymore. Now I am a real biologist.

-I know now how big the Baltic Sea actually is. And how small is the sample. And how many mistakes you can make when taking the sample.

-I fell in love with the sea the first time I was on the cruise. Being disconnected for days, forgetting the time, and depending on the forces you can’t control is a strange kind of freedom that you will always try to experience again.

-And, last, but not least - I have finally something to talk about with my father. Because, you see – he also was a sailor once. And it turns out that the waves that travel the waters of the Baltic Sea haven’t changed so much.

Safety first

Sampling takes lot of courage, because you never know, what can be attached to your CTD when it comes up. Octopuses, for example, are quite a danger, especially above the very deep parts of the Baltic Sea (this drawing was found washed ashore in Kaliningrad, 14 Nov 1873, and was very likely sketched by the last survivor of unknown research vessel).

Since then, for most frequent and dangerous by-catches, standard set of repellents is always near the CTD operator.

BY15

We are moving northwards and still find higher oxygen in the deep water, now at 57° 19.2' N

Work on board: sampling

Getting the samples is a major task, examples shown here are zooplankton sampling with a net and grabber for taking sediment.

Work on board: sediment sampling

Characterizing the bottom fauna is an important part of mapping the marine environment

New oxygen coming into the Baltic Sea

We are at BY10, between Gotland (Sweden) and Latvia, and we just found new deep water that has been flowing in along the bottom. It can be seen as higher oxygen concentrations in the deep water layers (purple line) at 110 - 130 m depth. Good news for the Baltic Sea :-)

Another day ends, and night crawls over the southern Baltic Sea. When hanging around in the sleeping ship in those late hours, and when the sea is calm, one easily forgets that there's no solid ground underneath us, and we're all floating onboard of a relatively small ship, somewhere many many hours away from land.

Group photo, leg 2

The wonders of the Flow Cytometer

The flow cytometer is a device used in cell counting and biomarker detection, among other uses. The device works by suspending cells in a fluid stream while a laser beam detects the molecules and their size, as well as other parameters. Depending on the type of laser it is possible to detect different types of particles.  

Mari Vanharanta is on board of Aranda sampling for her Msc thesis. 

The aim of her project is to increase the knowledge of cell mortality in natural phytoplankton communities in the Baltic Sea.By knowing the abundances of live and dead cells in a phytoplankton community it’s possible to know what is the active proportion of the total community which effectively contributes to the overall biological processes.

Samples from different depths are taken, as the communities  and the proportion dead/live cells along the profile might change.

Once the water samples are collected they are coloured with a fluorescence die. This will die the DNA of the dead cells. Then, when running these samples in the flow cytometer it is possible to know the amount of stained cells, which correspond to the dead ones, and the uncoloured ones, which correspond to the live cells.

Once the cruise is over Mari will have to analyse all the data from the flow cytometer using an special software.

Pia and Mari sampling from the rosette of niskin bottles that collect water from different depths in each station.

Mari looking at the plots of the flow cytometer results from the collected water samples.  Mari loves this device, after spending so many hours working with it! 

EuroNews

For the fist leg of the trip we had a team from EuroNews on board making a story on the EU project DEVOTES. Here they are testing a drone for getting some aerial shots. Their story will come out in the beginning of May. 

Angelo Secchi

Janne measuring the Secchi depth to be 8 meters today outside Öland, Sweden.

Angelo Secchi was an Italian astronomer that invented the Secchi disk in 1865. It is one of the most common tools in oceanography to this day. Simply lower it down and measure the lowest depth where you can still see it; a great measure of water transparency.

Work on board: incubations

Toby and Alicia starting yet another incubation in the freezing cold room

We are south of Öland at the moment, reaching our southernmost point tomorrow morning. 

Work on board: filtration

Riina is taking care of our filtration, and she is very effective :-) We do this  to determine how much plankton there is in the water (whatever is caught on the filter). 

Hanko

We are in the harbor in Hanko filling up our tanks with fuel and fresh water. 12 persons leave back to Helsinki and 5 newcomers are coming on board. Here is the original group:

What it takes to be a CRUISE LEADER?

Cruise leader is probably most demanding role during the scientific cruise.

He is that ONE person that has to know (or guess) everything (at least that’s how it looks like), and keep both small details, and large picture, together. He’s that person people will turn to with questions like "Where are the latex gloves?" "Where are bottles and pipettes?" "Why is there no internet?" “Where can I find some screws, aluminum foil?” “What happens if…” “Why does the vacuum pump not work?” etc. 

More importantly, he is that one person everyone will look up to, when something goes wrong or does not work. Although research cruises are carefully planned in advance, nearly never will everything go after the plan, and then the quick thinking and flexibility determines the success of the cruise. It also takes some experience to be able to re-adjust your plans, since the time is limited, and there are no do-overs during the cruise.

I took the liberty to secretly observe our cruise leader “in action”, but despite of how these pictures look like, Kristian has been unbelievably calm and relaxed and non-stressed, actually in all cruises that I have participated.

Our objective

The spring is the time when everything turns green on land and the same thing happens at sea. Microscopic algae starts to grow in the water and forms a spring bloom, which typically is the annual peak in biological activity. In this cruise we are studying the flux of the carbon (taken up as CO2 during photosynthesis) in the ecosystem. 

We will also study the effects of a large inflow event of salt water from the North Sea on the plankton community. This salt water pulse came into the Baltic Sea a year ago and flows slowly northwards along the sea floor.

Into the White

Our first day started in the fog, but ended with a nice sunset.

Day 1 - Into the White