Here we are getting the Trace Metal CTD ready to deploy in the water. We have to put the gray niskin bottles on right before we put it in the water because we want to keep them as clean as possible with no metal contamination! I am in the yellow hardhat, grad student Angel Ruacho is in the black hardhat, and our leader, Kathy Barbeau, is in the red hardhat.
Here’s the deck of our ship, the R/V Sikuliaq. The green arrow is pointing to the “Trace Metal Clean Van” –it’s not really a van, but there are two rooms inside where we keep our bottles and do our filtering. The yellow arrow is pointing to our trace metal CTD. We have to keep it covered when we’re not using it so it doesn’t get dirty.
Each of the ten MOCNESS nets has a plastic ‘cod end jar’ attached to the end. These jars collect most of the organisms that get caught in the nets, and bring them back to the surface for us to sample. Four cod end jars are visible here as the grey cylinders with drainage holes and duct tape bumpers.
A Phronima hyperiid amphipod curled up in a hollow salp ‘barrel’ (body case). Phronima carves a salp’s body out and uses the barrel as a house – like a slightly morbid version of a hermit crab. Photo courtesy of Pierre Chabert.
Recovering MOCNESS nets can be exciting in rough seas. They really do look like creatures from the watery depths!
Euphausiids (or krill), pictured here, are a key link in the southern Pacific food chain. M. Stukel, California Current Ecosystem LTER. CC-BY 4.0
CCE LTER
M Durham, CCE LTER
Radiolaria under microscope Tristan, CCE LTER
CCE LTER
