22 June - the end approaches

Monday, June 22nd 2009, Wyville-Thomson Ridge
By Sophie Richier, postdoc in molecular biology at NOCS

Well, today is my turn to tell you what’s going on the DISCO!
The atmosphere has changed the last few days, we can already feel the end of the cruise. Yesterday we talked about cruise report, schedule for the last days…we also finally booked our flight back to Southampton on the 26th.

This cruise is my first one, quite an experience! Almost everything is new for me including the machines we are using and measurements we are doing. I am learning a lot from Anna Macey, following and giving her a hand on the optimistic plans she made up for this cruise. We are part of the molecular biologists on the ship looking at the microbial communities (phytoplankton) photosynthesis at a molecular scale (nothing that could be observed by naked eyes…unfortunately).

Understanding the molecular bases of a process might help to predict what will happen at a global scale… on marine ecosystem. My interests in this cruise are really closed to what Anna described on the blog few days ago, except that I will bring a little bit of my expertise looking at genes involved in photosynthesis to try to correlate my results to what she will get from proteins… molecular stuff really.

Here is the wet lab where we are spending most of our time (night or day), filtering seawater trying to catch as much phytoplankton as we can on filters that we will analysis back to the lab at NOCS. It can take hours sometimes not for even a liter…but we do not want to complain, it means the water in really rich…lots of biomass (marine microorganisms) and a lot to analyze for us!

We are also enjoying the outside, feeling the wind on our face… a delicious marine air in our nostrils… disconnected from the reality just in the middle of nowhere… or in the middle of ….whales! Amazing we could hear them breathing this afternoon…unforgettable moments.