GEOTRACES

Geotraces is an international program aimed at understanding the cycling and interactions of trace-metals and isotopes in the world's oceans. Trace-metals in the ocean can be both good and bad; some metals are nutrients for aquatic organisms while other metals can be toxic pollutants. Sources of trace-metals are be both natural or anthropogenic (human made), but either way are a good way to observe global change. Trace-metal research obtained through the Geotraces program can be used as a baseline to assess what impact global change (temperature, human emissions, natural emissions) will have on our oceans in the future. Some research may also be used as a gateway to the past, to help scientist understand what the ocean was like years ago. Below is a map of completed (black lines) and in progress (red lines) cruises in the Atlantic Ocean. (Our cruise is line A03). For more information on Geotraces and to see cruise paths in other oceans visit geotraces.org.

@ Sea

At sea! It has been a busy week setting up the lab and getting everything in order but we are finally off. We are currently at our first station, there are a lot of instrumental test runs to be done before we can start collecting samples so analysis will probably start tomorrow. Trace metal analysis is traditionally performed under super-clean conditions, comparable to hospital operating rooms - so as you can imagine trace-metal analysis at sea can be a bit difficult. About half of the labs are set up in "clean vans" which is a portable version of the clean room (mercury analysis on this cruise will be in a clean van). The other labs are set up in "bubbles" sectioned off with hanging plastic with a flow-through of HEPA filtered air. Busy now getting ready for my first samples but will post more details and pictures as soon as I get the chance!