64PE374 - Diary 8

Second Italian blog!  Well...I think it is my turn to write a part of this blog...

First I will introduce myself: my name is Simona and I’m Italian, working in Pisa (Tuscany).
I’m not working on trace metals or nutrients, so why am I here? I still have to figure out how I got the opportunity to be on the third leg of Geotraces, the main thing is I’m here now!!

During these 17 days I’m collecting samples for dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We use DOC to quantify the dissolved organic matter (DOM), since DOC is its major component. DOM is a complex mixture of molecules that pass through a filter of 0.2 m. Why are we interested in DOM? I like to say that it is the basis of all life in the ocean!
DOM is what fuels the microbial loop (that is why I call it the basis of life), and we can understand its importance thinking that the net oxidation of 1% of marine DOM can release the same amount of CO2 as what is released in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.

This cruise and the previous two will give us the opportunity to get the big picture of the concentration of DOC and its distribution in the whole Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. (some other scientists kindly collected samples for us in the two previous legs). Since in the Mediterranean Sea the time scale of changes is shorter than in the oceans we want to compare our data with data from previous years to measure the effects of global warming.

Since I only have to freeze my samples, my actual role in this cruise is to help sampling in the UCC container. So I spend most of my working time in there! Luckily we were able to have some music in there so we won’t get crazy!

Other than this I’m in charge with Eyal to daily climb to the top of the ship and change the air filters from the dust collectors. It wasn’t so funny last week with 15 m/s wind and bad sea, but besides from that it is always my favorite part of the day, to have the chance to go up there and see everything from a “higher” perspective, especially now that the weather is really nice and the sea is flat like oil!

I’m really enjoying this cruise and the people on board, and I’m happy I got the chance to board this cruise!

Simona Retelletti
Trainee at the Institute of Biophysics
CNR (National Research Council) Pisa