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The Project Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:
| Daily JournalFebruary 3, 2005:
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Mascha filters water from the CTD
Mascha takes in the plankton net while Brian looks cool.
What the ocean looks like from space when Emiliania huxeyi makes up 100% of the plant life. Conditions have to be just right for this to happen.
Will and Laddie hanging out |
Today is sunny, clear, calm and oh so warm on the Sea of Cortez. Some of us have had a brief break until this later this afternoon, when more sampling took place. Fred has decided we could use more information about the water here, and so added an extra CTD cast tonight. Since he’s the chief scientist, we’ve decided to only grumble when he’s not around.
Meanwhile, Mascha used a plankton net to collect plants in the water. This net is very fine, and allows water through but not the tiny plants. Throughout the trip Mascha has been counting the amount of Emiliania huxleyi cells she finds in water collected from the CTD. The water from the CTD is strained through a filter which collects the cells of this plant along with others, and lets the water through. In order to count Emiliania huxleyi cells she first has to decide which cells are this plant. Sometimes this is hard as different plant cells can look similar, also because when the ship is rocking looking through a microscope becomes more challenging.
Q: Mascha counts cells on a very small scale on the microscope. In order to figure out how many cells are in the water she has to calculate how much water she’s looking at. Let’s say she counts 100 cells under the microscope, but in order to decide how much is in one liter, she has to multiply that number by 1000. How many cells are there in that liter? Don’t lose your zeros! Now, Fred guesses that this plant only makes of ~5% of the total community of plants. If you’re brave, can you figure out how many total plants cells are in one liter of water?
