OSNAP Cruise - Reykjavik to Reykjavik

My job has changed in the last few months and my job title is now an Arctic and Sea going Technician! I am funded 50 % on the DIAPOD project with Prof. Dave Pond however, he's now moved to Stirling to work in their new lipid lab! So SAMs decided to keep me on as a technician. So on the last cruise up in the Arctic Debi and Rich trained me up in Winkler Titration which is a measurement of the oxygen concentration in sea water. Which brings me onto what I'm doing now... I have joined the OSNAP cruise to complete oxygen measurements. These are incredibly important data points as the measurements are being used to calibrate oceanographic moorings that have or will be at sea for 2 year down to depths of 2500 m.

Cruise Prospectus

OSNAP "East" Cruise

R/V Neil Armstrong (July 1-30, 2018), Reykjavik to Reykjavik

The specific objectives of this cruise are as follows (written by Stuart Cunningham, the principal investigator on the project):

1. To perform mooring operations along the OSNAP East line between Scotland and Greenland, including deployment of three new moorings in the Iceland Basin; deployment/recovery of three moorings and one Trawl Resistant Bottom Lander in the Rockall Trough. This work is a combination of OSNAP, our recently funded 2-year extension OSNAPExt(2018-2020) and the newly funded NERC NC programme Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) (2018-2023).
2. To conduct standard CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) and Lowered ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) stations at selected sites along the same mooring line.
3. Oxygen sampling and analysis on board (mine and student Jeanne's job); nutrient sampling; DIC & Total Alkalinity [Clare Johnson: ATLAS project]; Silicon and nitrogen isotopes [Antonia Doncilla, University of Edinburgh, Nitrogen cycling in a warming Arctic Ocean]; ; colonising invertebrates (Winnie Courtney-Jones, micro-plastics) ohh and we are also doing all of this water sampling

The OSNAP blog is here: http://www.o-snap.org/
  Firstly my aim in life is to work in places that give me a good view to enjoy my cup of tea!! And yes I did bring a mug with me on this cruise as the small mugs that you tend to get given mean you have to go for a two cup type of affair....but ain't got time for that!

So this is the CTD we are using to take our samples from. It can be sampled outside so that we can whale watch at the same time, very civilized.

Rose taking salt samples to calibrate the salinity profiles that we get from the CTD.

Here Jeanne who is sharing the oxygen sampling shifts with me (and who I have to share a room with, poor her), is seen here shaking the oxygen sampling bottle to mix the reagents (I will explain oxygen analysis in a separate blog post)!

CTD's always draw lots of people to them. Here Microcats which are added alongside the CTD so that they can be calibrated are being rapidly taken off so that we can measure the oxygen within the niskins (grey water bottles) for dissolved oxygen.

The main aim on this cruise is picking up mooring buoys that have been deployed for 2 years and then deploying another one in the same position. These are important to get measurements of the oceanography at different areas in the ocean to see what mixing, deep water movement and any other oceanographic features that show us how the ocean circulation is changing. I will come onto this more on my next blog when I get a bit more insight from the technicians about what more the buoys can tell us as this is the first time that I have seen this set up!

 
I am sampling any organisms that are attached to the buoys as Winnie back at SAMs will analyse them for microplastic..the plastic could come off the buoy or filter from the surrounding water.

Most importantly I'm finding time to relax, read my book and enjoy the sunshine....and there's 24 hr ice cream availability dangerous..!