This is the Chemical Oceanography Lab,
and I'm going to show you guys around
kind of the different samples
that we take in the field
and how we analyze them
in the lab.
This instrument
is called the
Elemental Analyzer.
We use it to measure
particulate organic carbon.
So in the field,
what we do is we'll filter seawater
to get rid of the water
and keep the stuff that's in it.
And then the filter
goes into this machine
where it will be combusted.
So it'll be burned up in a tube
that is at
950 degrees Celsius. So quite hot.
And then once it's busted up,
all the gas that
releases off of that
gets pushed against
another detector,
and that will measure
carbon and nitrogen.
So this instrument is
how we measure
what's called CDOM.
And it's how we kind of get a look
at what color the water is
if you take all this stuff out.
So this is what typical
seawater looks like.
The higher wavelengths,
you have a little dip here.
That's kind of what
salt looks like.
And then up here in the lower
wavelengths and your ultraviolet,
you have a higher increase
in signal.
And that's where our CDOM is.
So this is the last instrument
that I work with
on a regular basis.
We use it to measure
dissolved organic carbon.
For this one.
We keep the water
that goes through the filter.
So we don't want to know
what's in the particles,
what's in those cells,
we want to know what those cells
are releasing into the environment.
So I'll show you guys
how we keep our glassware
clean.
We have
one,
two and
three different baths
all of our dishes go through.
They spend one day
in each bath.
It's a long process.
To wash one dish is four days of work.
We need to get rid of all of
what we have in this lab
to make sure we're
measuring accurately
what's going on in the ocean.
So what they don't tell you about science
is you're gonna be doing a lot of dishes.
The other thing to note
is they spend one day in each bath,
so they're not it's not a quick half hour
a dunk.
It's overnight
in this bath, overnight in this bath,
overnight in this bath
and usually overnight in here
because I'll start this
at the end of the day.
So
Sometimes it feels like
that's at home day.
Yeah. Right.
It feels like never doing anything for
It's only 2%, but it's really viscous.
Kind of.
Imagine your dish soap at home.
It's about that thick,
this next one is also a bath.
Soap bath.
This is a bleach based
solution called Rb's.
So this is our second bath
that it goes through.
And then this is our third bath.
The third bath is hydrochloric
acid at 10%.
Obviously bleach and acid
do not go well together.
Do not mix those.
So we have to be really careful
about rinsing between.
And when we rinse,
we rinse with milk water.
So this is not standard tap water.
This is water
that's been purified through many filters
and ultraviolet lights
to give it an end goal of
about three parts per billion of carbon.
So we're looking at very,
very low carbon.
If it's glass
it will then get
put into this
instrument is called a combustion oven.
So it goes in here
and then it gets heated to about 490°C
for about four hours.
So that burns off all the carbon
that's also similar temperature
to what our tech machine does.
So really you're burning carbon it.
And we want absolutely no carbon
in our glassware
because we're measuring really, really
tiny amounts of carbon in the ocean.
The open ocean has very little nutrients,
very little carbon, very little nitrogen.
So
Yeah, lots of beds.
Yes.
That's, that's
that's stood out last time.
Yeah. Yeah, it's
it's hard.
We did just get a dishwasher.
We need to get the detergent for it.
And hopefully that automates it
because this is all done by hand,
so I can take me a couple hours a day.
So we take measurements in the field.
As long as the measurements
look good and stable and as expected,
then they get compared
against what pieces.
And as long as those match
then we know that piece
is working properly.
And doing you know what
we sent it up there to do.
So
we've had samples
of a lot of what's called chickadees.
Imean, chickadees meum is known
as the sawdust of the sea.
If you look out and it looks like there's
a bunch of bodies in the water,
that's tricot.
They grow in
these really cool,
like, haystack formations,
but called puffs.
Or they'll grow in these really long,
kind of like flatter bundles.
We call those tufts. So