Studying the Ocean in a Lab

Narration: Kelsey Allen

Transcript:

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. 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. 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.