Scaling down the ocean: Day 1 - The Bay of Awakening Hope

Monday, 6 August 2012

Day 1 - The Bay of Awakening Hope

We left sunny Southampton and the Olympics behind and made our way to a very remote field station 120 km west of Trondheim in Norway. At 63.4°N, it is noticeably colder and I am glad that I brought my winter clothes. But the scenery makes up for it: The fjords and evergreen forests are stunning.

After 12 hours of travelling, we arrive at our final destination and home for the next 4 weeks: Sletvik field station (http://www.ntnu.edu/biology/sletvik-field-station) used to be a school, but is now used for research experiments and field courses by the Norwegian University for Science and Technology, Trondheim.

It is located on the shore of Hopavågen Bay and means ‘shallow bay’, which is explained by the bays maximum depth of around 30 m. In former times, fishermen would seek shelter here in bad weather, giving the bay its name: The bay of awaking hope (Hopavågen Bay). Now, if that is not an encouraging name!

An aerial view of our home for the next 4 weeks: The Norwegian fjords.

About the Expedition

There is something about going to sea: It is exciting, adventurous, and when you try to map the ocean’s biological, chemical and physical properties, you get a feeling of the vastness of the oceans. The oceans cover more than 70 % of our planet’s surface and have an average depth of almost 4 km. While this enormous scale is one of the most fascinating aspects of ocean science, it is a big challenge for us scientists: The ocean currents and constant overturning of water masses make it nearly impossible to study just ‘one’ spot.

As a consequence, we often collect a few litres of sea water and manipulate them in the lab. ‘Lab experiments’ are informative and give you an idea about individual model organisms or single aspects of the ocean biogeochemical cycles. But these micro-scale experiments have one big problem. They are like watching a monkey in a zoo: It gives you an idea about e single monkey, but it will never quite tell you what a jungle is all about.

What is needed is something of intermediate scale: a ‘mesocosm’ (from Greek mesos: 'middle' + kosmos: ‘world').

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Monday, 6 August 2012

Day 1 - The Bay of Awakening Hope