Water Sampling: Go Flo

CTD in front, Go Flo in hand on the table

Everyday begins with a similar routine with workloads that depend on the amount of water that we are sampling. "It's like Groundhog Day," joked Dr. Wells this morning, "everyday seems like a repeat of the day before." I haven't felt quite like that yet since part of my job is to report something new to you everyday. I really enjoy the work of reporter on board; I get to know more about the people and the work that each person is doing which both are incredibly interesting to me.                                                                                                                                                                                               I'm on the team that deploys the CTD (see previous post and socalcostello.blogspot.com for more info on that method). We "cast" the CTD twice, once at depths up to 200 meters with samples taken throughout the water column and a second cast that only samples from 5 meters, since the majority of our study is from depths that utilize the sun's energy the most. These samples are collected by each group for their focused experiments. We have it down, well, to a science, running smoothly and working together as a unified team.                                                                                      

Keith Shadle, Res Tech with Dr. Mark Wells
University of Maine

After the CTD deployment, we need to collect water samples without any contact with the surface. These special samples are needed for the more sensitive work that is being done in the "Clean Room" (see previous post). The work done by Dr. Mark Wells (University of Maine) has to take every precaution not to contaminate the water sample with any outside metals, quite a feat on this steel vessel. Dr. Wells equated this work of past scientists that did not take such precautions, as "measuring flour particles in a lab located in a bakery." Data in the past in this area, especially in iron content, has been tainted by experimental procedures that have led to his practices today. I'm blown away by the care of every procedure and the ingenuity that is required to procure such clean samples. Before the sample ever enters the "clean room," it has to be collected.

We have to go below the surface because the tiny film that covers the ocean, and all bodies, has dust that includes particles of iron, the target of Dr. Wells' study. Therefore, we deploy from the winch a 200 plus pound weight 10 meters below the surface. We use the "A-frame" to bring the line in close enough to a heavy table that we move and bolt down everyday. Once the weight is deployed far below the surface, we attach the "Go Flo" to the line. Dr. Wells has to make sure that it securely fastened and that the spring-loaded ports are open before sending it down to 10 meters farther below the water's surface.

This is why it's called an "A-frame."

The way that this thing works is quite impressive. It's engineered to stay open until triggered to close. The increased pressure from the 10 meter depth pops a rubber cork, cocking a lever that is the key to capturing the untainted seawater. In order to trigger this lever, Dr. Charles Trick (Western University, Ontario) brings in the A-frame so that Dr. Wells can attach a heavy polycarbonate weight that is denser than the salty water below. He sends it down like a messenger to the Go Flo to slam its ports. Thirty liters of water is now trapped in the Go Flo, and zero outside contaminates are included. We reel it all in, detach the weight and Go Flo, and carry the treasured sample to the "Clean Room," before moving it all back until the next site. 

Dr. Charles Trick, Western University, Ontario
mans the A-frame controls.

I'm realizing daily more and more the extensive lengths that we have to go to in order to assure that every precaution is taken--the integrity of the data depends on it. These principal investigators take their job and their work seriously to present the best indication of the health of the ocean. It is an incredibly big responsibility with global impacts if only we'd listen to what they have to say. It is not their opinions; it is the data. It is the evidence that supports a claim that effects us all. The food chain begins with the phytoplankton, healthy phytoplankton, healthy food chain. 

Between 40% to 60% of all of the earth's oxygen comes from these as well; that's more than any other source (Cochlan).   

Lifetimes are spent in this study, "taking the pulse of the ocean," as Dr. Cochlan, RTC-SFSU puts it. with the greatest care and precision.

Shouldn't we listen as we get the prognosis of its health?

Chief Alex Rodriquez inspects the controls with Dr. Wells.

"A-frame out"