Inconsistency and waiting for the CTD

We have now officially entered Fiji waters and crossed into a new time zone, which means that not a single clock on board is showing the actual local time. It also means that I'm now 11 hours ahead of Sweden, which again, feels a bit weird.

It is our 7th short duration station (SD) today, and we are slowly nearing our mid-point (10th of March). The following 2 days will decide where we will have our next long duration station (LD). So today we once again start running the qPCR looking for the UCYN targets.

I don't think I've actually explained what the targets really are. So for those interested, they are small unicellular diazotrophs (nitrogen fixers). Most of them are so small that they can not be identified by any other means than molecular methodologies (e.g. the qPCR). They are currently being subject of some intense research due to their role as diazotrophs but also in their unique characteristics (some arguing that they are in a transitional state between free living and symbiotic, giving an excellent opportunity to study a process similar to the theory of the modern eukaryotic cell, the endosymbiont theory. The reason for this is that some of them have been shown to lack certain genes required for their life history, then being either photoautotrophs or photoheterotrophs. How they still manage without these genes, e.g. for photosystem II essential for photosynthesis, is largely unknown). Some of the other diazotrophs can be seen by the naked eye while others are easily recognised in a microscope.

When we have decided on a location for the second LD, out of three, there will hopefully, be some more consistency in our sampling. At the moment we are trying to save time by sampling whenever we arrive at an intended SD and every single time since LD1 we have had to wait for hours for our first CTD with our water. Tedious, yes.
Anyway, for more detailed information on the cruise plan and goals you can visit the official OUTPACE 2015 webpage at https://outpace.mio.univ-amu.fr/spip.php?article71.

Between rumors of a massive storm, stupid oceanographer community rituals when crossing the dateline and someone spotting a few whales, it is now finally time for sampling.