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Journals 2005/2006Christine Leavor
August 19, 2005 Today there were all kinds of people on the boat! Everyone boarded and we left the dock around 7:50. Good start. Mary Lynn was aboard to collect more samples for dissolved oxygen testing. The process was just as it was when Kelly and I did them last week. Wally (a girl) collected samples for gas testing. She will perform a test that strips gasses from the water and checks for the proportion of Argon to Nitrogen. She explained that nitrogen is a product of biological processes (denitrification, which removes nitrogen and converts it to oxygen) and argon is a product of environmental processes- temperature and salinity, for example. She is looking at the ratio of the two. Today Dave said we would tow first and sample last, so we motored out to Station 6, and then put the Acrobat in the water. We towed up to Station 1. Then we removed the Acrobat and began collecting samples. We worked with a little more urgency because we knew we had to have all the filtering completed before we reached dock. Still time passed quickly and before I knew it we were back in Wickford. We unloaded equipment from the boat and packed up the trucks. I shook hands all around and said my thanks and good-byes to Dave, Kelly, Ross, and Captain Tom. It has been a fascinating two weeks and I think I have learned more science than I ever expected to ever know. I know it will be an experience I will always remember and one I would recommend to another teacher without hesitation. I headed back to the B&B and began to pack up my belongings in preparation for an early start in the morning. At breakfast I will say good-bye to Darya and her husband. I have met so many people over the breakfast table from so many parts of the country and I will surely miss my comfortable little room, but I am also anxious to be on my way home. |
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