Journals 2009/2010

Jason Pavlich
Red Hook Central High School, Red Hook, NY

"Estimation of Primary Productivity and Particle Export Rates as a Function of Phytoplankton Community Structure in the Bering Sea" R/V Thompson June 15 - July 15, 2010

Journal Index: June 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18         19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24-25         26 - 27 - 28 - 29-30 July 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 9        10 - 11 - 15

July 8, 2009
One More Line

62° 40.03 N
173° 23.00 W

Slow day for the Moran group. Small volume thorium and pigment profiles were sampled in the morning from station 145-BN3. This will be correlated with coring data taken by David Shull's team and primary production numbers obtained from Jonathan Whitefield for Mike Lomas of BIOS. We were done by shortly after lunch. Matt spent the rest of the day on his computer manipulating data and constructing plots of last year's BEST data while Pat went to bed on his usual schedule. I read the first half of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which is both enchanting and depressing at the same time.

Sampling is winding down for Pat, Matt, and I but for some other groups on board the R/V Thompson the end is not in sight yet. At about 18:00 the CTD was lowered into the water at station 148-70M58, the first station of the 70-meter line and the start of our slow journey back south to Dutch Harbor. The 70-meter line is a sampling marathon for the nutrients team, consisting of 58 stations. This line will take roughly four days to complete. The 70-meter depth along the Bering Shelf happens to provide a place to see the interactions between the northern and southern Bering Sea, between the waters of the continental shelf and those of the deep sea. It is hard to imagine that I will be on the Thompson for only six more days. After 22 days at sea you can't help but settle into a routine and the time has passed faster than I thought it would. I know the last few days of this research cruise will fly by and I will be on the way back east before I know it. I need to take this opportunity to slow down and appreciate where I am before I no longer have the chance.