Wadden Sea research on interactions between microorganisms and their environment

Publication date: Wednesday 10 June 2020

Category: NIOZ@Sea

After 3 months of lock down, RV Navicula set sail from Texel again on June 10th. On board are NIOZ scientist Julia Engelmann, post-doc Pierre Ramond and PhD student Tim de Groot. By this blog they will try to keep us informed about their experiences: 'We will sail to a spot in the Wadden Sea between Terschelling and the mainland and stay there for 48h, sampling surface water and taking CTD measurements every hour. The location is at the edge of a tidal channel and therefore quite dynamic. We extract microorganisms from the water through filtration and want to see how the microbial communities change with the tides and the physical and chemical parameters associated with that. Therefore we also measure temperature, salinity, nutrients and dissolved organic carbon and dissolved inorganic carbon. DNA of the microorganisms will be sequenced to obtain their relative abundances per sample. Combining the DNA with the physicochemical data, we will use network modelling to learn about the interactions between microorganisms and their environment in this system'.

Wednesday 10 June 2020: Navicula left Texel after 3 months of lockdown

Leaving the NIOZ harbor and setting up the lab container to sample microbial communities in surface water of the Wadden sea. Ready and excited to do some hands-on science again!

RV Navicula left Texel at 08.15 this morning. Photo: NIOZ

Thursday 11 June 2020 : A brief update from the Navicula.

We have half our samples in by now and going strong. The sampling and processing runs smoothly. When we go on deck the seagulls still come looking if we have fish, but we always have to disappoint them ...
In the video below, made by Bram Fey, you see how Tim is sampling water with the Niskin bottle.

A CTD measurement from our sampling location. No stratification in the water column and warm Wadden Sea water. Photo: NIOZ, Julia Engelmann

Our treat for a long sampling day yesterday, a beautiful sunset! Photo: NIOZ, Julia Engelmann

Friday 11th June 2020: Final day

What a smooth cruise! We collected all 48 samples as planned without any technical issues or sea sickness. Thanks to an awesome and efficient team, Pierre and Tim, and super supportive crew, Bram and Hein! We are now sailing back to Texel.