Getting ready to leave...

We are preparing to go down South again to revisit the Amundsen Sea, where we were 2 years ago. One would expect this would encompass frantic packing and stressing about stuff that doesn't fit, but fortunately the packing was done months ago when we shipped our stuff to Punta Arenas, Chile. So now we are left wondering: Did I pack everything? Did I pack those forceps that are absolutely essential??? Luckily, everything is on packing lists (even the forceps!), so stress levels are manageable. Now we wait for the algae!

The ice in Antarctica starts to break open/ melt in early November. This allows the light to penetrate the water, where the algae are waiting in a soup of nutrients that accumulated over the winter. Thus, all ingredients are present for happy algae. The accumulation of nutrients is rather stable from year to year, however, the light is the variable factor since it is dependent on cloud cover and ice cover. Lots of ice and cloud may delay the start of the algae bloom by several weeks.

Since we want as many algae as possible for our experiments, we are keeping a close watch on the algae and ice conditions in the Amundsen Sea. As you can see on the image of 15 Nov 2010, there is still lots of grey ice and few algae (the blue is a low concentration of chlorophyll in the water). The black parts are open water, but because of cloud cover we can't see if there are any algae. What we would like to see is on the picture of 13 Jan last year. Lots of algae (red=good) and not much ice cover. Fortunately, an algae bloom can develop within 2 weeks and we won't be in our research area until 16 Dec, so we still have some time. Until that time we're stuck watching the algae grow.