Delving in the data

My days are now filled with working up data from the experiments and measurements we took in the Antarctic. This is a slow, but mostly fun process. First, you sort the data, analyze samples that couldn’t be analyzed on the boat, check no mistakes have been made, and put everything in a logical fashion in a spreadsheet. This then seems like a huge chaos without any sense or story: Help! So, you try to find the big picture, relate different parameters, and find a few more mistakes. First, you test the ideas and hypothesis you had going into the cruise. If these don’t make sense you try to figure out what is actually going on. You try some relations based on experiments performed in the laboratory or studies published by other researchers. Most of this doesn’t give anything, but some relations pop up, or things are different from one region to the next, or between phytoplankton species. Bit by bit, a story becomes clear and at this point it’s getting fun. You may present the data at conferences and talk about some ideas with colleagues, when someone looks at you and says: “WOW, can you prove that?” “Yes, I can!”

The next challenge is to write your ideas in a logical fashion into a scientific article. At this time you may get some help from co-authors: people who helped with experiments on board, analyzed samples, or make their data available. Sometimes, these people are a great help, and sometimes you really have to bug them for a response or for the data they promised you. My boss is a great help, and as a non-native speaker is very nice to write with an American who is very good at it. So you write, rewrite, make figures, remake figures, and after blood, sweat, the occasional tear and some Abode Illustrator drama there is an article. You submit this article to a scientific journal where an editor will look at it, and if he or she thinks it’s an interesting topic, he/she sends the article to two to four other scientists who will read it and give their comments anonymously. In the latest case one reviewer was very positive, but another one was whining a good deal. Although it’s anonymous, you always have your suspicions about their identity, and the next time if I have to review something of her I’m going to whine too! The next step is to answer all questions and comments from the reviewers and then the editor will decide if it is good enough. If this is a YES, you eat cake and drink champagne! Everybody is happy, especially co-authors, as they share the honors of the paper, and I’m very proud! On to the next paper!

A scientific paper from the first cruise

What does Antarctic phytoplankton look like?

Home in sunny California I had planned to keep this blog going and tell you all about our exciting findings back in the lab and while analyzing the data. However, of course, analyzing Antarctic data is far less exciting than gathering Antarctic data, so writing about it is less exciting too. I’ll try to keep writing about exciting bits and if you have any questions, please send them my way and I’d be happy to write about it. First, some things I still wanted to write about on the boat, but ran out of time. Antarctic Phytoplankton Soup (photo Dave Munroe) What does Antarctic phytoplankton look like? During the last weeks on the “NB Palmer” we got the camera on the microscope to work and were able to take some pictures of the algae we’re studying. Taking pictures of microscopic organisms on a vibrating ship is not ideal, so they are not the best pictures, but the phytoplankton are beautiful to look at nonetheless. It also makes the difference in sizes clear. What we see as green pea soup contains phytoplankton cells with relative size differences of a goldfish and a blue whale. And if you are a krill counting on phytoplankton for lunch, size matters. Some phytoplankton cells are too small to provide any nutrition, others are too big to take up. And some phytoplankton try to stick together in order to get too big to be eaten. So you will see diatoms in chains of up to 20 cells, making them much bigger. Phaeocystis, another abundant phytoplankton species, excretes gel to form a sort of balloon in which the tiny cells are embedded. In this way, a single species can span the relative size differences of the goldfish and the blue whale. Phaeocystis colonies. The green specs are the cells in the colony matrix, the biggest colony has a diameter of approx 3 mm.

Different chains of diatoms, the biggest cell has a diameter of aprox 0.05 mm (50 micrometer).The smallest dots are Phaeocystis cells (2-3 micrometer in diameter)

Cool diatom cells!

Almost done

Making way towards McMurdo.

Anna is approaching the American polar base McMurdo in the the Ross Sea. For the last couple of days they have had views of Mt Terror and the active vulcano Mt Erebus, which are prominently present in the accounts of Scott and Shackleton. From McMurdo she will fly to New Zealand, where Anna and I will meet up.
Gert, Kate and Anna have packed up all their equipment and samples and are ready for the journey home. However, there is unexpectedly a lot of ice on the way to McMurdo. They are inching their way forward. The Swedish Icebreaker Odin is leading the way and the Palmer (with Anna) and two oiltankers are following to resupply to base. Currently, they are going slower than walking pace and it is not sure if they will be able to catch their scheduled flight to New Zealand.
Nevertheless, I expect her to pick me up from the airport in Christchurch! I am leaving in 4 hours...

Thijs