Back to Ben-Gurion

I collected a lot of samples over summer during the IRES project (Coastal IRES). However, in the midst of running too many experiments - there was no time for the analysis.

So I am back in Sde-Boker Midreshet Ben Gurion to hopefully finish the lab work !

I am always amazed of how fast you can change your scenery "just" by flying for some hours. Friday morning I was in misty California - Sunday morning I was in the desert looking at Ibexes on the campus of Ben Gurion University of The Negev.

With Edo Bar-Zeev's shiny white new lab and the expertise of both him and his students, I managed to pull off a shit-ton of lab work!
While still enjoying the beautiful desert area:

At the end of the trip I went to Hafia to work with Eyal Rahav.
The Israel Oceanographic and Limnology Research Institute has quite a different look to it:

But as long as the scientists within the building know what they are doing (or for the most part at least we'll have an idea of what we're doing) - the outer casing doesn't really matter!
And anyway, there was a lot more to Hafia than just an old sovjet-concrete square:

Now I am finally done with all the lab work from the projects we did in Eilat in July and August. Next up: What does it mean ????

(and I though the lab work would take a long time!)

Last Fieldwork in Carlsbad

For one last time, we returned for a week of field sampling in Carlsbad.
The weather was beautiful, but unfortunately two divers came down with a cold on the first day of work. Leaving my faithful buddy, Jacque, and I to do the remainder of the sampling.

 In poor conditions we scrambled to get the surveys done and the water collected. Luckily, a great team of helpers on the boat got us through the hard days of diving.

Now, all the samples have been collected. All there is left is to get them analyzed and figure out, if there is any significance between them.
Stay tuned !

The Crew

Summer fieldwork in Israel

This summer was an experience and adventure rich summer.

I was in Israel to conduct some field experiments for my project. The full account for the summer can be read here: Coastal IRES.

But for a quick recab:
I spent two months in Eilat setting up, maintaining and running two biological experiments.

One was with coral fragments. Grown in different treatments, I hope to see if there is any measurable difference in their growth.
The treatments was either 10% higher salinity than ambient, 10% higher salinity+antiscalants or control. These treatments should mimic the higher end of discharge from a desalination plant, and I wish to see if this would cause differences in the growth and health of the corals.

Coral fragments in aquarium

The other was same concept, but with phytoplankton:

Bottles of phytoplankton floating in pool to keep similar temperature.

Plastic is everywhere

Earlier this week I started to count my phytoplankton under the microscope.
Just for fun I've started to take a count of plastic too.

In every single one of my samples I have so far found plastic.
I've settled about 25 ml to count, and of that I only count half of my chamber. So really I'm only looking at about 10 ml.
And in every single one I find traces of plastic!
It's unbelievable that in such a tiny random ocean water sample - so much plastic can be found. It just emphasizes the enormous problem we are facing with plastic and other pollutants in the ocean.

#noplasticinnature

To follow up on that I recently went on a short hike around Lake Alpine up in Stanislaus National Forest in California. On my 7 km hike I found the following:

• 3 plastic bottles
• 1 ziplog bag 
• 1 plastic bag
• 1 Cliff Bar wrapper
• 4 hard candy wrappers
• Bottom plastic from a cigarette pack  
• Half of an old label 
• Expired Macy's coupon 
• Half a shoe sole 
• 1 plastic spoon  
• A pair of glasses
• A pair of sun glasses

It seems like humanity is determined to make their presence known in the geologic record!

#leavenotrace

Fieldwork in Carlsbad

Returned from another successful fieldtrip to Carlsbad!

After long months of planning, emailing, organizing and packing it is great to see it all come together in one hectic week. Having a good-working team on such a trip means the world and it helps everything run smoothly.

This time we spent the week at an AirBNB house, so we had plenty of space for all the equipment, a nice big freezer for sample storage and space to dry off the scuba gear. And even a nice garden to sit and enjoy the sun while filtering the water samples:

With a dream-team of divers the works get done! We had a boat and our amazing captain Rich Walsh from SCRIPPS Institute of Oceanography to help us out. My diver dream-team where all former students from UCSC and I've been taking classes with them, gone on fun scuba trips and endured our great Diving Officer Steve Clabuesch's tough sci-dive class. With divers like them - things will work out!

So even though we got beaten up by the swell one of the days and had to cancel the dives, we managed to come back on the last day and finish the sampling.

It is now my 3rd time at this fieldsite so I know my way around, and I know where on my transect there will be problems. Even though it is a lot of work, it is fun to be in charge of the sampling and the process. I work as dive leader and field coordinator, while I am diving and sampling. This way I am sure that the samples are taken at the spots I think it is important, and if something doesn't get sampled, I know why.

I love being in the field even though it's a hard week and a long process to get there. Getting out of the office and lab is always a pleasure, and doing work while diving is just the best! And then you get small treats like seeing dolphins and whales on the way back to harbor!

I have one more fieldtrip to do in Carlsbad - I am sad that it might be the last!