Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences

Did you know, as we float atop the waters of the Subtropical North Atlantic, we also sit on layers and layers of ocean from all over the globe, and that these can be decades old? The ocean here is around 4 kilometres deep, with different layers having originated in different places and made their way here by deep convection – the process by which mixed surface layers of the ocean travel to it’s interior. In this way, a water mass’ ‘age’ refers to the last time it was in conta

Today started as any other; a 2300 alarm, an apple from the galley, and a rendezvous in the main lab to prep our CTD cast (if you missed it, here’s a CTD 101). But today was an exciting CTD as I fired my own bottles! By which I mean, I pressed the button at the correct time at the correct depth 24 times, but it was a big moment for me. I again took all the samples I need - another 50 litres (10 litres per depth from 5 different depths) filtered through 0.2 micron mesh for gen

For me, the most exciting moment of a cruise is the moment the first CTD hits the surface of the water. The second, a few hours later (if you’re lucky!), is the moment the first samples hit the -80 degree Celsius freezer. This means my sampling is well and truly underway, and we’re on our way to answering some of the big questions we have about the ocean and the Earth as a whole. This happened today at 0100 hours. We typically meet in the ship’s main lab about half an hour be

Let’s talk about the triangle of filtering. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, when we talk about ‘filtering’, we are talking about pushing litres of seawater through a very fine mesh. And what’s key here is that, at least in my case, what I’m interested in is what stays on the filter. The water produced just runs back into the sea, but what doesn’t fit through the pores is what we’re here for: tiny, microscopic phytoplankton that live in seawater (about a million

Today is the day! My fourth research cruise and my first to the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series. After a quick dip in the harbour to make the most of our last opportunity to be in the water for the next week, I packed myself up and boarded the R/V (Research Vessel) Atlantic explorer. After a few last-minute checks and a little unpacking, I headed out to the middeck to wave goodbye to our colleagues on the shore. At 1200 hours we departed, heading out through ferry reach to the w

Saturday morning rolled around, bringing with it a change of scenery as today was the first day I stepped aboard the R/V (Research Vessel) Atlantic Explorer, BIOS’s research ship. I met Rod, chief scientist of this cruise and PI of the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series on board in the morning, and had the pleasure of meeting many of the BATS and AE techs and scientists over a delicious lunch prepared by the ship’s chef, Dexter. Alongside the regular BATS sampling and my own sampli

This week has been exceptionally sunny and calm for a March in Bermuda and so, determined not to let it go to waste, we decided to head out on BIOS’s dive boat, the Rumline, to do a little pilot sampling to test methods ahead of my first cruise aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer later this weekend. The boat was heading out anyway with a group of undergraduates here for a ‘spring semester’, so another member of Team Microbe and I tagged along, carboys and cool boxes (for sample

With all this snorkelling, boat days and sunset cruises, you must be wondering, when am I actually going to do some work? But fear not, for I have (believe it or not) been working away during the trusty 9-5 to ready everything for our first expedition. This cruise is different from others I’ve been on since I’m going ‘alone’ (ie, not with anybody working on my same project), it’s testing my organisational and experiment planning skills to get everything ready. Doing science a

In case you couldn’t guess, if there’s one place I love to be, it’s in the water. And this evening I had the opportunity to witness and experience the underwater world in a totally different way: at night. Now whilst night dives are common, night snorkels are less so. But there’s something to be said about looking down at an absolute smorgasbord of life under the waves, and looking up to see stars, planets, and a blood moon rising (it was a full moon night!). Our evening star

Well hello there! You’ve stumbled across a special entry to my DPhil (PhD) diary, which is the first time I write to you from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences , a marine research station nestled in the subtropical North Atlantic, in the middle of the Sargasso Sea, on a little island called Bermuda. If you’re here deliberately, I hope this blog, and subsequent entries, is everything you dreamed of (hi mum!!). If you’re here by accident, then welcome to a glimpse inside