In August, international PhD-students and marine biology experts travelled to the small village Ólafsvík in Iceland in order to attend a PhD-course organized by DTU Aqua. On the schedule was sampling of marine snow in the nearby fjord, and lectures on how the ocean’s tiniest creatures transport the increasing amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere into the deep oceans.
“Everybody knows about the alarming increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, but not a lot of people know that the oceans take up enormous amounts of the gas from the atmosphere”, says Sigrún Jόnasdόttir, who is senior research scientist at DTU Aqua, and one of the main organizers of the PhD-course ‘From bloom to gloom’, which was held at the Marine Research Station, Vör, in the small fishing village Ólafsvík in West Iceland from August 4-14.
The marine biology course was organized by Danish, Icelandic and Norwegian universities, and taught by experts in the field from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), University of Tromsø, Southampton University, University of Southern California, University of Texas A&M, Marine Research Institute of Iceland, University of Iceland as well as researchers from the Icelandic host institution Vör. On the list of participants was 16 PhD-students from Denmark, Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
“The course was held in Ólafsvík because the small research station there is ideal for a small group of students, and offers good facilities for laboratory work. Then there is the added bonus that we can go sampling in the fjord which is just a stone throw from the lab”, says Sigrún Huld Jόnasdόttir, and adds:
“Being Icelandic, I was very interested in conducting this course in Iceland, and it was only possible with the great enthusiasm and help from Erla Björk Örnólfsdóttir, who is director at Vör Research station”.
Tiny marine creatures absorb CO2 from the atmosphere
Throughout the ten day course, the students gained knowledge on how the oceans cope with the increasing amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere, and how the marine life responds by transporting the carbon out of the atmosphere and into the deep oceans.
“The transport of carbon into the oceans all depends on the smallest creatures in the oceans, the tiny plant plankton and the millimetre small zooplankton”, explains Sigrún Huld Jόnasdόttir.
The students also learned how the marine life is affected by the increasing amounts of CO2 being captured in the oceans.
Collecting falling marine snow
Throughout the course, the students received lectures and did lab work, field work, exercises and presentations. The field work was carried out on a local vessel on the fjord Grundarfjörður where the students were taught how to use different measuring equipment and methods to obtain data from the fjord’s tiny inhabitants.
”Since I had never used them before, I learned a lot from using the different measuring equipment and methods on the course. Another great thing about the course is that the teachers are experts in their fields and very enthusiastic”, says PhD-student Una Matras from Havstovan Faroe Marine Research Institute.
From the local vessel, the students also collected falling marine snow, which is dead plankton and other small particles that resembles falling snow when it sinks the long way to the bottom of the ocean. After collecting the marine snow, the students analysed the samples in the laboratory at the Marine Research Station.
Apart from gaining academic skills, the participating students got an opportunity to network with each other as well as with the teachers.
“What makes this course unique is that it gave me an opportunity to meet people from different fields of expertise as well as from different universities. It gave me a network that I can hopefully use in the future”, says Una Matras.
By Kristine Bohmann