The Thompson is permanently equipped with an ADCP (75 kHz), a dual-frequency (12 and 3.5 kHz) echo sounder/subbottom profiler, a Simrad EM300 (30 kHz) swath mapping system, a CTD system, and GPS positioning systems. The CTD system includes a transmissometer, fluorometer, O2 sensor, PAR sensor, altimeter, and up to twenty-four 10 L Niskin bottles. Other sampling equipment must be requested and rented from Pooled Equipment. Additional laboratory equipment (bench-top fluorometer, filter rack and pump, microscopes, glassware, etc.) is available through Classroom Services (Kathy Newell, 543-6119, 21 OTB). Our Marine Chemistry Lab can provide a wide range of analytical services.

Below is a summary of possible measurements and available equipment relevant to the March Glacier Bay cruise. If your research project requires additional materials, please contact the course professors. It is possible that the materials will be available, either via our collaborators, or because they were overlooked in the following list! Items listed below but not found among Pooled Equipment can be assumed to have been donated and, for the purposes of your proposal budgets, are therefore free.

Additional items may be added so check back for updates.


Measurements:

Phytoplankton biomass (chl a), abundance, size distribution, and species composition

Zooplankton biomass, abundance, size distribution, and species composition

Bacterial and viral abundance

Phytoplankton growth rates (via dilution experiments)

Phytoplankton production (via oxygen production experiments)

Grazing rates on phytoplankton (via dilution experiments [microzooplankton] or other bottle experiments [mesozooplankton, like copepods]

Virus-induced mortality of phytoplankton (via dilution experiments)

Grazing rates OF (in most cases, not ON) zooplankton

Growth rates of bacteria (via dilution experiments)

Grazing rates on bacteria (via dilution experiments)

Virus-induced mortality of bacteria (via dilution experiments)

Virus production

Macronutrient analyses (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, ammonia)

Salinity analyses

Oxygen analyses

Water column profiling (salinity, temperature, fluorescence, photosynthetically active radiation and transmissivity)

Seafloor mapping (with the Simrad EM300)

Current profiling (with the shipboard ADCP)

Shipboard equipment:

3 incubators, each capable of holding ~18 2-L bottles

Various filtration rigs, for preparation of samples of chl a (including size-fractionated), bacteria and viruses

Dissecting, compound and epifluorescent microscopes for analysis of zooplankton, phytoplankton, bacteria and viruses

Balances, for measuring weight

Fluorometer, for measuring chl a

47 2-L transparent bottles, 20 1-L dark bottles, 14 500-ml bottles (for incubations)

Assorted nets: Two 0.75-m-diameter nets with 64 or 333-micron meshes; two 0.6-m-diameter nets with 64 or 333-micron meshes; one neuston net (2 feet x 4 feet) with 333-micron mesh; one 1-m-diameter closing vertical net with 300-micron meshes; one 1-foot-diameter hand-towed algal net with 20-micron mesh.

64-micron and ~200-micron mesh sieves for size-sorting of zooplankton

Plankton splitter (for unbiased splitting of zooplankton samples)

Two sediment grab samplers, 0.1 and 0.025 meters squared

Metal chute with two screen boxes for sieving benthos

Spade box corer, extra sample boxes and a cradle for supporting the sample and necessary accessories

CTD rosette with Niskin bottles for water-column sampling

ADCP for current profiling

ARGO floats for current tracking

Simrad EM300 for bottom mapping

Magnetometer