Log Post: Student Opportunity: The Calm Before the Storm

Julianna and I have been sailing on Falkor for a few days now. The science team is all settled in as we make our way towards the first sampling location. The transit from Majuro will be approximately three days. As the scientist’s calibrate their instruments and prepare for arrival, the ship’s crew is all action … Continued

Log Post: Phytoplankton Sampling Strategies

Plankton comes from the greek word planktos, meaning wanderer. It does not define a specific organism, but rather a specific life style. Plankton consist of all organisms dispersed in water that are passively driven by water currents or are subject to passive sinking process. Some of those organisms have an ability to produce oxygen and sugars … Continued

Log Post: Maiden Voyages

Melissa Omand, interdisciplinary physical oceanographer from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, was confronted with a conflict: it was time for an upgrade to her phone, but creating more technological trash did not feel right. Plus, the camera on her older phone was fantastic. Together with her first graduate student Noah Walcutt, she worked on … Continued

Log Post: Sampling the Invisible

Microbes play many vital roles by physically and chemically changing their surroundings: they consume and produce a diverse range of organic and inorganic materials, provide food for other organisms, and drive biogeochemical cycles on a global scale. Our research in the Cunliffe Group based at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth UK focuses on understanding … Continued

Log Post: With Bells On!

Mariana looks at the buoy drifting away from R/V Falkor. She has done it countless times before; but as she assists in the deployment of the snifel off of the ship’s aft deck, the familiar anxiety comes back all the same. Designed to measure the speed of the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere … Continued

Person: Ko-ichi Nakamura

Ko-ichi studies marine geology including hydrothermal and gas hydrate sites in various settings. Subseafloor fluid emission makes variety of geologic phenomena on the seafloor as well as variety of chemical and biological process in the water column. He joined the first 2009 expedition in the Cayman Trough utilizing HROV Nereus on the Cape Haterras with … Continued

Person: Cédric Boulart

Cédric Boulart is a marine geochemist based at IFREMER in Brest, France. He received his Ph.D. in Ocean and Earth Sciences from the University of Southampton (UK) in 2008, as part of a European Project focusing on the processes at mid-ocean ridges. He specializes in the development of methods and sensors for the detection, mapping … Continued

Person: Paolo Montagna

Paolo Montagna is a researcher at the Institute of Marine Science (ISMAR-CNR) in Bologna with interests in the geochemistry of biogenic carbonates for palaeoclimate reconstructions and biomineralization studies. He obtained his PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Padova (Italy) in collaboration with the Australian National University. He was awarded a three year post-doctoral … Continued

Person: Conall McNicholl

Conall is a currently a biology major in his senior year at Temple University.  His ongoing research project at Temple involves ocean acidification and the physiological responses of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa.  This is Conall’s first scientific research cruise and he is excited to gain a lot of experience at sea.  On board the … Continued