05 June 2004 - Max's Sampling Report

Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 43

Max Holmes
5 June 2004

The river finally cleared of ice enough for us to attempt our first shipboard sampling of the Lena River in 2004. We had already installed the winch a few days before and had taken all of the sampling supplies to the ship earlier in the day, so after lunch we headed to the ship and by 2:30 pm we were onboard and underway. “We” consisted of Max Holmes, Sasha Zhulidov, Amy Clapp, Chris Guay, Lena Gordeeva, Oliver Monson, and Anya Suslova, as well as the crew of the ship (Mikhael Suslov – captain, Valera, Sasha, Kostya, Vita, and Svetlana).

Sampling was done about 5 km upstream of the town of Zhigansk (our central sampling station was at 66 degrees 41.967 minutes North, 123 degrees 29.460 minutes East). We had to avoid some large ice chunks as we headed upriver, but overall the river was relatively free of ice and no significant problems with ice were encountered.

The PARTNERS protocol is to collect 5 depth-integrated samples from across the river channel, and then to combine these 5 samples into a single composite sample. To get the depth-integrated water samples (that is, water is collected over the entire depth of the river), we use a use a heavy torpedo-shaped sampler called a D-96 sampler.

During our preliminary sampling on all 6 PARTNERS rivers in summer 2003, we encountered significant problems with deploying the 60 kg (130 lbs) D-96 depth-integrating sampler at almost every stop. (see pdf file called something like “Summer 2003 Summary” on the PARTNERS web page for more information about the winch issues: http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/partners ). So during fall and early winter 2003, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out D-96 deployment solutions for the Yenisey, Lena, and Ob’ rivers. In the end, we had 3 winches made in the US and shipped to Russia this spring, and yesterday was our first real test of the system.

I’m very happy (and much relieved!) to report that the new winch worked exactly as we had hoped! I was really nervous about it, but everything went completely smoothly. So thanks to continued support and assistance from NSF, VECO, and CPPI-S, we are now able to get the high-quality, clean, depth-integrated samples that are a key component to the success of the PARTNERS project. One less thing to worry about!

After sample collection was done, the captain started the ship back to Zhigansk while we began sample processing in our shipboard “lab”. As with the sample collection, everything went smoothly during sample processing. So by about 7 pm, all of the samples were either in a refrigerator or freezer and we were off the ship and on our way back to our “lodge”.

Our plan is to do another full PARTNERS sampling on Monday June 7, and we leave Zhigansk on Wednesday June 9. By June 12, all US participants will be back in the U.S. Our samples from both shipboard samplings on the Lena River, as well as our almost 2 weeks of shore sampling on the Lena and several samplings of the Ob’, Yenisey, and Kolyma rivers will hopefully arrive at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole by early July. Then the sample analysis will start and we’ll have lots more exciting data to think about. It really is a tremendous relief to have this first shipboard sampling with the new winch system done – all equipment, supplies, and people performed fantastically!