Scientific work aboard the CCGS Amundsen
Working group categories for sampling and research interests: Primary Production and related processes
On top of measuring “what is there” in term of quantities, scientists also do a lot of experiments to determine “what is going on there”. Mostly, they are interested in primary production (the first step of the food chain) and bacterial production.
Most of these studies involve incubations of a certain quantity of seawater in various conditions for different amounts of time. At the end of the incubation time, the water is typically filtered, allowing recovery of the organic particulate content and adequate analysis.
Primary production is determined using incubation in presence of radio-labeled carbon at various light intensities. The amount of carbon incorporated during the incubation gives an estimation of the amount of primary production. Bacterial production involves the similar methodology using tritiated Leucine as a marker.
Incorporation of nitrogen (various chemical forms) and silica is also measured.
How are variables measured?
