Out on the Boat

Yesterday I got to go out on the boat and help with some aquatic sampling!  I really lucked out and had gorgeous weather yet again - the lake looked like this:

Myvatn isn't supposed to look like that. This is a lake in northern Iceland that is usually windy and spawning large numbers of insects.  I'm not going to complain about it, though. 

Tony, one of the professors

We had some routine sampling to do at a spot in the middle of the lake called Station 33.  First off was the benthic sampler.

The benthic sampler collects small creatures that live at the bottom of the lake.  It had been left on the lake floor for 24 hours and it was our job to pick it up.

This is what was in the benthic samples after it had been filtered and all the good stuff put into a small tube.  It's mostly zooplankton, although I did see at least one wormy type thing squirming around in there.  I'll have to learn how to identify aquatic life next.

We also sunk a frame with a camera attached to take pictures of the bottom at different wavelengths, and collected these lovely cores:

Mmm, sludge

These samples were wrapped in varying layers of mesh to produce different levels of sunlight and then incubated in the lake to allow photosynthesis to occur.  This was done by hanging them from a floating rack just off shore and measuring the amount of oxygen when we put them in and after a few hours.  If photosynthesis was occurring, the oxygen levels should have increased, since the first step in photosynthesis is splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen in order to obtain electrons. 

Last night we saw a stunning fog roll in from the sea.

Fog over Vindbelgur

View from our house

And tonight was bacon night.  Due to mass quantities of uneaten bacon packets in our fridge, it was decided that every dish served tonight must have bacon.  As side dishes we had bacon and brussel sprouts as well as oven-baked fries with bacon sprinkles.  It was delicious!

Beats sheep head