PICCOLO
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Laurel, a VINDTA, measures total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon. Credit: Elise Droste (Alfred Wegener Insitute)28 February
Gareth Lee (UEA) and Elise Droste (Alfred Wegener Insititute)
Is it odd that scientists anthropomorphise their instruments? When you consider that we spend at least 12 hours a day with them alone in a lab container out on deck, day after day, and they just happen to have quirky behaviours (and we might be a little quirky ourselves), I think it becomes more understandable. In our case, we’re referring to Laurel and Lucy, our two instruments that measure total alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon. In scientific manuscripts, we call them by their serious official name: VINDTA, which stands for Versatile Instrument for the Determination of Total inorganic carbon and total Alkalinity.
Science is supposed to be objective, but the dark art of carbonate chemistry certainly is not.
Gareth Lee (UEA) and Elise Droste (Alfred Wegener Insititute)
On board the SDA, we (Gareth and Elise) run these instruments 24/7, each doing 12 hour shifts a day. The first thing we ask each other during our hand-overs is, “How are the girls?” Often, this question seems to be loaded with a little bit of dread and anticipation, because our VINDTAs are a little… how do I put it… temperamental. Plug-and-play instruments? Forget it. They need constant love and attention. Their manuals actually state that to operate them, you have to ‘like’ them. The more we work with them, the more aware we are of their sensitivities. Treating them with patience and gratitude is the way to go. Swearing at them only makes it worse. Yes, science is supposed to be objective, but the dark art of carbonate chemistry certainly is not.
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While they’re technically fully automated, except for switching between samples, our ladies are a handful. You can spend 23 ½ hours watching the instruments intensely and the moment you leave them they create a seawater puddle all over the floor. Erratic reproducibility means hours of trouble-shooting. They also like to throw up any of their numerous ‘one-off’ errors when you least expect it and are not watching their every move.
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You may think we’re exaggerating. Surely a bunch of valves and switches, driven by a PC cannot be that bad?
You’re wrong.
I mean, look at it. Fifteen pinch valves amidst a metre or two of tubing and two peristaltic pumps channelling water into two pipettes, a titration cell and a stripper to strip the gas out of solution before entering the coulometry cell. It is fraught with errors. Our VINDTAs are antique, and will only work with Windows XP, boggling the mind of our on-board IT support, who asked, “Why do scientists like to work with such old operating systems?!” This was after we asked him to help us install software on the PC from a CD…
Understanding how the ocean takes up atmospheric CO2, which processes are responsible for this uptake, and where in the water column the CO2 is stored will allow us to understand how the ocean will behave in the future.
Gareth Lee (UEA) and Elise Droste (Alfred Wegener Insititute)
Anyway, with the total alkalinity (TA) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) measurements from our instruments, we can determine any of the other marine carbonate system components, including pH and the partial pressure of CO2. During the PICCOLO expedition, we, the UEA CO2 team, are quantifying the DIC and TA in the water column of the Southern Ocean to find out which mechanisms are important in oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2. We aim to determine how deep in the water column the CO2 is stored and, therefore, for how long it is kept out of the atmosphere. Understanding how the ocean takes up atmospheric CO2, which processes are responsible for this uptake, and where in the water column the CO2 is stored will allow us to understand how the ocean will behave in the future.
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Given that we have treated Laurel and Lucy with love during PICCOLO, we have some exciting data that – combined with the other fascinating interdisciplinary datasets collected on board – will allow us to explore processes of the carbon cycle happening in this special part of the ocean.