Die Verankerung (the mooring)

My samplers emerging from the water

I clapped my hands together to stimulate blood flow to my fingers. Bouncing on my toes a little, I pulled my scarf higher over my face. It wasn't even that cold outside, except I had been standing there for hours. Three moorings were being recovered, and I had samplers on one of them. I wasn't sure how long the recovery would take, but I did not want to miss it.

The long, thin line of the mooring rolled over a pulley suspended over the side of the ship. White spokes painted onto the solid orange wheel spun clockwise, marking meter after meter as the line was spooled onto the winch. Every once in a while, a device would surface – a funnel-shaped sediment trap or a columnar ADCP. The boson would raise his closed fist to signal the winch to stop; then crew and scientists would attach lines to the device, raise it with the crane, and set it down gently on deck. Sampler after sampler was carted away to the various labs as I waited patiently for mine.

Leaning over the side of the ship, I could see white PVC emerging from the dark water. My samplers were lifted along the mooring line up to the pulley, and when the boson signaled "stop," the mooring team leader reached over the side with clippers in hand. My samplers were held on the line with zip ties, and with a few snips, they were free. I had my first samples of the cruise.

A brittle star post-larva that I collected in one of my
larval traps, photographed from underneath (oral side)
using my dissecting microscope

I'm collecting baseline data on larval dispersal in the eastern Arctic – where do larvae come from, where do they go, what depth do they disperse at, and what does this mean for the connectivity of benthic populations in a changing climate. Thanks to my ongoing collaboration with the Alfred Wegener Institute and to the new Helmholtz Infrastructure Initiative FRAM, I was able to deploy larval traps and fouling panels on moorings throughout the HAUSGARTEN long-term observatory. The first set was deployed in 2017, and then I met the ship in Tromsø, Norway, after the 2018 cruise to pick them up. A new set was put out last year and is now being recovered. The samplers were deployed at 3 – 4 depths on 3 different moorings, so I can see the influence of Atlantic and polar water masses on larval supply.

It was very exciting to get my samplers back, and I look forward to seeing what they've caught!