{"id":1430,"date":"2026-03-13T14:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=1430"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:21:11","slug":"antarctic-dispatch-6-uncontaminated-southern-ocean-seawater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/?p=1430","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic Dispatch 6: Uncontaminated Southern Ocean Seawater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L7KALmqNkSw\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior Research Scientist Ben Twining has wrapped up his time aboard the RSS <em>Sir David Attenborough<\/em>, but we\u2019re still sharing a few final updates from the <strong>IRON-MAN <\/strong>expedition in and around Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bottle uncontaminated seawater for trace metal analysis. Sounds simple enough, <em>right<\/em>? But: recall that the expedition is taking place on a ship with a steel hull. It takes a lot of careful maneuvering to avoid contamination!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ANTARCTIC DISPATCH 6: BOTTLING UNCONTAMINATED SOUTHERN OCEAN SEAWATER<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As you may recall, the <a href=\"https:\/\/usgeotraces.ldeo.columbia.edu\/content\/gp17-oce\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/usgeotraces.ldeo.columbia.edu\/content\/gp17-oce\">IRON-MAN<\/a> project is focused on how trace metals like iron and manganese regulate phytoplankton growth and impact the carbon cycle. We\u2019re cruising aboard the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bas.ac.uk\/polar-operations\/sites-and-facilities\/facility\/rrs-sir-david-attenborough\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.bas.ac.uk\/polar-operations\/sites-and-facilities\/facility\/rrs-sir-david-attenborough\/\">RRS <em>Sir David Attenborough<\/em><\/a>, a steel-hulled vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Collecting seawater that isn\u2019t contaminated by the hull of the ship requires precision. As you can see in <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/L7KALmqNkSw?feature=share\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/L7KALmqNkSw?feature=share\">this video<\/a>, it takes a village (<em>and an indefatigable door opener!<\/em>) to remove samples from the specially designed titanium rosette for trace metal analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the heart of a trace metal cruise is the vessel\u2019s clean room, its soul is the all-star team behind the operation. Shout-outs to <strong>Maeve, Angie, Simon, Alex,<\/strong> and <strong>Chengwang<\/strong> for working tirelessly to fill countless bottles with sweet, contamination-free seawater!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to Ben for snapping these behind-the-scenes look at Southern Ocean science! Since Ben\u2019s time aboard the RRS <em>Sir David Attenborough <\/em>has drawn to a close, he\u2019ll share a few final thoughts in one last Antarctica Dispatch. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senior Research Scientist Ben Twining has wrapped up his time aboard the RSS Sir David Attenborough, but we\u2019re still sharing a few final updates from the IRON-MAN expedition in and around Antarctica. Today, enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bottle uncontaminated seawater for trace metal analysis. Sounds simple enough, right? But: recall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[101,50,68,75],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-ocean-function","tag-antarctic-dispatches","tag-ben-twining","tag-research-cruise","tag-trace-metals-gases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/currents.bigelow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}