[deutsche Version unten] The different names of the Atlantic The most beautiful thing about the village “Taliarte” is the amazing view on the Atlantic – and the Atlantic is the reason why we are here. We want to learn, explore and understand it. And we would like to stimulate people to treat it better. In […]
Phytoplankton play a key role in the global carbon cycle. These organisms take CO2 of the environment and release O2, by a process called oxygenic photosynthesis, that affects the gas composition in the ocean, and therefore in the atmosphere. Primary production is essential to understand and predict the biogenic flux of CO2 into the oceans. […]
*German version below* Delicious tropical fruits for breakfast, lonesome strolls on the picturesque cliffside towards the PLOCAN lighthouse at dawn, watching a nice sunrise and cutting through the waves on adventurous motorboat rides and – with a bit of luck – spotting some turtles, flying fish or even a hammerhead shark in the crystal-clear […]
-english version see below- Eier, wir brauchen Eier. Diese Worte stammen von einem großen deutschen Philosophen des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts und beschreibt ziemlich genau unsere letzten Wochen. Nachdem das Tiefenwasser zugegeben wurde, hatte das Phytoplankton Zeit genug sich zu vermehren und dem Zooplankton sollte dieser reich gedeckte Tisch auch Anlass genug sein Nachkommen zu […]
It may seem like the perfect sea to swimmers, snorklers, and divers – crystal clear, turquoise water with an underwater visibility of 30 metres and more. Among marine scientists this is often referred to as an ocean desert. The concentrations of plant nutrients in these waters are so low, that it takes special instruments and […]
[deutsche Version unten] The experiment is already running for four weeks now and we still haven’t introduced all members of the project. Starting with the series “Who is KOSMOS” we take the chance to present each of the groups taking part in the study. As an alphabetic order seems rather boring, we will follow an […]
[Deutsche Version weiter unten] For science it is important to keep the error rate as low as possible, but it is understood that everyone makes mistakes. To have comparable results at the end of the KOSMOS experiment the same task should always be executed by the same person. That means: If for example plankton is […]
[deutsche Version unten] A normal sampling day starts at 7:30am just before the sun rises over Gran Canaria. The sampling team packs all equipment needed into the KOSMOS bus to transport it to the harbour just around the corner. The equipment comprises integrated water samplers for gas samples, pumps to sample non gas samples, a […]
Some days ago we started with the most fun part: cleaning the mesocosm bags from outside with a window scraper and a brush operated by a diver. It may sound strange since our experiment is inside the bags, but we don’t want to have algae growing on the outside and shading the inner environment. It […]
Every second day it´s sampling day (dx). So fare all activities were according to plan and the weather always pampered us with sun, only a little bit of clouds and 2 weeks of almost flat sea. A lot of people are busy either on the boat, in lab or even both if you´re having a […]