Scott Nodder and Lisa Northcote are analysing the Marine Snow that was collected in the sediment traps we retrieved on the Tangaroa. Each sediment trap bottle had been “fixed” with Mercuric chloride as part of the sample gathering process. This means each sample hasn’t changed. No bacteria etc has grown to mess up the data. Mercuric chloride halts everything and is a chemical that has to be used with great care. (Nasty stuff!)
Back in the lab, Scott takes each sample and under a microscope looks for all zooplankton.
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| Scott Nodder sorting Sediment trap sample |
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| Copepods, Amphipods (like little sand hoppers) Little jellyfish, Polychaete worms (segmented worms), Bristle worms, Pteropods (sea butterflies) Salps, Isopods (slaters) and little starfish were all types of zooplankton found today. These get put into little specimen jars. |
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Samples of Zooplankton- note the size!
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| Lisa Northcote then takes the Marine Snow and divides it into 5 sample bottles for further analysis. |
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| The samples are evenly distributed through a sample divider that has been designed especially for Sediment Traps. |
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