As many of you might have read earlier in this blog, the projects NorAmph and Hypno have been regularly sampling in Hjeltefjorden for the past year. As a part of my master thesis, I was lucky to be able to come with! My thesis will be about amphipods and their seasonal variety in Hjeltefjorden, which is super exiting!
The RP-sled used for the sampling.
For each time we go out, we sample with a RP-sled, a WP3 plankton net and we collect CTD data. The samples from the RP-sled will be used for my thesis and other projects if we find something interesting. During the last year we collected samples 9 times, which has given us some great days out at sea!
During these cruises we have had lots of fun! We have had cake, snacks and regularly done yoga on deck! We have been mostly lucky with the weather (except for our original cruise day in February, which had to be moved due to lots of wind, which you can read about here: Solskinnstokt)
A great view from our February cruise, with a clear blue sky and no wind! (Photo: K. Kongshavn)
We have been mostly lucky in getting great samples!
Lots of exciting material to get our hands on! (photo: AH Tandberg)
But sometimes not so lucky…
It is not easy to be a happy master student when the codend is almost empty… (Photo: AH Tandberg)
In October we had our last cruise, which was a great end to a year of sampling! We were not as lucky with the weather this time, but the samples look very nice. We also had cake to celebrate the last cruise day!
A great view in Hjeltefjorden (Photo: C. Østensvig)
Coffee breaks on deck are always important! (Photo: AH Tandberg)
It is somewhat sad to be done with the sampling, but with all the material collected, it is time to hit the lab! With all the samples, I sort out and identify all the amphipods I find. So far, I have found lots of cool amphipods, and I am starting to see some patterns in the material.
Here are some of the Amphipods I have found. All photos: K. Kongshavn
My work in the lab is far from done, and I am excited to look for new cool amphipods and hopefully find something interesting in their seasonal variation.
-Christine