We'll spend seven days in one location taking samples around the clock. And at the end of that time we'll be tired. But we won't completely rest. We'll take a transect of stations around this study site to look at the water column around us to get a better feel for the distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton as we do these experiments. We'll do this for a day or two and then start another seven-day time series at another location.
Researchers also hope for a 'weather event,' science lingo for a storm.
Researcher Jeff Napp said storms mix nutrients into the upper water layer that are important to the annual plankton blooms. When storms occur and how much mixing they produce are critical to the ecosystem, Napp says. In the summer, the water is very stratified in the middle shelf, and so all the production is by nutrients that are excreted by the animals after they have eaten. But every seven to 14 days you get a storm that mixes up the water column, and injects nutrients up from below. That gives the food web a kick in the pants that sparks it to start producing again.