The Quaatro-machine which will be used.
Project description
The AB department at UNIS undertakes marine sampling at many different locations around Spitsbergen, usually with the aim of studying phytoplankton and zooplankton ecology. Various abiotic factors are measured and sampled for in addition to the animals themselves. These factors include water temperature and salinity, and concentrations of nutrients present. This data is very important to aid in the understanding of what is happening in the marine ecosystem at any given time.
Tasks
To run our Quaatro nutrient analyzer to determine the concentrations of silicate, phosphate, nitrate, and nitrite present in seawater samples collected around Spitsbergen.
Prerequesites:
The work requires someone who can work precisely, with attention to detail, and work independently after instruction.
The project involves:
Calculating percent and molar solutions, preparing solutions, learning how the Quaatro instrument works and running the instrument. We use this instrument only a few times a year, so we will analyze 6 months worth of samples which is usually 100-200 samples.
Starting date/period:
August / September
Experience/skills to be acquired:
This project is a 100% practical project where you will extremely transferable lab skills. You will learn how to do dilutions and make solutions, how to work with chemicals safely, how to improvise and troubleshoot effectively (the machine rarely works as expected!), and at the end of the project you will be able to run this type of analysis independently.
Involvement:
You will work alongside the AB technician and be involved for the whole process.
Interested by this project? Need more info? Contact
Stuart Thomson
stuartt@unis.no
Project number: 2