NTU and NSYSU researchers teamed up to explore the marine chemistry and biology along the Gaoping Canyon, a submarine canyon off the southwest coast of Taiwan. Submarine canyons play an important role transporting materials from the land to the sea. Not only does the chemical transition itself creates a large gradient along the transport pathway from the continental shelf to the deep ocean, but also the biological diversity varies greatly in the benthic sediments. We had a nice four-day cruise (NOR1-054, led by Chih-Lin Wei) with a very calm weather condition, which was immensely helpful for the multi-corer sediment coring. (The picture shows the deployment of the multi-corer from the stern A-frame).
Safety first! Students learnt how to put on the immersion suits. Of course, these things are always more fun to watch than during the time when you have to do it yourself (or when you need it for real).
Muds from the deep sea. These tubes were lowered to the seafloor and pushed into the sediments. They captured most of the features in the surface sediments for us to study the changes in chemical and biological signals. We used the Rhizon samplers plus syringes to extract the pore fluids from the sediments for Ba isotope studies.
Seawater and suspended particles. We collected seawater and suspended particles from the water columns in the canyon using the CTD water sampler. Seawater in the canyon can tell us the stories of water mass mixing, and the suspended particles can help us to understand the compositions of these particles and their history in different part of the canyon. Jen (with a yellow helmet and big smile), a masters student from NTU MISO, seems very happy with her hard work.
Production line of water filtration. We filtered the water samples collected from different depths in the canyon. Some filters show very dark colour from the deeper depth, and some show the miracle of marine life (e.g., Trichodesmium, a nitrogen fixer in the surface ocean).
Home sweet home. After four days exploring the Gaoping canyon and the surrounding area, it was a perfect time to go home just before the typhoon arrived. Thanks to all the people on NOR1-054 who made it a most collaborative, enjoyable, and memorable cruise. It's always nice to see the Kaohsiung 85 Sky Tower on the way home, entering the harbour. The end of the cruise is definitely not the end of the adventure. The intensive lab work is about to begin! More exciting stories about the canyon's chemistry and biology are waiting to be discovered soon.