Our expedition to Latitude 74 ˚N is getting closer: in one month from today, Julien and Lisa will be leaving from Brussels and Amsterdam (respectively) to visit the Zackenberg Research Station in Northeastern Greenland. Catherine will unfortunately not be able to join; her research group WeThaw (https://sites.uclouvain.be/wethaw/) will be sampling at the Eight Mile Lake in Alaska at the same time.
This made it even more important to decide on a comprehensive sampling scheme ahead of time, and the extensive logistics preceding the campaign (Who brings which bottles/vials/sampling bags etc.?), as well as all the different analyses planned for the material to be collected (dissolved and particulate organic matter quantity and quality, dissolved and particulate metal concentrations, soil and sediment properties, to name just a few). These were the main objectives for our OMI-perm meeting at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam this week. As can be seen from the list, no straight-forward task – but after an intense day with presentations by the guests from Belgium and loads of discussions on the best strategy, we now have a plan (and plenty of lists: To Do, To Pack, To Sample and last but not least: To Analyse). Just in time for a well-deserved dinner and beers with a view!
Arctic Research 