Well, team BA has officially converted to team BARGE (Bacteria Analysis Research Group Extraordinaire)! Yesterday was an exciting day for us as we got a mini experiment started with some sample water off of the barge. Right now we’re mainly testing the BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) probe and making sure we know how to use it correctly before we start in on our larger projects. Calibrating the machine to test the accuracy and getting comfortable with the wet lab are important goals.
Over the short few days we’ve been here our projects have been formed, shifted, and re-formed as exciting new possibilities are brought to light and explored. Cassandra will soon be getting samples of the Kolyma River and is spending a large part of her day calculating salinity solutions that will be added as she tests the effect of salinity on DOC (Dissolved Organic Carbon) and bacterial respiration. Andrew is currently researching literature and mapping out sample sights as he plans his experiment with bacterial inoculations and testing the DOC consumption of different bacterial communities. Melissa is spending her day researching literature in between sleeping, trying to force her body to not be sick by shocking it with copious amounts of vitamins, while a precursor project testing the effect of temperature extremes on DOC consumption and bacterial respiration incubates in the lab.
Developing our projects has been exciting in and of itself. Even at this remote location we have been in contact with other scientists such as Dr. Fellman, based in Australia. We’ve been seeking his opinion and his experience as we use one of his published papers as a guide for bacterial inoculations (The impact of glacier runoff on the biodegradability and biochemical composition of terrigenous dissolved organic matter in near-shore marine ecosystems). We look forward to progressing in our projects over the remainder of our time here and can’t wait to start seeing results.

Cassandra, one member of Team BARGE