Without a trace Palmer LTER adds new component to search for
metals in the ocean Posted June 18, 2010 On the aft deck of the
ARSV Laurence M. Gould there is a faint but persistent noise,
like the beating of a heart. But this is no Poe “Tell-Tale
Heart” thumping below deck in accusatory anguish. Rob
Sherrell’ssmall, electric pump is impossibly sucking water out
of the ocean and onto the vessel while it is under way. A
plastic sheet mummy wraps the hose, which is strung across the
starboard side before snaking inside to a ship lab, also lined
in plastic. It’s not easy finding naturally occurring trace
metals like iron in the ocean aboard a ship made of metal. In
fact, along this stretch of ocean near the west coast of the
Antarctic Peninsula, no one has really measured the particulate
and dissolved metals. Iron, in particular, is an important
micronutrient that helps create phytoplankton blooms — eruptions
of small, plant cells used for food by marine animals, and which
are also important in the cycling of carb