Laura Villanueva:Photos

Photos of the "Long Chain Diol cruise" around Iceland

July 2011

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  Marc analyzing porewater

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  Yvonne and Sebastiaan slcing some sediment cores

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  Yvonne, Marc and Sabine, happy memories

HCC cruise

In the summer of 2014 the BGC department went on the HeteroCyst Cyano (HCC) cruise with our research vessel the Pelagia. Here we post a brief summary of the cruise topic and some of the photo's (More details of the cruise can be found on the NIOZ diary webpage, [1]).

Summary of the cruise: Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria play important roles in the biogeochemical cycles of aquatic systems. Certain N2-fixing cyanobacteria are known to occur symbiotically with marine diatoms and thrive in low nutrient environments. These cyanobacteria-diatom associations are significant exporters of carbon to the deep-sea, but suitable tracers for reconstructing their importance in past environments are lacking. We recently identified unique C5 glycolipids of the heterocystous Richelia intracellularis symbiont of the marine diatoms Hemiaulus hauckii and H. membranaceus. We plan to develop the C5 glycolipid biomarkers to improve our knowledge of the contribution of symbiotic cyanobacteria to the paleo-N-cycle.

The aim of this cruise is to collect samples of suspended particulate matter and surface sediments from a region where diatoms with endosymbiotic cyanobacteria bloom. The diatom of particular interest to us, Hemiaulus hauckii, and its symbiont, Richelia intracellularis, have been described in several studies from the southwest North Atlantic. In particular, the region affected by the Amazon plume has been shown to support high numbers of H. hauckii in association with its symbiont during previous cruises in this region. (From the NIOZ cruise Diary, by Nicole Bale)

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