Pieter van Rijswijk

My role in EPOCA arctic

Together with Fred Gazeau and Lara Pozzato, I will conduct experiments on the effect of ocean acidification on the functioning of soft bottom sediments (studies 1 and 2). We will incubate sediment samples under different levels of acidity for about a month and quantify the nitrogen flux and the potential alteration of these fluxes by seawater acidification.  We will have 20 cores containing sediment from Kongfjorden. These cores will be flushed with seawater that has 5 different levels off CO2. Every 4 days will stop flushing and do incubation.  Before and after an incubation period of about 24 hours we take water samples. At home we are going to measure the concentration of the anorganic nitrogen compounds: nitrate, nitrite and ammonia.  At the end off the whole experiment we will add nitrate and carbon that are labeled whit stable isotopes. These will also be measured at home and will give us an idea witch biological compounds are active in the sediment.

My thoughts about the trip

After seeing Antarctic this is a great opportunity to see the Arctic as well. The landscape here is impressive. I like it that after a few days I have seen birds that were new for me. I think/hope that I will see more of the landscape and wildlife here.

More about my research

I work as an technician at the CEMO in Yerseke (Netherlands) since 1980. Before I did a lot off different things on zooplankton, ecology off plants in salt marches and the quality organic matter as food for bentic animals. The last years I am involved in the study off foodweb functioning using stable isotopes and fatty acids.

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