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Week 5
31 July 2006

 

Searching for the Elusive Element Using Biological Oceanography

Part II


Part II
Science Spotlight - Mi-ok Park

  1. What is the objective of the project?
  • There are two goals. One is to find out what kinds of phytoplankton pigments are present in the samples. The other is to study colored dissolved organic matter.

 

Question: Phytoplankton have various pigments. Do pigs have pigments?

 

  1. What procedure are you using to identify the phytoplankton pigments?

  • In previous studies, scientists examined phytoplankton under a microscope to identify the types of pigment that are present. Now by using flow cytometry we can get a better picture. The flow cytometer examines phytoplankton in seawater samples by directing an extremely small stream of liquid sample past a laser.  The laser counts the number of particles in the stream and also excites the pigments inside the cells so that they fluoresce.  This fluorescence is measured by detectors close to the liquid stream.  Each pigment type has a specific type of florescence so that numbers and types can be counted for each sample. 

  1. What kinds of phytoplankton pigments are there?

  • There are three general categories.

    1. Chlorophyll

    2. Carotenoids

    3. Phycobilia

 

Question: Are carotenoids in any way related to carrots?

 

  1. What group or groups are you looking at?

  • The carotenoids. Some phytoplankton have as few as one carotenoid, making identification simpler. I am looking at those phytoplankton that are less than 5 microns in size

Question: How large is a micron in relation to a meter?

 

  1. How are you looking at colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM)?

  • I use a .2 micron filter to isolate the particles. Then we use fluorescence to identify the organic substances. These are large molecules about which very little is known.  One reason we want to study them is to get data that can be used in satellite imaging of the ocean.

http://www.pknu.ac.kr/Mi-ok Park is a professor in the Department of Oceanography at Pukyong National University in Pusan, Korea.

 

 

Week 5
31 July 2006
Searching for the Elusive Element
Using Biological Oceanography
Part I – Section I

Part I Section I Part I

 The Azam Group
Part I – Section II Part I Section II Part II Science Spotlight -
Mi-ok Park



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NSF Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences Section
This special report was made possible by the NSF Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences Section, Award Nos. ANT04-44134 University of California-San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography (B. Gregory Mitchell, Farooq Azam, Katherine Barbeau, Sarah T. Gille, Osmund Holm-Hansen); ANT04-43403 University of Hawaii (Christopher I. Measures, Karen E. Selph); ANT04-44040 University of Massachusetts Boston (Meng Zhou); ANT04-43869 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Matthew A. Charette),  for the study entitled "Collaborative Research: Plankton Community Structure and Iron Distribution in the Southern Drake Passage".