To the Amazon, for the world – Constructor University Professor leads expedition to collect vital climate data
While many of us will spend the holidays with friends and family, Constructor University Prof. Dr. Andrea Koschinsky and her team and the “Meteor” will be sailing along the coast of Brazil, gathering samples from the Amazon plume. The M206 Amazon GEOTRACES-2 set sail last Thursday from the Brazilian port city of Fortaleza on a fact-finding mission examining the distribution of trace elements, organic matter & isotopes discharged into the Atlantic from the Amazon’s mouth. On top of collecting key data on the state and fate of this vital ecosystem, Dr. Koschinsky and her crew aim to educate and share the entire month-long journey on TikTok, Instagram and the official Amazon GEOTRACES 2 blog.
Discharging nearly 20% of all freshwater on Earth transported by rivers into the ocean and stretching some 7000 km from the foothills of the Andes to the Atlantic, the importance and impact of the Amazon on our planet cannot be overstated. During the wet season, it dumps an astonishing 300,000 cubic meters of water into the Atlantic every second. As the water floods into the ocean, it creates a vast plume that covers an area of 80,000 square kilometers, depositing massive quantities of trace metals such as iron and copper as well as dissolved organic materials. With the cruise being part of the international GEOTRACES program, Dr. Koschinsky and her team will embark on their second trip to the Amazon. In 2018, the crew collected samples during the wet season, this year they will gather data during the dry season to compare with previous findings and further assess the impact of these trace metals on the biological productivity of this fragile ecosystem.
“Our goal is to further bolster the scientific record with representative water and sediment samples from the plume and beyond, at depths of less than 100m to over 2000m deep, and across the mixing area from pure seawater to pure freshwater,” said Koschinsky. “The research is very important, particularly now, when the whole of the Amazon region has experienced the worst drought in living memory, and the impact of human intervention on this fragile ecosystem has been devastating. Our research will feed into the wider global GEOTRACES program and ultimately contributes to our understanding of ocean ecosystems, the global carbon cycle, climate change and the earth’s ocean currents.”
Another core focus of this year’s expedition lies in helping young learners and their teachers engage with M206, GEOTRACES and the wider geoscientific community. “We have a dedicated outreach team on board who will publish regular blog posts, and social media content on TikTok and Instagram. We hope students and teachers will engage with these posts and utilize our online library of free factsheets, fun activities and quizzes, lessons/lesson plans, links and other useful materials, to deepen their understanding of the topic and human impact on the planet,” said Koschinsky.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Dr. Andrea Koschinsky | Professor of Geosciences
akoschinsky@constructor.university |
Weitere Informationen:
https://andrea-koschinsky.org/category/m206/
https://www.instagram.com/amazon.geotraces?igsh=dWx4ZG5rdXk3eHFn
https://www.tiktok.com/@amazon.geotraces?_t=ZT-8rf57oulG3i&_r=1
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