Cal Poly Ocean Carbon Lab

Hello! My name is Riley. I am a rising fourth-year chemistry major. We are nearing the end of our trip, but there is much work to be done! Everybody’s projects are in full swing and the schedule is packed with boating schedules as our sub-groups explore different parts of the atoll. With “Team Fresh”, my project on Tetiaroa investigates the impact of the varying seabird populations on the nutrient concentrations in the surrounding fresh and marine waters of the lagoon. Thi

Hello hello! My name is Liya and I’m currently on this trip as an incoming 4th year biochemistry student. This trip has been the most incredible experience of my life so far, and every day in French Polynesia really is the best day ever. I’m the second half of the ATP team, where we use luciferase (an enzyme commonly found in fireflies), to give us an estimate of the amount of biomass that a certain environment has. Here on Tetiaroa, I am interested in the development of tw

Hello everyone!! My name is Elsa and I am a recently graduated senior with a BS in biochemistry. I am a part of Team ATP on this trip. My partner Liya and I are working to measure ATP in various bodies of water which can help us infer the levels of living biomass in the oceans, bays, and lakes. Although this could be said literally every day here, today was the best day ever!!! On this leg of the trip, I am working with team FRESH. We have a couple of connected projects that

Hi everyone! My name is Sophie, I am a rising senior at Cal Poly studying biology. Today's our first official day on Tetiaroa and energy is high as we embark on our second half of our adventure. We started off Day 9 with presentations concluding our research in Moorea. After a full week of sampling and analyzing it was amazing to see what our experiments had explained. While being immersed in my sub-group analyzing chlorophyll concentrations in the waters it was exciting to s

Hello! I’m Leah, a recent graduate of Cal Poly. I earned my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and am super excited to apply my skills to field work in French Polynesia! Day 8 of our trip started bright and early, as a bus arrived at our beach house at 5 am, ready to whisk us off to our next adventure: Tetiaroa. We all gathered our lab supplies, packed away our fins and snorkels safely, and said goodbye to Temae and Moorea as we boarded back onto the ferry. We were among a wide

Whats up chat! My name is Jadyn and Im a third year Biochemistry major, here to bring you our update on the last day of our research in Mo’orea! I started working on a mini side project where I used the instrument pCO2-to-go to try and fully saturate a seawater sample to reach atmospheric pCO2. In the end the experiment had inconclusive results and raised more questions regarding how the instrument is accurately reading the pCO2 of the seawater sample. Overall for the last da

Hey everyone! I’m Annika, a 2nd year marine science major! I’m one half of the chlorophyll analysis team. Together with my partner Sophie, the ATP team, and the phosphate and nitrate teams, we left bright and early to collect samples from around the innermost part of ‘Ōpūnohu Bay where a river empties in. We were planning to map out how the influx of terrestrial runoff might be impacting the bay. Most of the waters around Mo’orea and French Polynesia are highly oligotrophic w

Today, we had the opportunity to educate ourselves about Polynesian culture through experiences that connected history, science, land, and ocean. We visited the Te Pu Atiti‘a Cultural Center on Moorea, a place that holds and shares knowledge passed down from many elders of the island. At the cultural center, we learned how to make tapas, a traditional cloth made for every child born on the island. A tapa is created by beating fibers from the bark of a breadfruit tree until th

Hi blog, this is Avery! I am a 2nd year marine science major. I am currently sitting next to the ocean while the sunsets after a long day of sampling from all the different teams. Many people participated in collecting sampling in a long transect in the reef we are staying next too, while some others collected samples at Cook’s Bay and ‘Ōpūnohu Bay. Collecting all the samples has been so dope, but the experience of swimming through the coral reef and driving along the perimet

Our first excursion was today! We took a boat out on the most breathtaking crystal waters to a snorkeling site where we got to swim with sharks, manta rays, and more kinds of fish than I’ve ever seen before. Then, we went to an island where we played volleyball with locals, got a ceviche tutorial, and ate delicious chicken and fresh fish. After another swim with more rays, we got to watch a coconut competition and fire dance! The boat ride back was another one of those moment

Hi! I’m Anya. I just finished my third year as a chemistry major and my first year as a Cal Poly transfer student. Here's some of what we did on Day 2 in French Polynesia. For the past few months, I’ve been working on methods for pH measurements in marine environments. Today we deployed two pH probes within the coral reef to take continuous measurements for the next week. These probes will allow us to monitor pH fluctuations on a 24 hour cycle, giving insight to the activity

Howdy Loyal Fans, It’s Warren, your resident United colt member, seal guy, and closeted chemist. \ Today, June 22nd was our first full day in French Polynesia. After a grueling travel day, don’t worry, we still had time for a Stroop Waffle(ifyky), we started with a beautiful ferry ride to Moore’a. (Fun Fact: Although most commonly thought of in Bora Bora, the overwater hut hotel room was actually first built in the 1960s) After fitting into our clown cars, (I’m 6’6 so pr

Another great pier open house! We had a fantastic day teaching the community about ocean sampling and seawater pH.

To a beautiful brand new lab in the Frost Building! Come find us in the shared Oceanography lab of the Marine Science wing - 181-402....

Former student Sarah Bartoloni led the final analysis and writing of this project, from samples collected on three cruises in Summer...

We describe a cheap and easy way to control seawater pH in aquaria systems, and give step by step instructions so that readers can build...

It's been a long, nearly year, of mostly virtual work. We are happy to be back in the lab (masked and distanced of course)! This quarter...

It was a great summer!

Summer students Addie, Maddie and Sara have a great chance to see what life out on the open seas is all about. Today we leave port on the...

Keegan, Maddie, Sara, Addie, and Dr. Bockmon check out a San Luis Blues summer Baseball game with the rest of the college. Thanks to the...