Expedition by ICSS studentsWith the research vessel on the River Elbe

22 July 2024

Photo: Sebastian Zubrzycki SICSS

It is the dream of many students: to go on an expedition, experience adventure and explore the earth in the process. Six M.Sc. ICSS students have now had a small first taste of expedition air. They took water samples on a research vessel on the River Elbe. The aim: to understand the extent to which humans have already intervened in the natural river ecosystem - and what means nature has to partially free itself from this.

The journey began at 10 a.m. on 22 July. That’s when the research vessel R/V Ludwig Prandtl set sail from Glückstadt. On board: M.Sc. ICSS students from SICSS at the Universität Hamburg - equipped with rain jackets, safety shoes and laboratory equipment. Their mission: to travel up the Elbe to Hamburg, taking water samples along the way and processing them so that they can be analysed in the laboratory afterwards. This gives them the opportunity to analyse one of the most important circulatory systems on earth: the nitrogen cycle.

Without nitrogen, hardly anything works in our seas and rivers. It ensures that more algae grow, which are an important source of food for aquatic life. However, for decades, humans have ensured that there is too much nitrogen in the water, mainly through fertilisers in agriculture. This leads to excessive algae growth - which in turn leads to a lack of oxygen in the water. This jeopardises the habitat of plants and animals. But nature is working against it. In areas with a lack of oxygen, there are bacteria that can convert the nitrogen in the water back into gaseous nitrogen. This allows it to escape from the water again.

The next step is to analyse the water samples in the laboratory. The students do this at the Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon in Geesthacht. The seminar ‘Environmental application of nitrogen stable isotopes in coastal systems’ is led by Dr. Kirstin Dähnke and Dr. Tina Sanders from the Aquatic Nutrient Cycles department at hereon.