June 22- 29, 2012
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
NTA-5 has now been completed. The meeting took place in the Marine Micropalaeontology department at Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, and was attended by all ESRs. The first day consisted of an introduction to deep water micropalaeontology and palaeoceanography of the Indonesian Throughflow, delivered by Wolfgang Kuhnt, with several short ESR presentations in the afternoon. This was followed by a tour of the Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research facilities at the Leibniz Laboratory in Kiel – we thank members of staff for their time and co-operation in providing a detailed overview of the different mass spectrometry systems. The second day included laboratory visits to the ‘in-house’ systems used by the marine micropalaeontology department, including the Mg/Ca clean lab and XRF core scanning facility. In the afternoon, Professor Nele Matz-Luck from the department of international law at CAU Kiel gave an interesting lecture on ‘The Law of the Sea’, and we are grateful for her time. On Wednesday the ESRs took a short day-long cruise into the Baltic Sea aboard the RC Littorina to collect Multi-Core samples for palaeontological analysis, and to learn about sampling methods used aboard a research vessel. Core-top samples were collected and preserved in Rose Bengal, and then on Thursday morning the samples were washed and prepared for micropalaeontological analysis. Students then spent time looking at the Baltic Sea foraminifera assemblages under the microscope and learning about the typical habitats of the species found. In the afternoon all ESRs gave their progress reports, and this was an excellent opportunity for ESRs to discuss future collaborative work and plans. The final day consisted of two more lectures: an introduction to marine biogeochemical modelling by Birgit Schneider from the Marine Climate Research Center in Kiel, and a lecture on the oceanography of the Indonesian Throughflow by Martin Visbeck from the GEOMAR. Again, we are extremely grateful for their time and interesting lectures provided.
The Agenda for this meeting and ESR Presentations are available for download.