Photo: Students from the M.Sc. in Applied Oceanography course taking measurements during the Boot Camp fieldwork. The research vessel in the area of study just North of ÄŠirkewwa Reverse Osmosis plant.
All aboard!
The last day of spring and first day of summer could not offer better conditions at sea for The Boot Camp - as staff and students affectionately call study unit GSC5508. This study unit is the culmination of the Master of Science in Applied Oceanography course, where students get to practise what they have learned throughout the previous two semesters within fieldwork sessions conducted out at sea aboard a vessel. This year, mother nature reserved a special surprise as dolphins could be seen frolicking playfully close to the research vessel on both days.
The area of study this year was the sea close to the outflow of reject water (hypersaline brine) from the desalination plant at Ċirkewwa. Various measurements were taken at different distances from the outflow using equipment, such as the conductivity, temperature and depth probe (CTD), single beam sonar to map out the bathymetry and drifters to observe the currents in the area. Sea water samples were collected at various depths using a Niskin Bottle. Students also had the support of SCUBA divers, who collected samples of Posidonia oceanica and sediment from the seabed through hand-held corers. Divers also recovered HOBO water temperature loggers which had been deployed in June 2022 off the coast of Mġarr ix-Xini, at depths ranging between 5m and 45m and which have faithfully measured, each hour, the sea temperature at different depths for the past one year!
All samples collected were processed and analysed in the Oceanography Laboratory within the Department of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science at the University of Malta on the following two days. Laboratory techniques which students mastered during the dry phase of the boot camp included granulometric analysis, the determination of the Leaf Area Index (LAI0 for seagrass shoots, the analysis of long-term datasets (e.g. sea temperature ones) and the spectrophotometric determination of water chlorophyll content.
The bootcamp in question was held on 20-23 June 2023. Prof. Alan Deidun (course coordinator), Dr Adam Gauci and Audrey Zammit accompanied the students during the fieldwork, while Dr Anthony Galea and Alessio Marrone supervised the students in the laboratory. Should you be interested in having a similar adventure next year, registrations for the Master of Science in Applied Oceanography course are currently open, with this one-year, full-time course kicking off each year in late September.
