McMurdo Dry Valleys Water Sample Analysis
The niskin bottle, shown below on the left, is attached to a winch and collects water at specific depths for biogeochemical analysis of the lake. Water samples are then moved to lakeside laboratories and filtered.
Selected biogechemical parameters for three of the dry valley lakes
The vials on the left show a dissolved oxygen profile from Lake Fryxell, based on the Winkler method. Moving from left to right you can see the upper waters of the lake are super-saturated with oxygen and as you move down the water column it becomes anoxic.
These vials show a dissolved oxygen profile from Lake Fryxell, based on the Winkler method. Samples from left to right show water taken from shallower to deeper depths. Moving from left to right, you can see that the upper waters of the lake are super-saturated with oxygen but become increasingly anoxic with depth.
Page created by George Rice at Montana State University