On July 25th 2022, the R/V Tan Kah Kee’s arrived at Xiamen International Cruise Terminal, marking the conclusion of a major expedition studying the processes, mechanisms and evolution of the biological pump carbon fixation during the “Northwest Pacific by 2021” cruise (NORC2022-306. Dalin Shi and Zhimian Cao from MEL served as chief scientist of the project and chief scientist of the cruise, respectively.
During the 47-day expedition, multiple over-the-side operations were conducted on the ship, including 101 regular CTD casts, 13 in situ LVPs, 25 multiple plankton sampler deployments, and 19 trace metal clean (TMC) casts. With the joint efforts of the research team and marine technicians, 6 box cores and 8 gravity cores were collected onboard amid the TMC casts. Furthermore, it was the first attempt to collect ultra-clean seawater and sediment samples at the same time.
