I just found your page, good work Sir! I do not have a speaker on my work computer but look forward to watching your video with sound. How is Umass treating you? I hope you are somewhere North for the hot summer months.

Claire

1. We’d like to calibrate against algae cultures grown at different temperatures. That is why this field season was aimed at capturing the algae fom the lakes and keeping them alive. We’ll grow them at different temperatures and measure the degree of alkenone saturation they produce at different temps.

In the meantime, I’ve calibrated the degree of saturation to temperature using the thermocline of the lake. Since the water temperature gets colder with depth in these lakes, we filtered alkenones from different depths and measured the water temperature and alkenone saturation at these depths.

2. Only a handful of organisms on the planet make alkenones, and they are all members of the class of algae called Haptophyta.

3. People assumed they were cell wall compounds for a long time – and they are found there – but recent work has shown alkenones to be present all throughout the cell.

4. We evaluate the degree of saturation with a flame ionozation detector (FID) after the gas chromatograph. An FID is much more quantitative than a mass spectrometer for measuring absolute concentrations.

1. What do you calibrate the degree of alkenone saturation against in order to predict past climate? Can you observe current alkenone production under different environmental stimuli?
2. Are there any other algae that can change their alkenone saturation in response to climate?
3. Are the alkenones part of the cell wall?
4. How do you evaluate the degree of saturation after gas chromatography? Mass spec?

This is sweet because this pertains to what I have been learning all summer, your practically an organic chemist.