Postcard from South Africa

Hi young scientists!

My name is Przemek Dąbek and I’m a PhD student at University of Szczecin in Poland. Currently, I’m in Republic of South Africa!!! Can you imagine?! Even if you doing a science, your dreams might come true and you can travel around the world …

Are you curious what I’m doing? In my job, I’m dealing with benthic diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) from the marine littoral zones. As you probably know from the learning module 1 – History of the Baltic Sea – the diatoms are unicellular golden-brown algae living in many various environments like oceans and seas, lakes, rivers, soils, sea ice… almost everywhere with a little portion of sunlight and moisture. Diatoms are photosynthetic; it means they need energy from the sun to produce their own food.

But, if they occur everywhere, what is the reason to go to South Africa? I’m glad you’re asking. Each marine coasts possess a unique oceanographic conditions (e.g. temperature, salinity, nutrients concentration) caused by water masses of ocean or sea. In the specific situations, like here in the western shore of South Africa, we have an upwelling zone of cold-water and nutrient-rich Benguela Current. All these factors are responsible for the different spatial distribution of diatom flora in the ocean – therefore, some diatoms can occur everywhere (we call them cosmopolitan species) and some are characteristic only for one place (we call them endemic species). My investigation is focused on the biogeographical distribution of the benthic diatoms along South African coasts, that’s why I am here. I’m trying to estimate what kind of species we can find here and why. Are they endemic or cosmopolitan?

During our stay here, we’ll collect the samples (except sightseeing, of course!) of sand, rocks, macroalgae and water from many sites on the coast. Later on in our lab, we’re going to investigate them under the light and electron microscopes to find out more about marine diatom flora of South Africa. Selected living cells will be culturing for DNA and biological analyses.

Ok, I have to go…we’re going to collect the samples,

Keep in touch to find out how a real field work of the marine scientist looks like!

Cheers,
Przemek

P.S. – We’re discovering the capital of Western Cape Province – Cape Town, really breathtaking views!