Sediment Stories

This first ethnographic chapter outlines how I got access to do research among the marine scientists, before moving on to when I joined them on an expedition in the Stockholm archipelago on the research vessel Electra af Askö. In this chapter, I argue that to understand water over a longer period of time, we also must engage with its sediments. My understanding is in agreement with that of marine scientists and their focus on retrieving core samples of sediments from the bottom of the sea. Thus, on the expedition we learn about sampling methods, sensorial and physical experiences of water and sediment, and methods for investigating different layers of the bottom sediment when looking for macro-organisms such as worms, or smaller beings like cable bacteria and methanogens. After the expedition, we follow the samples to the scientists’ home laboratories in the Netherlands, in Utrecht and Nijmegen. There, we engage with how the scientists make use of advanced technologies to learn more about what the sediments have to tell, asking questions about eutrophication and methane production/release in a context of escalating climate change.