Bermuda is playing a part in a decade-long survey tracking the trace elements dissolved in the Earth’s oceans.The last North Atlantic cruise for the international GEOTRACES ocean research project will stop at the Island this week, as part of its sample-collecting voyage. Thirty countries are participating in the study.Assistant scientist Kristen Buck, at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BOIS), studies the organic particles that latch onto the ocean’s dissolved iron. The vessel will drop off seawater samples to be used in her work.The project is intended to build a baseline understanding of how trace elements are distributed in the seas, and how changing environmental conditions might affect them.The science vessel set off a week ago from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. From Bermuda, it will continue across the Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands.Useful website: www.geotraces.org.