It’s rare that we hear about a new species discovered in Bermuda’s waters. Even rarer to hear about dozens of new species. And rarer still when these species play a key role in the global carbon cycle. A team of researchers led by Josué G. Millán, PhD candidate at Indiana State University and including BIOS zooplankton ecologist Leocadio Blanco-Bercial, have discovered 40 new morphospecies, and likely one new genus, of undescribed coccolithophores—a type of phytoplankton.

What do playdough and underwater robots have in common? Both are tools being used by BIOS’s Ocean Academy to teach students about circuits, reinforcing concepts that are part of the Primary 6 (U.S. grade 5) Physics curriculum for Bermuda’s public schools.

Murdock, 47, calls microbes the engines of the ocean. They’re responsible for feeding other sea life, breaking down waste, making oxygen, and absorbing carbon dioxide. These tiny creatures, among the oldest living organisms on Earth, range from algae and bacteria to fungi and plankton. In Murdock’s early teens she saw a National Geographic magazine featuring newly-discovered deep-sea hydrothermal vents teeming with giant clams, tube worms, and other marine life supported by nutrient-providing microbes. Since then, those ecosystems have been objects of her fascination.

Melissa Hicks is a professor at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York where she teaches introductory courses in geology and oceanography, including a study abroad program in marine ecology of the Bahamas. For the last two years, she’s also been interested in finding ways of incorporating real-world ocean science data into her curriculum.

BIOS’s Ocean Academy helped coordinate a unique learning opportunity for local schools when a NASA science mission moved its flight operations from the U.S. to Bermuda for three weeks beginning earlier this month.

The plastic arrives on Bermuda’s beaches as discarded toothbrushes, sun-bleached bottle caps, forgotten toys, and pulverized pieces the size of rice grains. The reason why is disheartening. The island sits within one of the world’s largest oceanic garbage patches, where four major currents in the North Atlantic force marine debris into an accumulation of floating trash.

BIOS was well-represented this month at the first Bermuda Climate Summit, which began with a reception and dinner the evening of May 24 and continued with a conference the following day. The inaugural event was designed to “bring together leaders from business, science, and public policy sectors to explore solutions and opportunities” to address climate risk protection, according to the summit’s agenda.

Nicole Coots, a PhD student in her third year of evolutionary biology research at Arizona State University, is smitten by radiolarians, drifting plankton known for their complex, beautifully-sculpted miniature skeletons they make from minerals in ocean water. Like snowflakes, they seem to exist in almost unlimited variety. They are also key members of the food web throughout the surface waters of the global ocean, providing nutrition for other sea life.

A recently-awarded grant from Heising-Simons Foundation International, Ltd. (HSFI) will support a three-year study into the ability of corals to respond to thermal stress events, including prolonged periods of warmer-than-usual temperatures known as marine heat waves. By studying multiple reef-building corals in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific, the project aims to determine if there are potential benefits from thermal “stress conditioning” and, if so, to build cellular and molecular profiles of the more stress-tolerant corals.

When foam cups are lowered in a mesh bag deep into the ocean, will they dissolve? Just get wet? Or maybe a shark will eat them? These were the initial predictions made by 7- and 8-year-old students at St. George’s Preparatory school this month as they completed a new, two-part lesson offered by the BIOS Curriculum Enrichment Program on “Force: The Science of Ocean Pressure.”