There was a period during the last ice age when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere went on a rollercoaster ride, plummeting and then rising again every 1,500 years or so. Those abrupt climate changes wreaked havoc on ecosystems, but their cause has been something of a mystery. New evidence shows for the first time that the ocean’s overturning circulation slowed during every one of those temperature plunges — at times almost stopping.

Mark Guishard, who heads the Risk Prediction Initiative at BIOS, was elected in June as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, an organization of professionals and scientists dedicated to the understanding of weather and climate. He also received the designation Registered Meteorologist from the society’s chief executive Prof. Liz Bentley during their annual conference, held at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. “It is an honor and a privilege to be recognized by my peers in academia and the profession of meteorology,” he said. “This achievement comes from the support and encouragement of my family, teachers, employers, and mentors.” Guishard began his 20 years of work in atmospheric sciences with the Bermuda Weather Service in 1997, which he went on to direct for six years until 2012.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists joined forces in July for their first annual research cruise dedicated to revealing how specific microbes take up and transform organic matter within a web of ecological interactions in the waters southeast of Bermuda.

A global marine research project designed to justify marine protected areas worldwide is set to launch in Bermuda next spring and will include the expertise of BIOS coral reef scientist Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley.

A record 150 permitted lionfish cullers competed in the 6th annual Groundswell Lionfish Tournament, a day-long contest to capture invasive lionfish on Bermuda’s reefs. After cullers landed their catch, the fish were given to attending scientists who weighed and collected samples of stomach contents and gonads, as well as fin clips for genetic analyses. These samples will be studied by scientists in Bermuda and other areas threatened by lionfish invasions to further a global understanding of lionfish ecology, physiology, reproduction, and distribution.

BIOS welcomed the first student users of its new high-tech facility known as the MAGIC Room—a room designed to facilitate data analyses, scientific collaboration, and learning among students and visitors from Bermuda and abroad. Students sat at a large, U-shaped table in swivel chairs that pivoted for views of multiple screens, including a multi-screen video wall at the front of the room and an 84-inch high-definition touchscreen on an adjacent wall. As underwater gliders roamed the ocean 50 miles away, students discussed the gliders’ near-real time measurements of oxygen, salinity, current strength, and other incoming physical and chemical data.

In 1969, an educator near the town of Vernon, Connecticut began organizing one-week trips for local middle and high school students to visit BIOS, then the Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR). The summer trips, known as the Vernon Bermuda Workshop, quickly gained a reputation among students as a magical chance to fly south, explore the island, take field trips into caves and to coral reefs, witness researchers in their laboratories and conduct small research projects on Bermuda wildlife.

Walwyn Hughes is known to Bermudians for his public service: he served as Director of Agriculture before becoming the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment and then the Ministry of Finance. Then in 1996 came his Senate appointment (the upper House of Bermuda’s Legislature) until his retirement in 2011. Throughout all of this, he remained a steadfast member of the BIOS board—the longest-serving member, in fact, in the history of the Institute. With a doctorate in entomology, he said he’s grateful that his service at BIOS has allowed him to stay intimately involved in science. This spring, Hughes, now 84 years old, reflected on nearly five decades on the BIOS board —and explained why fellow board members tease him about chickens.

While many students spent the summer enjoying Bermuda’s beaches and the freedom of not having to set an alarm clock, Jacari Renfroe—a 14-year old at The Berkeley Institute in his first year of senior school—showed up bright and early, five days a week for his Bermuda Program internship at BIOS.

Justin Smith was raised in a fishing family in Gig Harbor, Washington, but a crash in the local fishing economy diverted him from the family business. Knowing he liked ships and being on the water, he decided to explore oceanography in college. Within his first month at the University of Hawaii, he discovered the Hawaii Ocean Time-series program and the research vessel Kilo Moana. His volunteer position on the ship led to a job in the physical oceanography lab. By graduation in 2009 he had logged 220 days at sea, and was inspired to pursue a hands-on, “jack-of-all-trades” career as a marine technician in the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fleet.