Ruth Curry, Senior Research Specialist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is used to the challenges that come with deep-ocean research; after all, she has spent the last three decades measuring circulation pathways in the Atlantic Ocean. But she never expected that, on a calm day in November, she’d require the help of two ships and an underwater robot to literally save her research program, an undertaking she describes as, “the most exciting thing I’ve done in my 32 years of going to sea.”

Happy Holidays

Some of our achievements in 2012 using ocean science for human good include work to:

Source: RPI2.0

In the two-week period from January 21 through February 1, over 1000 students and teachers from 18 different primary schools around the island came to BIOS for the 2013 BIOS Explorer program. This year’s theme, “Expedition Sargasso,” focused on the biology, chemistry, and physics of the Sargasso Sea – the only sea in the world bounded by currents instead of land masses.

Bermuda’s coral reefs could be indirectly impacted by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig explosion that saw millions of gallons of oil leaked into the ocean — ironically not by the oil, but by chemicals used in the clean up.

Many organisms have unique distributions that vary across the earth’s surface, following lines of latitude, elevation gradients, and habitat types. A plant or animal’s distribution pattern, or biogeography, can help scientists understand what environmental factors allow the organism to flourish in certain areas, while failing to take hold in others.

The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences [BIOS] said they are pleased to announce the return of the Atlantis Mobile Laboratory, owned by Universite Laval, to the BIOS campus to continue its work on environmental and human health issues in Bermuda.

Since October 1988, scientists have been sampling the deep ocean waters of the Sargasso Sea as part of the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) project, with 2013 marking the program’s 25th year of continuous operation by BIOS.

Coral reefs are very important coastal ecosystems throughout the world’s tropical ocean, both socio-economically and as storehouses of biodiversity. There is great concern that reefs globally are in rapid decline owing largely to local human impacts, as well as climate change. Dr Hochberg’s research focuses on how reefs and their biological communities respond to these impacts. He employs a wide range of techniques, but his work centers on optics: the study of light. In this lecture, he’ll explain how reef communities utilize light for growth and demonstrate how he uses light measurements from satellites to learn more about the nature of reefs around the world.