BIOS researchers and their colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have refined a common survey method to better account for a marine bacterium known as SAR11. Since BIOS adjunct scientist Steven Giovannoni discovered SAR11 in 1990, scientists have found the Sargasso Sea bacterium is ubiquitous in the world’s oceans and accounts for roughly one in every three cells at the ocean’s surface.  These bacteria have power in numbers: each cell contributes to the marine carbon cycle, and with approximately five million bacterial cells inhabiting every tablespoon of seawater, SAR11 is so abundant that its combined weight would outweigh all the fish in the ocean.

In the Molecular Discovery Lab at BIOS, a deli-style fridge with sliding glass doors houses vials and bottles of chemicals used to track proteins, stain cells, and analyze DNA – as well as a small bunch of lettuce in the corner.  It’s been picked fresh from the garden to satiate the appetites of the lab’s current visitors.

In the late 1980s Rod Johnson was working in the UK civil service—a “fantastic job” by his own account—when he attended a meeting concerning the Global Ocean Flux Study (GOFS). During this meeting a topic of discussion was how Bermuda and Hawaii would be pivotal in achieving the GOFS objectives of understanding biogeochemical variability in the oceans and the impact of climate change on these processes.  At the time, Johnson’s girlfriend (Sarah), now his wife, had just moved to Bermuda and, in a move that would impact the course of his career, he decided to contact Dr. Tony Knap, then-Director of BIOS (at the time BBS), to inquire about employment opportunities.

In the late 1980s scientists at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) were looking for a way to meaningfully contribute to the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). This international program involved the creation and maintenance of monitoring stations around the world, each collecting vast amounts of data on dissolved carbon in the ocean and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. BIOS was already home to Hydrostation S (an ocean data time-series station established in 1954), but the scientists envisioned a time-series station that could provide long-term measurements from the open ocean off Bermuda.

Tim Noyes, a coral reef research specialist at BIOS, knew he wanted to take action fighting the scourge of lionfish invading Bermuda’s coral reefs.  He was helping out with a short documentary to raise awareness about these voracious predators when he came up against a vital question that captured his interest as a scientist: what, exactly, were the lionfish eating in Bermuda?

As marine superintendent of BIOS’s 170-foot research vessel Atlantic Explorer, Ron Harelstad is responsible for planning and scheduling when and where the ship is used, identifying new ship users, budgets, regulatory compliance, and personnel management. In addition, Harelstad manages four National Science Foundation grants that provide financial support of the vessel.

The 5th Annual Groundswell Lionfish Tournament took place at BIOS on July 18, and saw the tournament kicking off at sunup and boats heading in to the BIOS dock for the 3.00pm weigh-in. See story and photos at Bernews.com.

Two new underwater gliders arrived at BIOS in mid July and are expected to be gathering data in the waters around Bermuda by the end of the summer. The gliders, each resembling a 6-foot-long airplane, operate on battery power at sea with direction from land-based researchers while carrying a payload of sensors that measure ocean properties such as salinity, temperature, oxygen, nutrients, and currents.

For many students, especially during their undergraduate college years, the difference between thinking about potential careers and knowing what career they want to pursue boils down to one thing: experience.

The PartnerRe “Dollars for Hours: Youth & Community in Partnership” program recently celebrated its eighth year of matching students from local schools with local charities to work on a variety of community projects. Under this unique partnership, each participating school receives $30,000 to be put toward classroom upgrades, scholarship funds, IT equipment, and other infrastructure projects and student support programs.