Many oceanographers consider the Sargasso Sea to be an “ocean desert,” as high salinity and calm prevailing winds—resulting in lower nutrient supplies—make it a rather hostile place for life compared to other marine environments. For researchers like Dani Cox, a student at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), this raises questions about how Sargassum, a ubiquitous brown algae, not only survives, but thrives.

A multidisciplinary team of scientists, including a group from BIOS, spent six weeks this summer focused on the Pacific Ocean to study the lives and deaths of plankton, organisms that play a critical role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in the ocean’s carbon cycle.

Ed Argenta, a teacher consultant with the Connecticut Geographic Alliance, first came to BIOS almost 40 years ago when he was teaching science at Vernon Center Middle School in central Connecticut. At the time, his colleague Duffy Brookes, had been taking groups of students to BIOS since 1970 as part of an advanced marine studies program. In 1979, Brookes invited Argenta on one of these weeklong “Vernon Bermuda Workshop” trips and, since then, the pair have brought at least one group of students—and sometimes two or more—every year to BIOS for a course in tropical island ecology and ocean science studies.

To visit Nonsuch Island, a lush 14-acre nature reserve located at the east end of Bermuda, the last stretch requires guests to jump from a boat and swim a short distance to shore. For some teens, this may seem like a cool adventure. For those juggling emotional challenges that range from attention disorders and depression to mental health issues, it presents a different hurdle.

Three decades ago, scientists came to Bermuda to address “big picture” questions about the ocean by collecting data on fundamental physical, chemical, and biological parameters throughout the water column in the Sargasso Sea. They knew that critical questions about how the ocean functions, such as how it responds to global climate change, could only be answered by the collection and subsequent analysis of data gathered continuously over a long period, also known as a time-series study.

We have known for decades that scientists can learn about local climate conditions by studying the growth rings in trees. Wide rings form in warmer years with more precipitation; thinner rings indicate a colder, dryer growing season; and scars provide evidence of external environmental factors, such as forest fires and insect infestations.

Corals, with their calcium carbonate skeletons and symbiotic photosynthetic algae, are among the first organisms to be negatively impacted by climate change. Warming waters cause coral to expel the algae, called zooxanthellae, while a gradually acidifying ocean, resulting from increased amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolved in the seawater, can weaken and even dissolve coral skeletons.

Supervisors can help to shape the lives and careers of their students and trainees. Sometimes, they become lifelong mentors and eventual collaborators, contributing to a new generation of scientific discovery. And students can forge meaningful relationships with those senior scientists even at the earliest stages of their science careers.

Each spring, BIOS is one of more than 350 colleges, universities, medical centers, professional organizations, and research institutions that accepts undergraduate students as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. For more than 30 years, the REU program has given U.S. students the opportunity to conduct hands-on research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as part of their undergraduate education.

Since its inception in the 1970s, the Canadian Associates of BIOS (CABIOS) program has provided more than 200 Canadian students and young scientists with financial assistance to pursue marine science and oceanographic research internships, as well as support for hundreds of students to complete academic coursework at BIOS. Founded by Earlston Doe, a former BIOS Life Trustee and Canadian oceanographer born in Bermuda, the CABIOS fund honors the memory of his youngest son Learmont “Leary” Doe.