After five years, with more than 25 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, six dedicated research cruises, and more than 45 presentations at national and international meetings, the BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) program has received five years of additional funding from the Simons Foundation International to continue its study of the microbial oceanography of the Sargasso Sea.

Naomi Villiot knew the path to research abroad during a global health crisis wouldn’t be easy or simple. However, “after a great deal of paperwork, navigating canceled flights, virus testing, and isolation for days upon arrival in Bermuda in September, I have been able to continue with my research,” said Villiot, who hails from a small island in France and studies at a British university.

After a year of shark attacks, leaking instruments, and a hiatus resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, BIOS’s gliders are back to work in the waters offshore Bermuda.

Chemical oceanographer Nick Bates’s ongoing study of the ocean-atmosphere interface sheds light on a group of tiny, beautiful marine plants called coccolithophores, which have been found to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in regions near Antarctica.

Five years of data collected on reefs and offshore in Bermuda shows that coral reef chemistry – and perhaps the future success of corals – is tied not only to the human carbon emissions causing systematic ocean acidification, but also to seasonal and decadal cycles in the open waters of the Atlantic, and the balance of biochemical processes in the coral reef community.

For five weeks spanning October and early November, Brett Jameson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, is working with BIOS biogeochemical oceanographer Damian Grundle on a project investigating the microbial production of nitrous oxide (N2O) in low oxygen marine environments.

As part of the natural carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 reacts with the ocean’s surface waters to become carbonate, which can be converted by marine organisms into calcium carbonate. Many marine organisms—including corals, mussels, and algae—rely on calcium carbonate to build their shells or skeletons, making the molecule an important part of marine processes.

Earlier this year, scientists wrapped up the second research cruise, as part of a multi-year project investigating a feature of the Southern Ocean known as the Great Southern Coccolithophore Belt (Great Belt). Coccolithophores are a type of phytoplankton with a unique exoskeleton composed of calcified platelets (coccoliths), giving them the appearance of being heavily armored.

From November 28-30, 2012 BIOS will host the international ocean time-series workshop, Moving Toward Global Interoperability in a Changing Ocean: An International Time-Series Methods Workshop. The workshop is jointly convened by the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) and the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program and aims to develop more consistent and transparent time-series methodologies.

The June 2012 issue of Eos featured the first report of the newly formed Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Working Group (WG) 139. The group, chaired by BIOS scientist Dr. Kristen Buck, represents a unique interdisciplinary collaboration of trace metal biogeochemists, organic geochemists, and biogeochemical modelers.