BIOS faculty members Leocadio Blanco-Bercial and Amy Maas study tiny zooplankton, essential to the marine food web, and fondly refer to students and researchers in their Bermuda lab as members of their “Zoop Group.” Three new student members have joined their ranks, including two who will complete their internships in the months ahead and another who will continue their work through mid-2022.

More than a year after hurricane-strength winds toppled BIOS’s 75-foot (23-meter) atmospheric science research tower, a new tower was erected on Tudor Hill, just in time for Christmas.

Damian Grundle, on board the research vessel Atlantic Explorer, recently joined the BIOS faculty.

For millennia, the exchange of CO2 (carbon dioxide) between the ocean and atmosphere has been in balance. Now, with more human-caused, or anthropogenic, carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean is taking up more CO2 as well. This additional CO2 is negatively impacting sensitive ecosystems and scientists worry how changes to the ocean environment will affect the way carbon is cycled through the seas. Tune in to Changing Seas The Fate of Carbon, which features BIOS scientists working on the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS), which has collected data on the physical, biological, and chemical properties of the ocean since 1988. Learn how these measurements are helping us learn more about the role of carbon, and the ocean, in Earth’s changing climate.

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.

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.  

Quinn Montgomery, 23, a senior at the University of San Diego, is one of eight students at BIOS this semester participating in the Institute’s annual Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. During their 12-week stay on Bermuda, students conduct independent projects under the supervision of BIOS faculty and staff, with the support of National Science Foundation funding.

Hydrostation S, the world’s longest-running hydrographic time-series with a location offshore Bermuda, has received a commitment for another five years of support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding includes $900,000 for research and $3.1 million to support 120 days of research at sea on board the BIOS-operated research vessel Atlantic Explorer.

A new research facility under construction at BIOS will allow researchers to collect tiny organisms on coral reefs and in the open ocean, then monitor their growth, development, and community structure in temperature-controlled rooms at BIOS that simulate conditions found at sea.

BIOS senior scientist and director of research Nick Bates boosted his research portfolio earlier this month when he received news of three funding renewals for long-term ocean-monitoring programs at BIOS.