BIOS oceanographer Rod Johnson is the chief scientist on board a cruise this month offshore Bermuda using a new underwater vehicle designed to reduce costs and improve science efficiency at sea, while gathering samples for biological and chemical analyses from the ocean water column.

In April, the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP), the longest running deep ocean time-series of its kind, marked its 40th year of operation. Since 1978, the OFP’s three sediment traps have continuously sampled sinking particulate debris, called particle flux, at depths of 1,640; 4,900; and 10,500 feet (500; 1,500; and 3,200 meters) at a location about 45 miles (75 kilometers) southeast of Bermuda.

Ten years ago this fall, BIOS purchased a 168-foot submersible support ship from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Florida, reconfigured lab and deck space, modified it for science work offshore Bermuda, and 18 months later sailed the converted oceanographic research vessel into its new homeport in St. George’s, Bermuda. Since then, that vessel—renamed research vessel (R/V) Atlantic Explorer—has sailed tens of thousands of miles on behalf of BIOS scientists and hundreds of other researchers worldwide for science work and marine education initiatives.

Within the contours of oceanographic data are the stories of great ocean currents, tiny plankton, and life-sustaining nutrients at the surface of the sea.  University students learn to study ocean properties through plots and graphs of these data, but rarely do they get hands-on experience with the instruments that generated them. A new BIOS summer course aims to change that by introducing students to the methods and technologies that have become the bread and butter of modern oceanography.

In the clear waters off the coast of Bermuda, Dr. Craig Carlson has spent decades investigating the invisible forces shaping the global carbon cycle: millions of bacteria in every drop of seawater, consuming carbon compounds dissolved into the ocean like sugar into tea. Dr. Carlson’s research linking how microbes interact with carbon in the ocean is now considered vital to understanding the global carbon cycle, and he is being honored with a major award from the leading professional organization for aquatic scientists.

When Esra Mescioglu learned she was accepted to the Fall 2013 Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at BIOS, she didn’t know what to expect.  Frankly, she was a little nervous to leave behind her friends and routine at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Now, more than a year after her internship in Bermuda, she is thankful her nerves didn’t deter her and is flying from one scientific adventure to the next.  Last week Mescioglu is presenting the results of her research project at the Aquatic Sciences meeting of the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) in Granada, Spain, and is quick to share how valuable her experience in the BIOS REU program was.

Leo Blanco-Bercial grew up fishing for mackerel and tuna off the coast of his native Spain, but for his career has gravitated to studies of the tiniest of marine organisms: plankton. Blanco-Bercial, 36, began work at BIOS in January with the intention of continuing his plankton studies, specifically their genetics. He also plans to continue educating his Europe-based family, he said. “During visits home, I like explaining how plankton nourish the fish that we love catching and eating.”

Funds granted in May by the National Science Foundation will allow BIOS scientists to continue their research through 2023 at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site, a project established in 1988 by BIOS and collaborators to examine the “time-varying” components of the ocean carbon cycle, ocean physics, and biology.

After completing his master’s degree in chemical and physical oceanography at Otago University in New Zealand in 2006, Kiwi native Matt Enright embarked on a dream life for many early career scientists. As a research specialist for the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS)—the world’s longest-running time-series of physical and biogeochemical oceanographic measurements—Enright spent much of his time at sea aboard the BIOS-operated research vessel Atlantic Explorer.

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.