BIOS is one of thirteen academic and research institutions participating in a newly-announced National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center (STC) intended to develop a deeper understanding of the role that marine microbes play in changing ocean conditions and the global carbon cycle. Over the next five years, the STC will leverage recent scientific advances, incorporate new technologies, and engage educators and policymakers to promote a deeper understanding of the chemicals and chemical processes that underpin ocean ecosystems.

The Oceanic Flux Program (OFP), one of the world’s longest-running time-series, has received continued funding to help the oceanographic community answer ongoing questions about the connections between climate and the particle debris that sinks through the ocean’s water column. This process, called the particle flux, is a major control on the global carbon cycle and provides the fuel to support most biological processes operating within the ocean’s deep interior.

BIOS scientists gained a fresh perspective on six-month-old mustard coral larvae (shown in photo above) and tiny lionfish eggs (photo below) using a new microscope at the Institute.

BIOS acquired three new instruments this spring to enrich investigations into the roles and interactions between microbial communities and migrating zooplankton in the Sargasso Sea.

In 2013, Amanda Alker—then a student at Florida Atlantic University—came to BIOS as part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. This annual opportunity provides funding for undergraduate students to conduct supervised research at dozens of U.S.-based research institutes and universities. During her four months at BIOS, Alker investigated antibiotic resistance in bacteria associated with Bermuda’s largest sewage outfall.

Scientists estimate there are more than a million times more viruses in the ocean than stars in the universe. While wildly abundant, their tiny sizes present a big a hurdle to fully understanding their function in ocean ecosystems. If a cell were the size of a baseball stadium, a virus would be roughly the size of a baseball, so not only are viruses difficult to see under the microscope, but even gathering enough of their genetic material to analyze can be tricky.

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.

Sampling offshore Bermuda this July, the BIOS-SCOPE (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology) program completed its first full year of study to learn how marine microbes produce, transform, and leave behind dissolved organic matter as the seasons progress, and microbial communities wax and wane.

A molecular facility will enhance sample processing for researchers and experiential learning for students

To maintain the unparalleled 27-year record of natural ocean processes and human-induced change at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site, four BIOS research technicians work to collect monthly measurements at sea, process samples in the lab, and analyze incoming data.  Over the past year, each of them has also gone beyond their basic duties with research forays into the time-series dataset.  This month, the four traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, to present their results at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting.