Welcome everyone and anyone! This blog is an effort to reach out to student learners of all ages (that includes adults!) to introduce them to oceanography, what oceanographers do, and to allow those interested to interact (in almost-real-time) with scientists while they do their science at sea!
From May 30th to June 9th, the scientists and ship’s crew aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer will be working hard to study many different aspects of ocean biology, chemistry, and physics in a track across the ocean between Barbados and Bermuda. Please read to learn who the scientists and crew are, and to learn what they’ll be doing.
Log in frequently during the cruise dates to see new posts about the work being done and about the day to day life of living and working on a research vessel.
See someone or something you like or feel curious about? Please post as many comments or questions about whatever comes to your mind. We aboard the Atlantic Explorer will answer your questions directly!
Mrs. Overman’s class rocks… Oh what is the most interesting thing you have ever seen as an oceanographer?
-Maura from Mrs. Overman’s class.
Hi Maura,
The most interesting thing I get to see as an oceanographer is the same thing that made me want to be a scientist when I was a little boy, and that is the whole world of animals that you get to see when you look at a drop of ocean or pond water through a microscope! My favorite thing to do is to make bacteria glow so that I can watch bigger organisms eat them! You can see what I mean in this video
From: Steve
Mrs. Farina’s class is full of oceanographers…
How many scientists are on the cruise?
-Kate from Bear tavern.
Hello Kate!
There will be 16 different scientists on the cruise, all working together to do all types of oceanography including biology, chemistry, and physics.
Sydney’s class is Mrs. Farina’s best class!!!
Do you scuba dive & have you ever seen a shark?
-Rachael from Bear tavern
Hi Rachael,
Yes I do SCUBA dive for fun, but not for work
And I did see a shark one time when I was snorkeling. It was a giant Nurse Shark!
From: Steve
what do you think the most unique thing about being an oceanographer is ?
-Maura from Bear Tavern
Maura,
To me, the most unique thing about being an oceanographer is that you have to know a little bit about all science to your job. For example, I can not understand the biology of marine bacteria without understanding the chemistry and the physics that affect them as well.
This is a great question, Maura, because I bet all of the scientists on the cruise will have a different answer. After the cruise starts, I will ask all of the oceanographers the same question and make a separate blog post to let you know what everyone said. So keep checking back!
How do you take samples from the water?
- Abby from Bear Tavern
Hello Abby,
There are many ways to collect water from the ocean. One of the biggest ways to do this, especially from deep water is with a special collector called a CTD. It collects water and a whole bunch of other measurements. If you want to see a video of oceanographers using a CTD, click HERE.
who is one of your closes friend on the cruise.
-Maura from Bear Tavern
Hi Maura,
I do not have any really close friends on the cruise yet. Most of the scientists are not from Rutgers where I work, but come from all over the country. One of the people coming is a graduate student that works in my lab. Her name is Lauren and we are friends. But that is one good thing, there are a lot of great people on the cruise and I’m sure I will make lots of new friends!
From: Steve
who is the captain
-maura from Bear Tavern
Hello Maura,
I do not know the captain yet. I will be meeting the captain and crew on my first day, and I will post pictures of them and some interesting facts about them as soon as I get to know them. So keep checking back.
From: Steve
Will you be fishing to figure things out while you are on the cruise?
_ Abby from Bear Tavern
Hi Abby!
I love to go fishing! I do not know if I will have time to on the cruise because we will be working so much, but if I get the chance to fish, I will.
If I catch anything I will post a picture of it for you.
From: Steve
when did you want to be an oceanographer?
-Maura from Bear Tavern
Hello Maura,
I’ve wanted to be an oceanographer since I was 5 years old and I got to go to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut! I have always loved all biology and especially the animals in the ocean. Although, when I was younger I wanted to work with one of my favorite sea animals, the Sea Otter.
have ever seen a sea otter?
-maura from Bear Tavern
hi, what was your favorite cruise you’ve been on for you job?
-leah from mrs.overmans class
Hello Leah!
Most of the work I have done so far has been in the water, dirt, and sand that is close to the land, and so I have only ever been in smaller boats that do not go very far from land. That means that this is MY FIRST BIG CRUISE where I will be on the ship for more than 1 day. I am super excited about it!!
From: Steve
Where do you get on the ship?
- Abby from Bear Tavern
Hello Abby,
Click HERE to have a look at the path the ship will be taking. We get on the ship at the bottom of the path in Barbados… a little tiny island, and we end the cruise at the top of the picture by getting off in Bermuda.
Thanks for all the great questions.
From, Steve
How do you get samples in the ocean?
P.S i’m from Ms.Overman class
From Tim
Hello Tim,
It depends on what we want to sample. If we want large things of animals we use traps or nets to catch them. If we want small things then we just collect water. To collect water we mostly use an instrument called a CTD. See up above where I answered Abby’s question about collecting water. There are links to pictures and a movie where you can learn about the CTD.
Thanks,
-Steve
what do you think you will be doing in your spear time on the ship.
PS maura from Bear Tavern
where will you sleep
-maura from BT
Hello Maura,
Those are great questions because they are the exact type of things I want to post about when we are on the cruise. Then I can show you a picture of our rooms where we sleep, the galley where we eat, what we are doing in our spare time, and any other thing that will help you to see what life on a research cruise. I will interview the captain especially for you!
Thanks for all the great questions!
From: Steve
From South Lake student:
How long have ou been studying marine life? What is the most interesting thing you have ever seen?
Hi South Lake students. I have been studying marine life since the 1970’s—in college, graduate school, and now as a professor. One of the most interesting things I have seen on my research cruises is right whales feeding on dense copepod patches near Georges Bank off of New England. Copepods are small crustaceans (shrimp-like animals) that are the main food of these whales. Whales come to that area to feed in the spring when the copepods are very abundant. The whales look like they are mowing a lawn, swimming back and forth with their mouths open to filter and collect the copepods.
From Karen Wishner
To Barbara Gottrell:
When and why did you decide to be an enviromental chemist?
Hi, I was a protein chemist working in medical research. Lifestyle and the environment are related to health and I decided to change my field of study about six years ago.
From: Barbara
Who or what inspired you to become a scientist in your field? What can we do to help save the marine animals?
Who or what inspired you to become a scientist in your field?
Since a small child I have always wanted to be a scientist and discover how the world works. But as I also got really seasick every time I was on a boat I NEVER thought I’d become an oceanographer. That changed when in college I had a wonderful professor who got me really excited about the Chesapeake Bay, and especially how the Bay’s marine life was so closely intertwined with the water circulation of the Bay and river inputs. This changed the focus of my interests to marine ecosystems and how they are affected by ocean physics and chemistry. Several years later I attended a seminar where a scientist described how the chemical composition of particles in the water could be used to unravel processes that control how marine ecosystems are structured- a similar technique used by forensic scientists to unravel a crime scene. Wow, I was hooked! I’m now an oceanographer that focuses on using chemical tracers to reveal how our ocean works- thanks in part to these two wonderful mentors.
-Dr. Maureen Conte
What can we do to help save the marine animals?
Just like us, marine animals need clean air, clean water and healthy food to thrive. Anything we do to help make our air and water cleaner directly helps marine life, because much of the pollution people make doesn’t stay put, but is transported out over the ocean by winds or flows down rivers to the sea. One major step to help make our air and water cleaner is to increase the energy efficiency of our cars, trucks, buildings and manufacturing and clean up their emissions. This will reduce pollution from fossil fuels and other man-made toxins that change the ocean’s chemical balance and poisons the plankton (one-celled microscopic plants and animals) that make up the base of the marine food chain. Supporting your community’s efforts to improve sewage treatment and reduce direct storm water discharges to waterways is also important to help not just your neighborhood but also the ocean, because excessive nutrients and toxic chemicals from wastewaters and fertilizer runoff that flows down streams and rivers to coastal waters harms marine life and the fisheries that feed us. Another easy step each of us can take personally is to “go green”: Use nontoxic products at home and select foods that are produced using sustainable agricultural practices that don’t pollute waterways. Recycle and use plastics wisely. Plastics don’t degrade and they are easily transported down rivers. Plastic particles that end up in the ocean look just like food to unsuspecting marine animals. We can’t digest plastic and neither can they. So pick up that piece of plastic at home and at the beach and save a life!
-Dr. Maureen Conte
To Steve Techtmann, Have you found any answer or reason to why bacteria was evolved to eat oil and toxic chemicals? Why or why not? How did you find interest in your profession and do you still like it? What courses and how did you prepare yourself for this?
Bacteria are pretty cool because they can live almost everywhere on earth (volcanoes, deep ocean, in ice, etc.) and eat most things. While we consider these chemicals toxic, to bacteria, they are food. The bacteria I work with view oil as something tasty and grow on it quite well. We are interested in understanding how they eat these chemicals that are toxic to humans so that we can better use these bacteria to help clean up these chemicals. Naturally these bacteria are probably eating chemicals that are similar to the chemicals in oil.
I’ve always enjoyed science, but when I was in high school I spent a few weeks working in microbiology research lab and I was hooked. I loved the fact that everyday that you went into the lab, there was an opportunity to find out something that no one else had known. I took a lot of biology and chemistry courses which I have found useful in understanding how bacteria live and how they use different chemicals for food.
From Steve Techman
What do cope-pods use to see and how?
Great question! Copepods use their eyes to see, just like us. A big difference, however, is that copepods have 3 eyes. In many species, the 3 eyes are very close to one another and are called a “naupliar eye.” They are not made up of many cells to capture light (generally less than 10 cells in each eye), and the cells each view a large area so they probably cannot form a decent image. But, working on past cruises I have found that deep-sea copepod eyes are very sensitive to light, especially blue light. So while they may not see a clear image of the watery world around them, their eyes are very good at capturing the few photons present in the deep ocean. Copepods use their eyes to control diel vertical migrations and perhaps to find food or mates.
From Jon Cohen
Where do you go from the Bermuda island? Why do you stop at Bermuda?
Bermuda is the home of BIOS – the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences – it’s the home port for the Atlantic Explorer.
Bermuda is where the cruise is ending, and a new cruise will start from there with other scientists on it. The cruise between Barbados and Bermuda gives access to a great stretch of Atlantic Ocean to study, and Bermuda is one of the few places in the middle of the Atlantic where you can stop
From Barbara Cottrell and Steve Tuorto
How does the study of ocean and nature can change the world?
Our planet is mostly ocean, so understanding the ocean can provide us with information that will help our planet survive in the future. The ocean is not just a physical body of water, it is a living breathing organism that hosts a multitude of life forms that are important to our survival on land. If we cannot keep the oceans healthy, our planet will suffer, so the study of the ocean is an important part of living on this planet.
How many scientists are part of the cruise? How do oceanographers study marine life? How does oceanographers help society?
How many scientists are part of the cruise?
Seventeen scientists. They are from Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Columbia University, University of Delaware, University of California Irvine, Scripps Institution, Massachusett Institute of Technology, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Bigelow Laboratory, Rutgers University, University of South Florida, University of Tennessee Knoxville, University of North Carolina Charlotte, University of Maine. You can find out about the research each scientists is doing on the “Meet of Scientists” page.
How do oceanographers study marine life?
Oceanographers use a wide variety of tools to study the ocean, but first we must collect samples to study. We lower an instrument called a CTD through the water using a winch and wire. The CTD has sensors attached that measure temperature, salinity, oxygen content, turbidity and fluorescence (from plant chlorophyll) and these data are transmitted up a conducting wire so we have a real-time profile of these important water parameters from the surface all the way to the bottom! The CTD also has bottles attached. After deciding from the sensor data what depth we want to sample we can send a signal to the CTD on the way up to close a bottle to collect a water sample at the chosen depth. Chemists and biologists spend a lot of the cruise collecting samples using the CTD or other types of water samplers. Biologists also use nets to sample the plankton and fish. Other scientists use sophisticated instruments that are developed specifically for oceanography. On our cruise Justin Haag is testing an instrument he designed that measures the optical characteristics of the water column. Scientist are developing more sensors and instruments every day to be deployed on the ship or fitted on autonomous gliders and even submarines- pretty cool! Most scientists take their samples back to their labs for study, but some studies have to be done at sea. On our cruise, Jon Cohen has built an experimental setup in the ship’s lab to study the vision of microscopic animals called copepods.
-Dr. Maureen Conte
How does oceanographers help society?
Oceanographers help society in a number of ways. The first oceanographers were primarily concerned with helping the fishing industry, and many oceanographers still fill this role today. Other oceanographers work to better understand how to map waves, currents, and tides, or weather patterns like El Nino/La Nina. The work of these scientists is important to those who travel by sea, or to the large numbers of people who live near the coastline. Others are involved in the recovery of oil from deep sea oil wells, or the cleanup of oil spills. But oceanographers’ research reaches far beyond the ocean. For example, the phytoplankton that live in the world’s oceans provide half of the oxygen that we breathe. Many oceanographers study these phytoplankton and how they are affected by things like global warming and pollution. Most importantly, like all other scientists oceanographers attempt to fill the gaps in our knowledge about the world around us. 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by the ocean- understanding the ocean helps us to better understand our planet, and our place on it.
-Lauren Seyler
How will climate change affect oceans?
Dear Future Scientist:
Hi! Thanks for your very good question regarding climate change and its affect on the oceans. Climate change can affect the ocean in tons of ways. Some of them are direct effects and some are indirect effects that are hard to understand. On top of that, there are probably effects that scientists have not figured out yet because the atmosphere-ocean system is so complex. That said, warming is a good example of a direct effect. If the atmosphere grows warmer on average around the world, the ocean will also get warmer in some places. Warm water tends to float on top of colder water, separating the warm and cold water masses. This is something we call stratification. This is a direct physical effect. This type of effect changes the habitat of things living in the ocean – it’s warmer and more stratified. Phytoplankton (or plant plankton) generally need three things to grow: light, carbon dioxide (CO2) and nutrients. The nutrients get used up in the warmer water near the surface, because the phytoplankton usually hang out up there, using sunlight for photosynthesis. However, since the warm water sits on top of the cold water unless something like a big storm stirs it up, the phytoplankton can run out of nutrients and stop growing. When this happens, different types of phytoplankton with different nutrient needs start to grow. Therefore, climate change can alter the communities of living things like phytoplankton, just by warming up the ocean. This is important because phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web, and changes in phytoplankton mean changes for a lot of other living things in the food web.
One thing that is interesting about your question is that the ocean can also affect climate change, not just the other way around! A large amount of the CO2 in the atmosphere gets dissolved into the surface waters of the ocean, and then can be transported to great depths, essentially removing it from the atmosphere. This is an impact on climate change because CO2 is considered a greenhouse gas, and greenhouse gases trap heat around the plant, warming it. So in this case, the ocean helps cool the atmosphere. Also, remember that CO2 is one of the three important things for most phytoplankton? When phytoplankton use CO2 that is in the surface ocean to build their bodies and reproduce, they make room for more CO2 to be absorbed into the water. In this way, even phytoplankton, tiny plant plankton drifting in the ocean, can affect how much CO2 is in the atmosphere, and therefore, the earth’s climate. I think that’s pretty cool!
Sincerely,
Karen
Were you able to find new species of carnivorous marine life such as sea monsters?
Please see our new post on “See Monsters Here”. Using a microscope, we can observe the huge diversity of “monsters” that live in the ocean. Most of the carnivory happens at the lower trophic levels, but you can imagine how scary these creatures would be if they were the size of a human being.
From Paul
To Mr. Tuorto, What type of bacteria eats the most and how much does it eat?
Hello future scientist,
That is a great and very important question, and that is exactly what I am out here right now trying to figure out. By feeding the bacteria in the ocean special food I can track which one is eating and how much. I am also hoping to identify which organisms are eating the bacteria the same way. Knowing these things will help us understand how carbon is cycled on the entire planet.
Keep the questions coming,
From Steve Tuorto
What are you looking for in the water?
Great question! Everybody on the cruise is looking for something different-which is a big part of what makes this such a special experience. I am looking for copepods-tiny crustaceans (about the size of a flea) that eat phytoplankton (which are basically really tiny plants) and other small animals. But copepods are very important in marine food webs because copepods are food for many other animals including whales, the largest animals on earth! So how can a whale get so big by eating something so small you ask? Well, because whales eat a lot of copepods. In fact a single whale can eat about 2600 pounds of copepods in a single day (that is about the size of pickup truck). With so many hungry whales in the oceans it is a wonder that there are any copepods at all. But scientists estimate that there are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 copepods in the oceans and believe that copepods form the largest animal biomass on earth. So there are plenty of copepods to go around for whales and scientists alike.
thanks for asking!
When did you like oceanography?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t like oceanography! I grew up right next to the ocean in southern New Jersey, and I spent a lot of my time as a kid going swimming, fishing, crabbing, and just walking on the beach. My family would even go to the beach after heavy winter storms so we could bring home the big seashells that would wash up. I loved collecting unusual specimens and, like a true scientist, I was always asking questions. The further along I got in school, the more I knew I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up. Now, as a graduate student, I get to design my own projects to study what I love, and I get to travel to far-off places to do it. Talk about a dream job!
From Lauren Seyler
What are you hoping to learn from this research cruise? How do you think society will be affected by your work?
Dear Future Scientist:
Thank you for your question – it sure made me think about my work a lot! From the zooplankton (or animal plankton) samples that I collect on this cruise, I hope to learn what types of ocean conditions lead to certain types of zooplankton communities. There are a lot of different types of zooplankton out there, and also lots of different sizes of zooplankton. The ocean factor that I think most affects zooplankton body size is temperature. This is because temperature itself can affect the growth rates of zooplankton, and also can dictate what food will be available to them. There is a general large-scale pattern in the world’s oceans, which shows that zooplankton tend to be smaller in warmer areas of the ocean, and vise versa. These large patterns are interesting to me because they have impacts on entire ocean communities, from plankton to fish.
I will compare the sizes of zooplankton that I find here to the ocean conditions that others on the cruise find. Other people are collecting information on nutrients, temperature, and lots of other parameters. I would then like to compare the zooplankton sizes and conditions here, in the tropics, to zooplankton sizes and conditions in colder places, like the North Atlantic or even Arctic. These types of questions could be important to society because their answers help us understand why living things are in some parts of the ocean and not others. They also help us predict how ocean life will change when global ocean conditions change. It is always better to understand more about something that you care about, like the ocean!
Sincerely,
Karen
What is your favorite part about your job? Is there anything you would do differently before you go on this cruise?
My favorite thing about being an ocean scientist is that I’m able to get out of the lab for work. Many other scientists are not so lucky. For my research, I get a good balance of computer work (programming and writing), lab work (optics and electronics), and field work (research cruises and field stations).
I wish I would have been able to sleep more before going on this cruise! Other than that, there’s always something you forget to bring, so it’s best to make a list, and stick to it!
Thanks for the questions (and sorry for the delayed response)!
-Justin
Have you ever seen a creature that hasn’t been discovered yet?
I had a month-long oceanographic research cruise a few years ago that took place in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (off of the coast of Central America) and aboard the RV Knorr. During the cruise we often collected animals by hand while nighttime blue-water SCUBA diving from a zodiac a mile or so from the research vessel, as animals often come closer to the surface during the night and even ship lights may keep some animals at depths we will not dive to. When blue-water diving you are essentially in waters that are thousands of meters deep, hundreds of miles from land, and when diving at night the only things you can see are the creatures within your small torch beam (dive light). Everything else around you is pitch-black. And, do not worry; all divers are tethered to an underwater safety triangle that is attached to the zodiac (the safety triangle is a central spot underwater where the safety diver keeps an eye on the other divers who are collecting samples). On one particular night dive I remember being mesmerized by a school of squid below me and slowly swam towards them. However, as I approached the squid they just kept going deeper. When I eventually reached my dive’s depth limit I stopped and watched the squid slowly swim into the dark depths below me. At that moment I moved my torch beam up from the school of squid and then to a spot 5 meters or so in front of me. There for one second was a large, shining eye that quickly swam out of my torch beam and into the darkness surrounding me. Was it a shark? A 6-meter mantra ray? A giant squid? Whatever it was I could not find it again with my torch beam, and I suddenly became very aware that I was a small, glowing lure at the end of a line in the middle of a vast ocean. As I quickly looked around I also saw that I was as far away from my fellow divers as I could be given our tethers to the safety triangle. I quickly made my way over to them while also shining the torch beam up, down, behind me, in front of me, to the right, to the left, and repeated that pattern in speedy scared scans until I reached the rest of my group underwater. For the rest of the dive I could not shake the feeling that there was something right behind me, and kept looking over my shoulder. I never did discover what that eye belonged to…
-Paul Suprenand
What is your biggest discovery in your research so far?
My future job, or I hope, would be a marine Biologist. And I would love to know of what books, websites, and raw information in how to study for that area. Also what do you usually do in this job?
Are you not afraid of sharks that might come and attack you during your research?
On this trip, I do not plan to go into the water, but on other trips when I scuba dive in the open ocean, I do worry about sharks. One member of the diving team is always in charge of safety, and that person carries a “shark stick.” The stick is just a plastic pipe with a pointy end. The hope is that if you poke the shark hard, it will decide you are too much trouble to eat. Fortunately, I have never had to use my shark stick!
From Kat
From Jamie Yoo – What sea animals can you find in the area you are researching in? Could you also include pictures if possible?
Dear Jamie
Many of us are studying microscopic organisms or organisms that are either millimeters or centimeters long. We are finding lots of the organisms we are looking for, and we will post some photos of them when we process them. But we are seeing all kinds of sea life all around us. We’ve already spot Flying fish, Mahi-Mahi, and Dolphins! Click on the links below to see the pictures we’ve gotten!
http://csw.unols.org/?p=1046
http://csw.unols.org/?p=1045
http://csw.unols.org/?p=1047
From Barbara , Steve Tuorto, and Paul Suprenand
How deep can the research vessel go? – Sarah Fallon
Hi Sarah – we don’t have a submersible – but we do collect water and other measurements with instruments down to 3200m – that’s close to the ocean floor.
From Kat
Is it rare to find foram shells? – Tatiana Bonilla
Hello Tatiana,
It depends on where you are looking. Like any organism, a foram has its preferences – its ideal living conditions. In some areas of the surface ocean that have lots of food, you could find several planktonic forams in a cubic meter of seawater. Abundances can also vary with temperature and light. In the future, as oceans become more acidic, we may find fewer forams because their shells may be more susceptible to dissolving.
Thanks,
From Kat
Can you take a picture of a cuttle fish? – Evan Labanca
Hi Evan! Unfortunately, we won’t likely see any cuttlefish on this trip. But, we have already seen some of their relatives – squid. A small quid came up in one of the plankton nets yesterday, and we see quite a few each night while doing plankton tows. They are attracted to the lights the captain and crew use to make sure our nets do not get tangled in the ship’s propellers.
If we can culture DOM and increase DOM production, can we somehow reverse pollution? For Barbara Cottrell from Eric Nguyen
Hi Eric!
That’s a great question – marine DOM is produced by the phytoplankton – both directly and through their degradation. However, the amount of organic matter is closely regulated by cycling in the microbial loop. We can increase DOM production locally by seeding nutrients (such as iron) but this is a localized event. I don’t know of studies looking at increased photochemical degradation of contaminants in this situation but it’s a good idea.
From Barbara C.
What dangers do you face? Casey Patterson
Hi Casey,
on a working ship there are plenty of possible dangers, such as being swept overboard in bad weather, slipping down the stairs when the ship lurches unexpectedly, and some of the chemicals we use can be dangerous if not used properly. When it’s rough at sea the ship can roll all over the place, so even taking a shower becomes dangerous. If anyone does get hurt at sea there isn’t an ambulance to take them to a hospital and it could take days to get someone back to land to see a doctor, so the crew is trained to take care of medical emergencies. But this all means that we have to pay extra attention to what we are doing, and all work together as a team to reduce the dangers we face.
Thanks for a great question from Sam.
What is bio-luminescence and what does it look like?
The animals in the ocean use chemicals to produce bioluminescence, which looks like a soft glowing light. The effect is similar to what you see when catching fireflies on a summer evening, small flashes against a very dark background. Some animals use bioluminescence as a defense, by spitting out a large amount of glowing spit so they can swim away from the fish which is distracted by the light. Other animals use bioluminescence to signal their mates. Some fish (angler fish) use bioluminescence to confuse their prey by luring small fish and copepods that confuse the larger fish’s glowing lure (a protuberance from their head) for one of their own kind.
From Justin
It’s the first day of your scientific cruise! How is it going? In the next week my students will be reaching out and asking questions. I have a question for Dr. Cohen. I was fascinated when I read that the Mantis shrimp can see UV light, polarized light and incredibly, about 16 wavelengths of visible light. Compared to the human eye that only has receptors for blue, green and red wavelengths of visible light, their ability to perceive light is astounding. How does the copepod’s light detection abilities compare to other animals?
Hello! My apologies for such a delayed reply to this question. Mantis shrimp do indeed have an amazing visual system. Not only is their capability for seeing color (including UV) and polarization fascinating, but how their eyes actually capture and process that information is different from most other organisms. Copepods, particularly the deeper-living ones in mesopelagic (200-1000m) water are much simpler in the design and function of their eyes. We are still looking into how many visual pigments they have – the more visual pigments, the more wavelengths they can detect. We think there are only a few visual pigments in copepods, so their world is not quite as colorful as that of the mantis shrimp. This fits with most deep-sea animals that have one or two visual pigments. One thing I am finding with mesopelagic copepods, both on past cruises and on this one, is that their eye is very sensitive to the amount of light present – it does not take many photons to generate a visual response. This likely allows them to use light while migrating into deeper water during the day. Thanks for the question, and I hope your students are enjoying the blog and following the CST cruise!
-Jon Cohen
Hi, Dr. Steve,
What has been your favorite activity on the ship so far?
Why did you choose this job?
What exiting creatures have you seen?
We miss you!
Hello Leah, Abby, and Maegan!!
I miss you guys too! It is very hard being so very far from home, but what we are doing is very exciting.
So far my favorite activity is doing the CTD casts! This is where we send a large instrument down deep into the water to to collect water at all the different depths and measure things like temperature and how much salt and oxygen is in the water.
I chose this job because I love biology, I love the ocean, and I love how interconnected everything is on the earth. I want to learn how it all works so that humans can learn how to live on the earth without changing it.
We have seen some great creatures, including a mahi mahi (a big green fish), flying fish, and dolphins!! But most of the organisms are teeny tiny. Check for the next post where some of the scientist with post pictures of these guys, and tell you about them. We are getting awesome photos, but the internet is slow… so keep checking the photos page for new pictures too!
Tell Payton I love her and miss her!!
Love Dr. Steve
We meant to say, What exciting creatures have you found so far?
From, BT HenryG, CharlotteK, HannahP.
What did you discover so far?
How do scientists who explore the bottom of the sea handle the pressure?
How big is the boat?
For a long time scientists have known about a migration that many zooplankton species make from the darker parts of the ocean, up to the surface at night. This vertical migration up through the water is the biggest migration in biomass (a bulk measurement of living things) in the world! Just think, tons of zooplankton, all over the world, moving upward as dark sets in, and downward as dawn approaches again. The reason for this migration is thought to be a predator avoidance behavior. The zooplankton move into the dark depths of the sea during the day so their predators cannot find them by sight. When night sets in, they move upward to feed on their favorite prey in the surface waters. I have gotten to see this migration in my zooplankton samples. I see more animals at night than during the day. However, I did not see this phenomenon closer to Barbados in shallower water. This surprised me, and I’d consider it a discovery – that maybe zooplankton in shallower areas closer to shore to not vertically migrate.
Scientists who study the bottom of the sea often do it without even going down there! They use ROVs, or Remotely Operated Vehicles. They can collect samples and survey they environment with these ROVs without putting themselves in danger. Some scientists do, however, go down to depth in submersibles. These submersibles are specially designed with very strong materials to withstand pressure at depth. Also there are machines called scrubbers that remove the carbon dioxide from the air inside.
The ship is 171 feet. It is considered a medium-sized research vessel.
Sincerely, Karen S.
Do any of you study sharks? If you do what is your favorite?
What is your favorite thing on the cruise?
What is your favorite creature you have found so far?
Do you ever catch any other organisms in the Plankton net?
Yes, we catch a lot of different kinds of things in the plankton net. Please see our new blog post, “See Monsters Here” that shows the kinds of interesting organisms that we catch in the nets. We catch all types of creatures, from single-celled protists called “foraminiferans” up to actual fish, such as the hatchet fish pictured on the blog. Those pictures were taken from just one tow, so you can only imagine the diversity that we would see if we traveled out here every day to look.
-Adelaide
Does the crew of the ship practice drills for emergencies in case something goes wrong?
Hi Anthony! Yes, we do a fire and an abandon ship drill every time we leave port. Once a month, we do a man overboard drill and periodically we do training on new equipment or equipment that we don’t use every day that is related to life-savings and emergency purposes. For a fire drill, we will do the drill in two parts: the first part we have a discussion and a walk-through for a scenario; in the second part we suit up in fire-protective clothing and SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses) and simulate approaching the fire safely, containing the fire, extinguishing the fire and doing life-saving and first-aid as necessary. During the abandon ship drill, we muster with life jackets, ensure that everyone knows their duties and instruct newcomers in the launching of the life rafts.
~How you start to interest to be a scientists?
~How often are new things?
~How long take to get a PhD?
I started being interested in being a scientist when I was in high school. I had the opportunity to work in a microbiology lab and I loved it. I got see how science was done and it fascinated me. While we didn’t make any ground-breaking discoveries when I interned in the lab during high school, I got hooked by the opportunity to discover new things. While we don’t find new things every day in the lab often we are looking at samples and areas that haven’t been studied before. It can be really exciting to see how the microbes in one sample from one part of the ocean is different from other parts.
It took me five years to get my PhD. I think most often it’s a range from 4-7 years. For me it was only five – Steve Techtmann
Hello Dr. Steve,
We are from San Diego High School and we would like to know what special equipment or instruments are being used during your research. Also, if you could do it all over again would you have chosen this field? Why? Have you discovered any interesting observations recently?
We are using many different types of instrument on board. Some instruments are made to be lowered off the side of the ship on a wire, like water samplers and plankton samplers, and some scientists have instruments for manipulating samples once they are brought on board, like copepod eye sensors and special filtration devices. We also have an instrument to collect the aerosols, or particles in the air, which is mounted on the top deck of the ship or the “fly bridge”.
Personally, I am very interested in the transfer of chemicals from the atmosphere to the surface ocean. Desert dust from Africa blows across the tropical North Atlantic and is potentially a significant source of the nutrient iron. I am collecting the dust out of the air onto a filter (looks red-brown in color) and will investigate it back in the lab to see how much and how fast iron can be released from this dust.
–Chris H.
What’s the scariest thing you’ve expiernced as a marine biologist?
Why do you do what you do for a living? How did you get interested in this field?
-SDHS MVPA
Dear Jonathan,
How is it that you got into studying about fishes eyes? What intrigued you in studying with sea animals eyes that made you want to continue researching them?
I enjoy watching unusual animals, and as you hopefully have noticed from our blog posts marine zooplankton are just that – unusual and amazing!! I started studying their behaviors such as diel vertical migration (see my earlier responses to questions for an explanation) while in college. I then started getting interested in how the sensory systems of zooplankton help them to perform their behaviors. That general idea is the basis of many of my ongoing research projects – many of which concern eyes because light is an important ecological factor for many animals. Also, the ocean is natural laboratory for studying vision because it gets dimmer with depth, and greener as you move inshore.
-from Jonathan Cohen
How different are some of the animals eyes?Are they all very different or are most of them different?
~Jonathan Cohen
Karen stamieszkin: Are you collecting zooplankton in size samples in one place or all around the world?
Hi Ella- thanks for your question! I do hope to sample zooplankton communities in at least one more contrasting part of the world. If given the opportunity, I hope to compare zooplankton sizes here in the tropics to sizes in a temperate region, and maybe even a polar region. I also would like to look at size diversity over time, not just space. I would compare the size of zooplankton in an area during one season, to sizes in the same area, but during a different time of year. Plankton size over space and time can tell us a lot about how an ecosystem works.
Sincerely,
~Karen
Christopher Hayes why do you enjoy studying the impact of aerosols on ocean chemistry ?
Dear Christopher Hayes,
Do aerosols cause global warming?
Dear Christopher Hayes how did you start studying aerosols. like what were the steps in how you got to this part of your work.
what do you do when your not researching. Anything fun?
~what is it like staying on the vessel?
~what kind of food do you eat?
~what do you do during your spear time if you have any?
oh p.s Im from Morse pond school
Hi Jasmyn,
Check through our previous post and replies, we have some great answers to some of these, and we are going go post soon about life on the ship so check back for those!
Thanks for checking in
What is the coolest discovery that you have encountered during your time as a scientist?
This question is for Steven Tuorto, are there any types of bacteria and organisms yet to be discovered in the ocean?
Hi Julie,
A terrific question, and a very hard one to answer. There tons of undiscovered species. We use what we do know now, and the rates that we are finding new species to estimate how many undiscovered species there are in world, but the range in estimates is quite large depending on the method you use. Right now its estimated that there are anywhere from 300,000 to 10,000,000 undiscovered species in the ocean, and
that doesn’t even count the bacteria!! Don’t quote me on this, but I think that we estimate that there are around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bacterial species on earth, and we really only know about a handful of thousands of them. Incredible!
Thanks,
Steve Tuorto
dear Christopher Hayes, what is your life like on the ship?????
P.S. i am from Morse Pond School
This question is for anyone – what would be your idea of the ultimate accomplishment in your science career?
hi
dear Christopher Hayes what is it like on the ship? And what do you do on your spare time?
hi guys -_-
Hello there land lover!
dear Jonathan Cohen
in all of the test that you have done has a fish eye ever explode? and have you ever found a eye that is a science mystery?
how is life on the SSSHHHIIIPPP???
We will have a couple of posts very soon about life on the ship, so keep checking back!!
Sam Monk- What are your predictions of the surface salinity if it rains, sleets, or snows?
P.S. I am from Morse Pond School
Hi Ainsley, thanks for your question. Rain, sleet and snow are all made of fresh water (as even if sea water evaporates the salty bit is left in the ocean) so rain, sleet or snow all make the surface water fresher (a little more like river water). The more it rains (or sleets or snows) the fresher the surface water will become. I hope you enjoy hearing about the rest of the voyage. Thanks, Sam
Dear Jonathan Cohen,
How will studying animal’s eyes help them?
Dear Katherine Allen,
How do you figure out how the temperature of the ocean effect the plankton’s shells?
From Isabel
Dear Isabel,
One way to determine the effect of temperature on shell composition is to catch live, juvenile foraminifera (we call them “forams”) out in the open ocean and then grow them back in the laboratory under a range of temperature conditions. When establishing relationships like this, it is important to hold all other variables (like salinity, pH, light, food) as constant as possible. We can then grow individuals at low, medium, and high temperature and analyze the foram’s shell to determine the effect of growth temperature on the shell. Another complementary method is to analyze the shells of “wild” forams that have grown in the open ocean. It can be tricky to determine the specific effect of temperature in these wild samples, because in the open ocean, several environmental variables can change at the same time. However, if we can get samples from a wide range of conditions, we can try to carefully tease apart or deconvolve the different environmental controls. On this cruise, one of my main goals is to determine how temperature and salinity influence the magnesium content of foram shells. I’m collecting both seawater and plankton, which I’ll analyze later. I can’t wait to see the results!
–Kat Allen
This question is for anyone- Do you enjoy working on a ship?