This video clip shows tiny ocean animals called zooplankton and sinking marine detritus known as "marine snow." It was captured by the camera of a MINION, a new, small, floating device being developed by scientists Melissa Omand (URI), Ken Buesseler (WHOI), along with collaborators at MIT, MBARI, and NASA. The two cone-shaped animals are called pteropods, and the larger, roundish animal with tentacles is a comb jelly. The object that drops into view at the bottom left of the frame is the fecal pellet (or poop!) of a gelatinous animal called a salp. These pellets are relatively rare, but their large size suggests they contain much more carbon—and sink faster—than the smaller particles of marine snow visible in the background.
In the 1930s, the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project dug approximately 1,500 miles of ditches across marshes on the Cape to drain their water and reduce the number of ponds where mosquitoes can breed. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biogeochemist Amanda Spivak is studying how this and other management decisions have changed the ability of coastal marshes to store carbon and protect against sea level rise.
"Synthetic" trajectories in the North Atlantic created with two ocean circulation models: At left, a course-resolution model without eddies. At right, a high-resolution model with vigorous eddies. Water parcels spread to distant regions much faster with eddies than in the smooth circulation, and they carry their water properties with them. This behavior affects the ocean's response to changes in climate. (Sam Levang, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
