MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Jamie Becker sets up incubation experiments aboard the research vessel Melville during a research cruise to the South Pacific in the fall of 2010. Becker served as junior chief scientist on the BiG RAPA cruise, which was part of the C-MORE program (Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education). During the cruise, researchers studied microbes along sharp biogeochemical gradients from the coast of Chile to Easter Island. The incubation experiments were designed to reveal how natural microbial communities respond to dissolved organic carbon from different sources.