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Biology Department

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Porpita porpita—the blue button jelly —is a neustonic species mostly found in the tropics; that is, it floats right neat the surface of the water. The circular disc is made of chitin and filled with gas, allowing these jellies to float. The tentacles (zooids) radiating from the disc do all the feeding. MIT/WHOI graduate student Kelly Rakow collected this one while diving in the waters near the Liquid Jungle Lab in Panama. (Photo by Kelly Rakow, Joint Program Student - Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)


Oceanic biology is extraordinarily complex in the diversity of organisms that inhabit the seas, their life habits, and in how they interact with and contribute to essential global processes. Research in the Biology Department at WHOI continues to be very broad in the subjects studied and the approaches employed to identify and understand the diversity of organisms and their functions. WHOI biologists study organisms from the smallest scale (marine viruses and bacteria) to the largest (whales). At each of these levels Department members address questions from genetic make-up and biochemistry to population structure and ecology. Aspects of oceanic life are investigated using powerful techniques of molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, sophisticated acoustic and optical methods, and informatics applied to modeling molecular, behavioral and population structures.

WHOI biologists perform studies in local Massachusetts and coastal New England waters, and at sites around the globe (Polar Regions, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans). Special strengths in the department continue to include the ecology and physiology of microbes, bio-optical studies of phytoplankton, advanced optical and acoustic techniques for zooplankton distribution and behavior, the ecology, behavior, development and genetic history of invertebrates, mathematical analysis and computer modeling of life history, population dynamics and physical-biological interactions, toxicological and molecular biological research on pollution effects in the sea, and acoustical, anatomical and behavioral studies of marine mammals.

The Biology Department features PodCasts!
The North Atlantic Right Whale
Dr. Michael Moore talks about the North Atlantic Right Whale and what the future may hold for this endangered charismatic species.
» iPod compatible
» MP3 (audio)
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Where once was Rose Garden, now lies Rosebud.
Dr. Timothy Shank talks about his expedition to the original discovery site of hydrothermal vents and what they found, or didn't find.
» iPod compatible
» MP3 (audio)
» View Video (Quicktime)
» View Video (Media Player)

Deep Sea Corals
When most people think of corals they think of the kind off the Great Barrier Reef or the Florida Keys. Rhian Waller of WHOI talks about the kind of corals most people don't get to see, deep sea corals.
» iPod compatible
» MP3 (audio)
» View Video (Quicktime)
» View Video (Media Player)

Regina Campbell-Malone
2007 Ph.D. Recipient
» iPod compatible
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» View Video (Quicktime)



Last updated: December 2, 2009
 


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