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Enlarge Image With funding from the OLI, WHOI researchers Gareth Lawson, Andone Levery and Peter Wiebe are analyzing data collected from a suite of advanced sensing technologies, to understand krill distribution in the deep basins of the Gulf of Maine. In the Gulf of Maine, there is evidence, based on limited observations that krill can be locally abundant and important members of the food web.
(Photo by Øystein Paulsen)
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Life in the ocean is
threatened on many fronts, from global warming to pollution to over-fishing. Basic
research sponsored by the Ocean Life Institute (OLI) during the past year has
addressed several key issues related to ocean health and biodiversity. This
research included studies of how ocean physics and chemistry affect ocean life,
and was supported through OLI fellowships, postdoctoral and graduate student
awards, and research grants.
New research grants funded by OLI during 2008
covered a variety of topics. The research involved studies of reef fish
genetics and connectivity, chemical communication among bacteria, how marine
animals respond genetically to environmental stress, and toxic algae that cause
diuretic shellfish poisoning.
The Tropical Research Initiative within OLI
supported five new grants, including hormone transfer between corals,
geological analysis of ancient ocean circulation patterns, physics of
equatorial waves, bacterial cycling of nutrients in the Pacific, and the
importance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (bacteria that can take nitrogen from
the air and incorporate it into organic compounds) in tropical estuaries.
OLI supports several studies at the Liquid
Jungle Laboratory, Panama. We are developing a new initiative on the
oceanography of coral reefs that will tie together several WHOI projects around
the globe. We also are pursuing a new study off Taiwan, to examine the impact
of climate, ocean currents, and plankton on coral reef ecosystems and fisheries.
This year OLI
continued to promote research in the area of ecosystem-based management and
worked to develop a new modeling-observing system in support of fisheries along
the northeast US coast. A new multi-institutional proposal was submitted to NOAA
(the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) with WHOI as the
lead, to establish the framework for such a system. The OLI also supported the
use of a state-of-the-art computer model of ocean physics and biology to aid in
the design of an ocean observing system in the Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank
region.
Highlights
of 2008 include the research projects of two OLI Fellows, a grantee, and a
student. Fellow Marco Coolen from the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry
Department has developed new tools for analyzing DNA of ancient plankton
communities, archived in layers of marine sediments, providing a glimpse into
the past that was never before possible. Fellow Mac Saito (also MC&G) is
studying the proteins produced by microbes and their importance in ocean ecology
and global nutrient cycling.
With an OLI
grant, Gareth Lawson, in the Biology Department, is using new acoustic methods
– sending sound into the water, then analyzing sound reflected back from
objects – to study krill populations in the Gulf of Maine. Finally, MIT-WHOI Joint Program student
Carter Esch (also Biology) is studying the distribution patterns of whales’
prey organisms in the Arctic Ocean.
I would
like to express my deepest appreciation for all who have supported the OLI.
—Cabell
Davis, Institute Director
Last updated: July 23, 2009 | 
