See a slideshow of phytoplankton cells from the Arctic Ocean that were collected with an imaging flow cytometer custom built for work on an icebreaker.
Main themes of research in the Laney Lab
Research in my lab typically involves projects that address interdisciplinary questions about ocean phytoplankton in one or more of the following areas:
Responses of an individual phytoplankton cell to changes in its environment
Aspects of phytoplankton ecology that are important over one or several generations
Assessing photosynthetic ecology of phytoplankton using optical approaches
Applying bio-optical techniques and instruments to new oceanographic opportunities
Answering questions in these areas involves a combination of research approaches, including field work, instrument development, numerical modeling, and laboratory studies. My favorite research questions are those that revisit longstanding or 'stalled' paradigms in phytoplankton ecology, to see if new observational or conceptual approaches can be used to restart inquiry in those areas.
Recent News!
WHOI's magazine Oceanus recently published an article about some research in my lab that thinks about phytoplankton from the perspective of the individual cell. Read about it here.
In the Media
Science recently published a paper from the NASA ICESCAPE program (Arrigo et al.), detailing a massive under-ice bloom in the Chukchi Sea:
We participated in this field program and provided taxonomic analysis of the composition of this bloom, using Imaging FlowCytobot technology. Our participation in these two NASA ICESCAPE cruises have been covered in several blogs:
Samuel Laney: Research
