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Tiny Berths for Tiny Shipmates

Rows of petri dishes could mean bacteria being cultured. Instead, these are shipboard accommodations for copepods, little ocean animals related to shrimp but just a fraction of an inch long. WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian led a 2009 research expedition to the Bering Sea to study how climate change is affecting the productive Arctic ecosystem. Copepods, vital links in the ocean food chain, were caught, and females were held in dishes for a day. Then the eggs laid were counted, to learn more about climate, sea ice and their effects on copepod populations. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)