Getting the Goods

The manipulator arm of the remotely operated vehicle Jason inserts an injection pushcore into the soft sediment at the edge of a deep, anoxic brine basin in the Mediterranean Sea. When the device is a removed, a “core” of sediment comes with it. The capillary tubing wrapped around it contains a compound that labels living cells with a fluorescent marker so that scientists can identify and study the organisms that live in this unique deep-ocean ecosystem. This work by geobiologist Joan Bernhard was part of a Dive & Discover cruise in late 2011. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)