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Not Quiet on the Ocean Front

August 1, 2018

Mara Freilich, a graduate student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, is exploring where plankton thrives in the ocean. Her research area is the Mediterranean Sea, where less-salty, less-dense water from the Atlantic Ocean enters through the Strait of Gibraltar and meets saltier, denser Mediterranean water. The two water masses with different densities meet, but do not mix, creating what is called an ocean “front”—similar to a meteorological front where high- and low-pressure systems meet in the atmosphere. In this case, the denser water sinks beneath the lighter water, and the lighter water rises toward the sunlit surface, bringing with it nutrients that fuel the plankton growth. (Illustration by Eric S. Taylor, Jack Cook and Tim Silva, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)