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Playing in the Cold

March 18, 2014

Despite an icy New England winter, research continued this winter off the Atlantic coast using the research vessel Tioga. WHOI biologist Gareth Lawson and colleagues spent two chilly days in late January locating and capturing tiny marine snails called pteropods in the Gulf of Maine. Acoustic instruments helped them to pinpoint the location of these delicate animals that serve as food for larger animals so they could be brought back to the lab for study. At WHOI, Lawson and fellow biologist Amy Maas are investigating how pteropods will be affected by ocean acidification and how they respond to fluctuations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and water. (Photo by Peter Wiebe, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)