Travel Mug of Microbes

MIT-WHOI graduate student Laura Weber uses a Niskin water sampling bottle to collect seawater samples from the Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen) coral reef in Cuba. The samples will help scientists understand variations in the chemical and microbial diversity of the seawater among different reefs and whether these variations are related to reef health. American and Cuban scientists just completed an unprecedented joint expedition to study Jardines de la Reina, one of the most pristine and unexplored coral reefs in the Caribbean. (Photo by Amy Apprill, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)