Image

An Unexpected Collaborator

May 28, 2018

American and Cuban scientists teamed up for an unprecedented joint expedition in November 2017 to explore one of the Caribbean’s most pristine coral reefs. WHOI microbial ecologist Amy Apprill led the U.S. contingent to the Jardines de la Reina (Gardens of the Queen), where a 17-person team undertook extensive scuba-diving missions to study reef organisms. Apprill and MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Laura Weber collected seawater samples to analyze them for microbes and their metabolites: small organic molecules created through microbial metabolism. Although Weber hadn’t planned on collecting any metabolites directly from fish, this grouper tapping on her sampling bags seemed to have other ideas. (Photo by Amy Apprill, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)