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Serving Up Synechococcus

December 10, 2016

Kristen Hunter-Cevera cultured different types of colorful phytoplankton called Synechococcus, found in seawater samples from WHOI’s Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO). Hunter-Cevera, who recently earned her Ph.D. in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, also used data from the FlowCytobot, an automated underwater microscope developed by WHOI scientists Heidi Sosik and Rob Olson, that tracked phytoplankton levels at MVCO for the past 13 years. Hunter-Cevera was lead author of a recent study that showed that as ocean temperatures rose over that time, annual blooms of Synechococcus occurred up to four weeks earlier than usual. Shifts like these could have major impacts on marine ecosystems. (Photo by Dehann Fourie, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)