Blue Planet, Blue Carbon

Alterra Sanchez, a 2013 Summer Student Fellow from San Diego State University, readies an optical cell for making pH measurements in a high-precision spectrophotometer. The cell contains a pH indicator and seawater from a local marsh. Each summer, Fellows team with WHOI scientists on a wide range of oceanographic research. Sanchez worked with marine chemists Zhaohui ‘Aleck’ Wang of WHOI and Kevin Kroeger of USGS on a “blue carbon” project that examined the marsh’s ability to export carbon dioxide to coastal waters.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)