Catching ‘snow’ in the ‘twilight zone’

Clindor Cacho of WHOI (middle), and Brad Issler (left) and Stephen Bell (right) from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, recover a Neutrally Buoyant Sediment Trap (NBST) after a mission in the depths of Bermuda in the North Atlantic. The instrument, which was developed by WHOI biogeochemist Ken Buesseler and engineer Jim Valdes, collects “marine snow” — the falling particles of dead phytoplankton and zooplankton feces that sink from sunlit waters into the ocean’s “twilight zone.” Learn more how marine snow can impact climate change from the Oceanus magazine article, “Swimming in the Rain.”

(Photo by Alexander Dorsk, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)