He holds a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a Ph.D. He is also adjunct faculty at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology and an adjunct scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He has been a fisheries scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries since 1987 and currently heads up the Massachusetts Shark Research Program. Gregory Skomal is an accomplished marine biologist, underwater explorer, photographer, and author. MLML-Moss Landing Marine Laboratories: Colleen Durkinĭr. The time-lapse video was created with a MINION pre-cursor: a MINION camera imaging a gel layer in a sediment trap. MINION funding: Keck Futures Initiative, NASA/EXPORTS, National Academies, National Science Foundation, WHOI Ocean Twilight Zone Project URSA-Universities Space Research Association: Ivona Cetinic MBARI-Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: Kakani Katija MIT-Massachusetts Institue of Technology: Allan Adams
WHOI-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: Ken Buesseler, Anna Michel, Dana Yoerger, Aleck Wang. URI-University of Rhode Island: Melissa Omand, Jackson Sugar, Tom Rossby Data from MINIONS will help scientists learn more about the ocean’s role in Earth’s climate system. Allowing them to be deployed by the dozens. The next generation of MINION will send compressed data-sets via satellite. At the surface, it sends a homing signal so it can be recovered. This will determine their location as they drift.Īfter a MINION has finished its mission, it will release weight and float to the surface. The MINION is designed to listen for underwater sound sources. Any marine snow that reaches the deep ocean means less carbon in the atmosphere. Pellets like this will sink quickly to deeper waters, or even become buried in the seafloor. Particles such as this fecal pellet from a jellyfish-like salp are extremely carbon-rich. Similar images have revealed the twilight zone is a perpetual snowstorm, of organic debris. A camera on top will record the particle type and accumulation rate. Falling particles also accumulate on a clear glass panel. Once deployed, MINION will sink to the twilight zone and drift with currents.Ĭameras on the side record the rate and quantity of particles falling through the ocean. It is equipped with… cameras, seawater sensors, acoustic recorder, ballast weight. The MINION is a small (2 Liters) inexpensive instrument. That will follow marine snow into the ocean’s twilight zone. Dead zooplankton and other particles become marine snow drifting in the ocean, but how much marine snow sinks below the sun-lit ocean surface? Scientists are developing a new device Phytoplankton are eaten by zooplankton, which are eaten by other animals.
Phytoplankton use sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, forming the base of the ocean food web.
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