Upper-ocean systems

The ocean is home to many fantastic forms of life—blue whales are the largest animals ever to exist, sailfish swim as fast as cheetahs run, and bull sharks bite with the force of 6,000 newtons. But life in the ocean depends on some of its smallest, most unassuming organisms: phytoplankton. Phytoplankton live near the surface of the sea, where sunlight can penetrate and stimulate photosysnthesis, but their life cycles have implications for even the deepest, darkest corners of the ocean. These tiny organisms therefore make the Upper Ocean a highly important area of research and study.

As these billions of small marine plants take up nutrients, grow, die, sink and decay, they:

produce over half of the world’s oxygen
exchange carbon and other elements between the atmosphere and the ocean
convert inorganic nutrients and sunlight into the organic compounds that support essentially all life in the upper ocean
source the carbon that sinks vertically and feeds midwater and benthic marine life
show the first effects of changing climate on the oceans

MBARI’s Strategic Plan and Technology Roadmap highlight how MBARI can contribute to a greater understanding of all of these processes. Two inter-related focus areas of these documents— ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes— are important cornerstones. These focus areas form two halves of an inextricable loop: The chemistry of ocean waters fuels living organism and these organisms modify ocean chemistry through their life processes. MBARI is therefore always developing new methods and tools to advance the science of upper water column biogeochemistry and ecosystem processes.

Acoustical ocean ecology

In the ocean, most resources are unevenly distributed and highly dynamic. The Acoustical Ocean Ecology Group investigates how animals respond to constantly changing pelagic environments,

Biological Oceanography Group

One of the longest-standing projects of the Biological Oceanography Group is the Monterey Bay Time Series. Research ships and moorings have collected detailed datasets of temperature, salinity, oxygen, CO2, phytoplankton and other changing variables since 1989.

Chemical Sensor Group

The Chemical Sensors project seeks to understand changing ocean chemistry because chemical composition of the ocean affects the entire food web. The group outfits floats with the ever-developing chemical sensors and uses them to keep track of changes in nitrate and pH among other variables.

Molecular ecology

The Molecular Ecology Group described how factors—such as geographic distance, topology of the seafloor, and deep-sea currents—affect the stability and dispersal of vent clams, mussels, snails and tubeworms, and studied the genetic connections among populations such as these, especially those that thrive in environments like hydrothermal vents, hydrocarbon seeps, wood, and whale falls.

Interdisciplinary field experiments

MBARI’s Controlled, Agile, and Novel Observing Network (CANON) Initiative is an interdisciplinary effort that utilizes smart, autonomous devices designed to cooperate with each other to collect oceanographic information.