By Aleen Mirza
A study by a team of researchers from Stanford University, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Rutgers, including Rutgers professor and RCEI Affiliate Kay Bidle, has uncovered new insights regarding the properties of “marine snow” (aggregated marine organic matter) that rapidly descends from surface waters into the deep ocean and is a critical component of carbon sequestration.
In the paper Hidden comet tails of marine snow impede ocean-based carbon sequestration published in Science, the research team used a novel in-situ microscope and hydrodynamic treadmill to reveal that marine snow possesses a ‘comet tail-like’ shape that is dressed in mucus. These characteristics had previously escaped detection. Their study found that the presence of these mucus-tails slowed sinking rates and increased the amount of time marine snow is in the upper ocean, reducing carbon sequestration. These findings not only shed light on the complexities of how marine snow interacts with its environment but are also crucial for improving future climate models.
This study was part of a transdisciplinary National Science Foundation (NSF)- funded project from the Growing Convergence Research (GCR) program, which is led by Bidle and examines how virus infection of phytoplankton, microscale physics, and biomineralization come together to impact marine snow aggregation and it’s impacts on ocean carbon cycling. See this article for more information about the project and a NYTimes article for more details about the microscopic imaging technique the team employed.
