Microscopic images of deep-Sea foraminifera undergoing CO2 tests.

iBase ID

340249

Creator

Bernhard, Joan

Title

Microscopic images of deep-Sea foraminifera undergoing CO2 tests.

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Still Image

Date

05/09/2008

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bernhardcover_98394_C.jpg

Notes

Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 48, No. 1, pg. 9:
One proposed strategy to combat the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to pump it to the seafloor. To find out how that might affect life on the seafloor, WHOI geobiologist Joan Bernhard (above, green jacket) and Kurt Buck of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute used the MBARI robotic vehicle Tiburon to push cylinders (right) into seafloor sediments more than 3,000 meters deep in Monterey Bay, Calif. They injected a carbon dioxide hydrate slurry into the sediments and retrieved the samples a month later. Organisms collected from the sediments were stained with a green fluorescent dye that appears (under ultraviolet light) only in living specimens. Microscopic images (at right, bottom) showed that some shell-less organisms survived high levels of carbon dioxide, but no species that form calcium carbonate shells survived.
Caption from Oceanus online:
Paired microscope images of deep-sea foraminifera--species that do not secrete calcium carbonate to make their shells--reveal that some cells survived extremely high levels of CO2 directly injected over the sediments they inhabit. The image on top shows individuals seen under a microscope using transmitted light. On the bottom, after specimens are labeled with a stain, only the living specimens emit green fluorescence. In the experiment, no calcareous (calcium carbonate-forming) foraminifera survived after CO2 hydrate was injected onto the sediments in which they live.
Image of The Day caption:
One suggested way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is to pump it into the deep ocean, where proponents believe it would remain as a slurry-like hydrate. WHOI geobiologist Joan Bernhard and colleagues at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute tested whether high CO2 concentrations would harm single-celled sediment-dwelling organisms called foraminifera. They found that all the foraminifera with calcareous shells died, while organisms without shells maintained favorable survival rates--as indicated by their green tint in the floursecent optics images in the lower panel. Bernhard and her co-authors report their work suggests that if lots of CO2 is pumped to the deep sea floor, the shelled foraminifera "will face considerable challenges," and "survival of two major [non-shelled] groups of this prevalent protistan taxon will likely not be severely impacted."

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Photo courtesy of Joan Bernhard

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