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R/V Oceanus crew members looking over at R/V Weatherbird II during a joint expedition.

R/V Oceanus crew members looking over at R/V Weatherbird II during a joint expedition.
R/V Oceanus crew members looking over at R/V Weatherbird II during a joint expedition.
R/V Oceanus crew members looking over at R/V Weatherbird II during a joint expedition.
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Kosnyrev, Valery
R/V Oceanus crew members looking over at R/V Weatherbird II during a joint expedition.
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06/30/2005
DSC01925.jpg
Date is approximate.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 44, No. 2, Pg. 17:
Stirring the oceanic pot.
Sargasso Sea—They should be watery deserts, devoid of the nutrients needed to spur the growth of marine plankton. Yet some open-ocean regions nevertheless are biologically productive. From June through September, researchers from six institutions worked in tandem on R/V Oceanus (WHOI) and R/V Weatherbird II (Bermuda Biological Station for Research) to find out why. Led by WHOI oceanographers Dennis McGillicuddy and Jim Ledwell, the team investigated the role of swirling circular currents, or eddies. Early results indicate that the turbulent stirring of the ocean pulled nutrients up into light-filled surface waters and fueled phytoplankton blooms.
Photo by Valery Kosnyrev, WHOI
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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