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Core cylinders in seafloor sediment 3,000 meters deep.

Core cylinders in seafloor sediment 3,000 meters deep.
Core cylinders in seafloor sediment 3,000 meters deep.
Core cylinders in seafloor sediment 3,000 meters deep.
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292734
MBARI
Core cylinders in seafloor sediment 3,000 meters deep.
Still Image
01/21/2005
bernhard1_98389_C.jpg
Date of item is approximate.
Image Of the Day caption:
This experiment on the seafloor examined whether pumping carbon dioxide to the bottom of the ocean might affect organisms living there. That is one proposed strategy to combat the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. WHOI geobiologist Joan Bernhard and Jim Barry of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute used a robotic vehicle to push cylinders 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 samples a month later. The experiment showed that some shell-less organisms survived high levels of carbon dioxide, but no species that form calcium carbonate shells survived.
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.
Monterey Bay Research Institute
© Monterey Bay Research Institute
Not a WHOI-owned image.
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